In 1997, the look of computers changed when Steve Jobs appointed Jonathan Ive vice president of industrial design in 1997. Back in 1998 all we have on our computer desks and in computer stores were ugly beige boxes, all of this changed later that year, well it did for Apple computer anyway. The release of the iMac heralded in a new era of cool looking computers. The iMac was released in a whole host of colours and looked more like a television rather than a computer.

In 1998 Apple introduced the iMac, a low-cost computer with an eye-catching design; this quickly boosted Apple’s share of the personal computer market. Building on the success of the iMac, Apple introduced the iBook laptop the following year. Under Jobs’s leadership, Apple experienced a dramatic financial rebound after years of losses, and the company’s profits steadily increased. In 2000 Jobs accepted the role of permanent chief executive officer and dropped the word interim from his title.

The designer back then, Jonathan Ive continues even now to improve on his designs and keeps everything in Apple’s catalogue looking modern. Back in 1998 he was more based around moving Apple away from the old beige box look that made computers in that era so dull to look at.

36-year-old, British-born Ive heads up Apple's industrial design team, and was recently named Designer of the Year by London's Design Museum.

Even 5 years on, PC’s are still being Mac’s in terms of the casing design, with the new range of iMac’s and G5’s wowing consumers in stores. Not only has Ive’s been designing Apple computers, he has also created the coolest looking music player – the iPod. His first design was superb and the latest 3rd generation of the iPod is even better with a sleek minimalist design.

The iPod marked the first Apple design that I really fell in love with, it also marked a change in the way other companies have started to design their competitive brands of music players such as the nomad. It was a product that Ive used even after completing the first model, something many designers don't do - this led him to improve it with each new release.

Next on Ive’s list was Apple’s new iSight webcam, yet another very good looking (and superb) piece of hardware that looked nothing like any other webcam on the market. It was designed in Aluminium just like the new G5’s have been and attached onto of your laptop or monitor.

iSight is a state-of-the-art video camera that’s the easiest way to video conference with your colleagues, friends and family over broadband. Featuring an autofocusing autoexposure F/2.8 lens which captures high-quality pictures even in low lighting, iSight also includes a dual-element microphone in its stylish compact aluminum body.

Finally we have his new Apple G5 design. Another very cool (and I don’t just mean the amount of fans that it uses) design, made in Aluminium once again. It was quite a change to the previous look of the G4 towers and it was not as well received as some of his other work, but people have to remember that his designs go from the inside out, and this needed 8 fans inside it, which I guess led to the drastic change in looks from previous models.

People still seem to underestimate the way in which Apple’s designs over the last few years have ushered in a new era of design in computer terms, they are always innovate designs, they always come up with ideas that most others don’t, but then copy (Microsoft’s upcoming longhorn PC design for example). Everything Apple has done over the last 5 years has had a look not seen in the computer industry before.

As Jonathan Ive said “From a designer's point of view, it's not an appearance game we're playing. It is very utilitarian. It's the use of material in a very minimalist way." And the latest designs from him show just that.

With a final word - Jonathan Ive says "Apple really was born to innovate".

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