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In design school you've got Crit Day, which is something like a military barracks inspection but with a lot of design terminology thrown around and at least one student crying in the hallway. Everyone's work is hanging on the walls and everyone's models, the paint still fresh, are sitting on tables. The only thing that adds to the already palpable tension is your professor's choice of guest critics, typically his or her peers from the ID world: Are they famous? Is it an honor to be judged by them? Will they be brutal, kind, insightful?
Imagine a Crit Day where your professor opened the door and in walked... Jonathan Ive. I know, probably not going to happen. But last Saturday three lucky children, participating in a design competition for the British children's show Blue Peter, got to experience Sir Ive sounding off on their submissions.
Ive himself had watched the show as a child—around since 1958, Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's program—and he recounts seeing an early example of product reuse on the show that left an impression on him. And in addition to receiving an honorary Blue Peter badge from host Barney Harwood, Ive came with a gift of his own: A CNC-milled aluminum verion of the badge—possibly whipped up at Apple HQ?
To our British readers who have seen the show: Is that the Blue Peter studio that they're filming it in? For a second I thought it might actually be Apple HQ, loaded up as it is with all of that digital manufacturing machinery, but the floor at least appears different than the shot we got to see in Objectified.
Comments
Once I got a surprise crit from Ken Okuyama- walked in to the class and gave me some of the most useful feedback I could have as a young freshman. Super lucky students learning from Ive
That's definitely not the Blue Peter studio
That's *definitely* not the Blue Peter studio! There's, what, $1m of machines in shot? BBC doesn't have that to spare for a kid's show.
The Gold Blue Peter badge is not given lightly; just watch Ive's reaction. That's a very serious honour to us Brits. I managed a plain blue badge and never even dreamed of a gold one. The giant aluminium plaque is pretty explicitly explained as being made at Apple's shop, right there in the video.
This is the Industrial Design CNC machine shop downstairs at Apple; the 'Blue Peter' studio is a lot more... Blue.
Sir Ive can get into theme parks and museums for free now with that badge. Lucky bugger!
I do believe the Queen and Elton John are just a couple of the very few lucky people who have gold Blue Peter badges. A rare honour indeed... probably meant more to him than the Knighthood.
Blue Peter is great! Also remember Tony Hart. Fantastic shows that really got kids to work with their hands and create stuff from scratch. Too few kids shows like that on tv nowadays.
Given that even the table they're standing around is many thousands of pounds worth of surface plate, I doubt it's the studio!