
Jonathan Ive designs Leica camera for Red charity - yesplorer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24458783
======
davidgerard
The charity sector looks forward to a Bono-led recovery

RICH PARADISE, Bahamas, Monday (UNN) — The (RED) anti-AIDS marketing
initiative has announced its first annual results.

The initiative, fronted by Bono, seeks to promote a "co-philanthropy" model,
wherein companies can do good works by selling products they were going to
sell anyway, but with a little red bit on to show how much they care. Really.
They care.

"We've worked hard on the model," said Bobby Shriver, (RED) CEO. "It's been a
brand launch designed to get people used to the idea of an entirely new fund
raising model. Because (RED) is explicitly NOT a charity, we encourage our
partners to go about their business including their marketing. Gap, Apple,
Sprint and other sales people are meeting Americans and explaining that 5,500
Africans dying daily of AIDS is preventable."

"The publicity has been fantastically effective," said Bono from his Caribbean
island. "Steven Spielberg smiling down from billboards in San Francisco,
Christy Turlington striking a yoga pose in a New Yorker ad, me cruising
Chicago's Michigan Avenue with Oprah Winfrey, eagerly snapping up Red
products, Chris Rock appearing in Motorola TV spots saying 'Use Red, nobody's
dead', and the Red room at the Grammy Awards. This is something to be really
proud of."

Zombie Steve Jobs also voiced his support. "I don't see how else you can
assuage your OVERWHELMING GUILT at your comfortable life and income without a
Red U2 iPod on your belt. Imagine the SHAME if people saw you with a plain
white or black one. The SHAME."

The stunning return to AIDS charities for 2006 was $18,000 on over $100
million in marketing and consumer spend. "The only way is up!" said Shriver.
"Onward and upward!"

"Buy more stuff!" said Jobs.

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sgustard
"Aluminium case with tens of thousands of individual perforations" sounds so
much fancier than "metal screen".

~~~
gilgoomesh
Metal screens are just stamped or rolled sheet metal, while these perforations
are made by a CNC mill from the same piece of aluminium as the rest of the
body.

Might not mean anything to a layperson but watching a CNC mill make thousands
of precision perforations would be quite a sight.

~~~
hop
Those perforations are lasered out, like they do the MBP speaker grill/holes.

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jeanjq
I'm always uneasy with the idea of (RED) charity: the message is "save the
world by buying stuff". It's just consumerism with a bit of karma, no?

~~~
k-mcgrady
I think it's more "you're going to buy this product anyway, so why not go with
the model that will help a charity?".

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vparikh
This to me does not really strike me as some Mr. Ives would have had a large
amount of time in, and quite frankly am shocked that he put his name on this.

The Leica M has had pretty much the same dimensions and design for since the
50s (save to major departures the Leica CL and the Leica M5). Note that I am
referring to the analog film version and not the modern digital M8 and later
incarnations design, along with the Fender Stratocaster are the closest thing
to perfection anyone has come up with.

The Stratocaster is a discussion for another time. In the case of the Leica,
it is the best design because it distills the essence of the photographic
expression and builds the product around that. The controls are simple. You
have a shutter speed dial, a film crank, a shots taken indicator. Aperture
control is on the lens barrel. Any photographer can pick up a Leica M and know
how it works intuitively. The controls fall right where they should. Its been
50 years, and no one really has come up with a better interface to take a
picture.

This design throughs all of that out the window. From the looks of the
picture, it doesn't look very comfortable to hold. It seems to rounded, and
the "cheese greater" design is just asking for dust/environmental problems. A
well used Leica looks even more desirable with age, this would just look
hideous. This design just lost all of the elegance that 50 years of
incremental design bestowed on the Leica M and turned it into something that
looks like a Braun product.

Then lets move to the usability -- whats with the recessed dials??? the whole
point of the dial placement ABOVE the top plate is so that the photographer
can operate all the controls via his thumb without taking his mind away from
the act of taking a picture. This completely violates that principle. Not to
mention all the ergonomic evolution the engineers at Leica spent so much time
agonizing over.

Don't get me wrong, yes I do love the Leica M. I am not a zealot by any
chance. I don't claim they do everything but what they do -- they have
perfected the design. And here they just through all of that out the window.

If the goal was to make an advancement on the design, I would say take a close
look at the Fuji X100s. It has taken the Leica ethic and bridged it
beautifully with the modern digital age. In fact I will say the Fuji X100s is
the first classic of the digital age.

