Jony Ive discusses why Apple finally made a stylus and named it Pencil

By Julian Chokkattu November 18, 2015

best drawing apps for the iPad Pro Apple Pencil — Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the early years of emerging smartphone technology, it wasn’t time to bring out the stylus. Or at least, that’s what Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and his famed designer Jony Ive seemed to think.

In an interview with Wallpaper Magazine’s editor-in-chief, Ive said that initially, it was important for the company to focus on improving and building a UI (User Interface) based on multi-touch with fingers. But with the launch of the $100 Apple Pencil in September, we’re ready to be more “dexterous.”

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“For some people it will be a graphic instrument and to others it will be a fountain pen.”

“What we found is that there’s clearly a group of people that would value an instrument that would enable then to paint or draw in ways that you just can’t with your finger,” Ive said in the interview. “And I suspect that this isn’t a small group of people. I don’t think it’s confined to those of us who went to art school.”

The Apple Pencil has multiple pressure sensors that allow users to draw any kind of line. It’s also paired with two tilt sensors to detect the angle at which the user is drawing the line. The utensil’s low latency is another highlight Ive mentions in the interview. But Ive said the Pencil is not supposed to replace the finger.

“I think there’s a potential to confuse the role of the Pencil with the role of your finger in iOS, and I actually think it’s very clear the Pencil is for making marks, and the finger is a fundamental point of interface for everything within the operating system. And those are two very different activities with two very different goals,” he said.

Along that line of reasoning, the name Pencil was specifically chosen over stylus, so as to avoid the idea of the utensil as another tech gadget, and more to evoke an abstract idea to match the possibilities of the Pencil.

“Pencil, to me, seems very analogue in its association,” Ive said. “But what is challenging is that it will become many things. There’s an incredible painting app and very powerful drawing apps. For some people it will be a graphic instrument and to others it will be a fountain pen.”

The versatility of Pencil is already being showcased on the App Store with several optimized apps, including Procreate, Paper, and Adobe’s app suite. If interested, you can read more about the Pencil on Apple’s site. We are currently reviewing the Pencil, so stay tuned for our impressions. In the meantime, you can check out our iPad Pro review.

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Julian Chokkattu

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…

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Jony Ive's red nose.

Jony Ive, the designer of iconic Apple products such as the iPod music player, the Mac, the Apple Watch, and, of course, the iPhone, has unveiled his latest work: a red nose made of paper.
But this, it has to be said, is no ordinary red nose. This is “the most perfect rose in history,” and is made “to fit neatly on your nose."
It’s also the most recognizable symbol of the U.K’s Comic Relief charity, the organization behind the massive Red Nose Day fundraising event that takes place every March and has been broadcast by the BBC since 1988. Profits from sales of the nose, along with other donations, go to a range of causes.
Comic Relief’s red nose used to be made of plastic, then in 2020 it produced its first plastic-free red nose. Ive’s nose, so to speak, is made from 95% plant-based materials.
As the video below shows, the newly designed red schnoz starts as a tiny flat crescent and springs into a honeycomb-paper sphere. It also comes with its own, very small, carry case.
Red Nose Day 2023 | Comic Relief
“We’ve grown up with Comic Relief and are proud to support their remarkable work,” Jony Ive said on Comic Relief’s website. “This new and seemingly simple red nose has been a fabulously complex little object to design and make and has involved our entire team. We hope it brings a little moment of joy to everyone who wears one."
Since Red Nose Day’s launch in 35 years ago, Comic Relief has raised more than 1 billion British pounds (about $1.2 billion) for charitable causes, with tens of millions of pounds coming from sales of red noses. Speaking of which, you can get your Jony Ive-designed red nose here.
Ive left Apple after 27 hugely successful years at the company. Soon after his departure, he set up a design firm called LoveFrom with his friend and long-time collaborator Marc Newson. LoveFrom worked with Apple on various projects until July 2022. In recent years, the British designer has worked with Ferrari, Airbnb, and environmental initiative Terra Carta. Ive also served a number of years as chancellor of the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London.

Following his red nose triumph, the ace designer is sure to be sniffing out his next big project.

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Drawing with the Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro (2022).

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