The Jaguar E-Type, Sony Walkman TPS-L2, Coca‑Cola contour bottle, and Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster are celebrated examples of industrial design, but can you name the designers behind these iconic products? How about the iPhone, iPad, or the iMac? Chances are, you’ve heard of Jony Ive.
The British-American industrial designer is best known for shaping game-changing Apple products, most notably the original iPhone, which ushered in the shift from dumb phones with plastic keypads to modern smartphones with sophisticated sensor arrays and touchscreens, transforming communication, commerce, navigation, and more.
Before the iPhone, Ive worked on minimalist toilets, sinks, and other household products. Beyond Apple gadgets, the former Apple design chief’s portfolio includes a surprising range of products, from a hybrid ballpoint pen to Ferrari’s first full-production electric vehicle. Let’s look at the fascinating (and often strange) world of gadgets Jony Ive designed outside the Apple ecosystem.
Ferrari Luce
At first, LoveFrom, Jony Ive’s design firm, seemed the natural choice to design the interior of the Ferrari Luce, the Italian marque’s first electric production car. However, gearheads and casual observers alike weren’t impressed. Some described the dashboard as an oversized Apple Watch sitting on a towel hanger, while motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson compared it to a fridge.
The backlash coincided with Ferrari revising its target for fully electric vehicles from 40% to 20% of its lineup by 2030. That said, the Italian supercar brand’s debut SUV, the Purosangue, sold well despite initially drawing mixed reactions from purists.
Unlike the form-over-function disaster of Ive’s infamous Apple Magic Mouse, Luce’s exterior has a drag coefficient of 0.254 Cd, making it the most aerodynamic Ferrari road car to date. That’s impressive for a 5-door electric sedan. The interior is also an eclectic blend of old-school tactile buttons, knobs, and analog instrument clusters paired with the contentious articulating touchscreen display. Ferrari sold every Luce slated for its 2026 production schedule, with 500 bookings made within two months of its unveiling.
Multimillion-dollar HIV/AIDS charity designs
You may think the $640,000 Ferrari Luce is the most expensive product Ive ever designed, but his all-white Leica Digital Rangefinder camera sold for an eye-watering $1.8 million. Ive created the one-off camera for the 2013 (RED) Auction with Marc Newson, a frequent collaborator. The high-profile, design-focused auction raised $26 million for a global fund set up to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria in Africa.
Dating back to 1954, the famously expensive Leica M-series cameras are instantly recognizable for their trademark black bodies and textured grips. Ive reimagined the design, eliminating its sharp edges and black plastics. The all-white aluminum chassis, with its flat top and rounded corners, set his version of the Leica Digital Rangefinder Camera apart from its inspiration with an almost toy-like quality.
Five years later, Ive and Newson designed an impossibly complicated diamond ring made entirely from a single artificially grown diamond block for the 2018 (RED) Auction. The unibody diamond ring was manufactured using laser beams and water jets to create the approximately 2000-3000 facets required for its intricate design. The ring fetched a relatively modest $256,250 from an anonymous bidder, but a table designed by Ive and Newson, made of 183 aluminum pieces, sold for $1.8 million at the 2013 (RED) Auction.
A bizarre comb and multi-function pen
Early in his career, Ive designed everyday objects far removed from his Apple work. While working at Barry Weaver Design, he developed the Sharbo TX-2 for Japanese manufacturer Zebra. It combined a ballpoint pen and a mechanical pencil in a shell that embodied the Sony Walkman aesthetic, at odds with Ive’s minimalist philosophy at Apple.
Although the pen was discontinued, the “Jony Ive pen” regularly appears on eBay for around $1000. Many consider the Sharbo TX-2 fidget-friendly, but fidget toys didn’t really catch on until the 2010s. And since this design was commissioned in the 1980s, it’s unfair to accuse Ive of creating a glorified fidget toy.
However, Ive can be rightfully accused of designing a comically large comb specifically to let even the most unskilled among us replicate the flattop hairstyle. The Brian Drumm Flatliner was named after and commissioned by the Scottish hairstylist as a fancier update to his own invention — the Flattopper. Drumm commissioned London-based design firm Tangerine to modernize the Flattopper and make it look less like an unholy union of an oversized paintbrush and a spirit level. Ive’s design kept the spirit level to make the geometric haircut easier to render, but he added enough curves and soft edges to earn the Flatliner an iF Design award in 1995.
