Core77

Out on the 'net you've probably seen recent blog postings with titles like "Jonathan Ive Reveals Apple's Design Secrets," but in reality these are just recountings of Twittered coverage of his sound bites from a recent RCA appearance.

Businessweek, however, goes much more in-depth with their "Jonathan Ive on The Key to Apple's Success" article, which covers the same RCA talk but provides more of his speech, surrounded by much more context. An excerpt:

For Apple, he outlined, the end game isn't commercial success. "Apple's goal isn't to make money. Our goal is to design and develop and bring to market good products," he explained. "We trust as a consequence of that, people will like them, and as another consequence we'll make some money. But we're really clear about what our goals are."

And here's our favorite part:

So what does Ive look for when interviewing would-be Apple designers? Belief, passion and a commitment to strive for perfection. "When I'm interviewing people to join the team, the discussions go like this: 'this was my idea, this is how it turned out in manufacturing, and it's rubbish, isn't it? But it isn't my fault'," he recounted wryly, before becoming serious. "There's a list of excuses and reasons why it was somebody else's fault other than the designer's. Now I understand that, I've been there, I've been frustrated beyond words with other companies when I was working independently. But when you've gone through a whole portfolio like that, at some point you have to say: 'if you really do care about the quality of what ends up getting made, wouldn't you find an answer, some sort of alternative, and somehow figure out a way to take your idea and do something with it?'"

Read the entire piece here.