Apple fans probably know who Jony Ive is, but for the uninitiated, he is the top design honcho at Cupertino and is credited for the refined and minimalist look of today's iPhones, iOS devices and Macs. Well, he designed this Christmas tree at one of London's luxury hotels, and when it was unveiled, the world gave a collective sigh of disappointment.
Jony Ive Designs Christmas
Certainly, one expects a minimalist tone to Ive's Christmas tree, taking cue from the design language of Apple's products. But a number of us mere mortals might not appreciate that such minimalism gave us probably the world's least lighted and least festive Christmas tree ever.
"There are few things more pure and beautiful than nature, so that was our starting point, layering various iterations of organic forms with technology," Ive said in a joint statement with co-designer Marc Newson. "Our aim was to create an all-enveloping magical experience that celebrates our enormous respect for tradition while recognizing our excitement about the future and things to come."
Despite being wrapped up in the nobility and simple beauty of those words there remains the fact that the trees standing at Claridge's lobby today are nothing more than just trees.
Cutting a bunch of pines and dumping them at Claridge seems a more straightforward way of describing what has been accomplished.
All-Enveloping Magic
To be fair, Ive and Newson appeared to be gunning for the atmosphere rather than the visual interpretation of Christmas. So they recreated an entire forest with the help of black-and-white photographs and lighting installations. This last, which included 4-meter light boxes, must have been Ive and Newson's interpretation of the Christmas light. The duo is adamant that they want to capture an all-enveloping magical experience.
Criticism
There are those who will probably argue that if one wants to experience the forest, they could just go to a forest and not Claridge. Some observers, who expect to see something festive and Christmassy mercilessly savaged the design by simply saying that it's terrible. Some are more forgiving, noting that it is peaceful and certainly not gaudy.
The Claridge Christmas tree is one of the most anticipated Christmas installations in London. The hotel maintains a tradition of employing popular designers to implement their own interpretations of Christmas tree. Last year, Burberry's Christopher Bailey decorated a tree with 100 gold and silver umbrellas.
