03.18.15
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

The Observatory: Such Watch


On this episode, Michael and Jessica talk about Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president for design, and the rollout of the Apple Watch. They consider everything from the questionable wisdom of rounded corners to the typography of the WATCH logo. (That glyph before the word WATCH is supposed to look like an apple, but if you're using another OS, you may see something else. For Mac users, a pro tip: Option-shift-K gets you a .) They also remember the work of architect and designer Michael Graves, who died on March 12.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Video: Jonathan Ive introduces the Apple Watch, from September 2014
• Ian Parker’s New Yorker profile of Jonathan Ive
• Video: Christy Turlington Burns wears Apple Watch
• Reinventing the Wheel by Jessica Helfand
• Anne Quito on the Michael Graves designs you didn’t know about

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.

Posted in: Product Design, The Observatory




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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