~~~
axman6
It's also a one of a kind and may never actually be used, but instead
displayed in someone's private collection. Who cares if it's not particularly
usable, it was not designed to be used from what I can tell.

~~~
vparikh
That is my point exactly! As you stated, it is not designed to be used. I have
huge respect for Jonathan Ives. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying "Design is not
just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." I think Mr.
Ives forgot about that when he was working on the Leica. And that is why I am
surprised he let his name go on such a poor design

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corin_
> _The camera took 85 days and more than 735 hours to manufacture. During that
> time more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested; 55
> engineers worked on the process._

And

> _It is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£312,000) and $750,000._

If they took the cost of that time and work and donated it directly to the
charity how much would it have been?

~~~
ebiester
Ah, but it's not a direct equivalent. Do you think Jony Ive's contract with
Apple allows moonlighting?

~~~
corin_
I didn't mean he should have sold his time to another company..

~~~
aray
It's possible he can't (via a contract) but can donate it. No idea though,
just guessing.

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buro9
Looking at that, without reading the text, I thought immediately that it
looked like Marc Newson's work rather than Jony Ive's.

Then I read the text:

> Apple's feted design chief teamed up with industrial designer Marc Newson

I would say that Marc did most of this, and Jony either just created the
collaboration and put his name to it, or his touch was reasonably light.

The only part that really looks like Ive's stamp is the perforated aluminium.
Every other curve, the buttons and balance of the design, scream Newson.

~~~
huxley
Really? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see it, there is a Dieter
Rams influence to it that says Jony Ive more than Marc Newson to me.

~~~
aray
It really screamed Rams to me as well (much more than Ive), even more than
Newson as well.

It doesn't look to me like a Rams/Braun product though, but a product that's
trying to be one.

------
fein
> 85 days and more than 735 hours

> more than 550 models and 1,000 prototype parts were made and tested... 55
> engineers worked on the process.

Uhh... I think they spent more developing this than what it will fetch.
Wouldn't it have been better to just donate the money?

A 500k donation at the expense of that many resources...

~~~
abat
It's called marketing. Ive "designing" a limited edition Leica is like
Murakami being involved with Louis Vuitton.

Lecia needs people to believe that their cameras are worth a lot of money and
involve a much greater amount of design work and craftsmanship than a standard
Canon.

~~~
Osmium
For the curious, Murakami = Takashi Murakami.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Murakami)

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slinlee
Like so many apple products, it probably feels great to touch, but bad to
hold.

------
DigitalJack
I suppose people that buy these will just put them on a shelf, but if not,
those perforations are going to fill with garbage.

~~~
eCa
There will be only one.

~~~
DigitalJack
Oh, I see now. I misread the part about 550 models thinking it meant they
produced and were selling 550 of these.

------
exo_duz
Ive doing what he does best. Industrial and hardware design.

I still think there are some question marks about his software design skills
as some of the things in iOS7 is very badly thought out such as the new date
pickers.

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zokier
How the hell it that top selection wheel supposed to be operated? Overall, it
looks pretty similar to the normal Leica M, but with Apple-style all-aluminium
coloring and more rounded corners.

------
001sky
_A leica fan and his money are easily seperated_

\-- source: leica owner

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snarkAttack

      It is expected to fetch between $500,000 (£312,000) 
      and $750,000.
    
      The special edition Leica M camera features an anodised 
      aluminium case with tens of thousands of individual 
      perforations.
    
      The camera took 85 days and more than 735 hours 
      to manufacture.
    
      During that time more than 550 models and 1,000 
      prototype parts were made and tested; 55 engineers 
      worked on the process.
    

The best part about writing for the BBC without a byline is that no one can
criticize you as an individual, when you start spewing hyperbole and
completely unrelated statistics in an illogical fashion, for the purpose of
making retarded embellishments that go over like a lead zeppelin.

But hey, it's for charity, so the Madison Avenue bullshit artistry is (almost)
excusable.

