Design guru Jony Ive reveals he is leaving Apple

Ive will create his own design company, with Apple as a client.

Apple has announced that Sir Jony Ive, the company’s Chief Design Officer, is leaving the tech giant. Ive will be forming his own design business, of which Apple will be a client.

“After nearly 30 years and countless projects, I am most proud of the lasting work we have done to create a design team, process and culture at Apple

that is without peer,” Ive said in a statement released by Apple. “Today it is stronger, more vibrant and more talented than at any point in Apple’s history.”

Leading Apple’s design teams now are Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design. Both will report to Apple COO Jeff Williams.

“Jony is a singular figure in the design world and his role in Apple’s revival cannot be overstated, from 1998’s groundbreaking iMac to the iPhone and the unprecedented ambition of Apple Park, where recently he has been putting so much of his energy and care,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Apple will continue to benefit from Jony’s talents by working directly with him on exclusive projects, and through the ongoing work of the brilliant and passionate design team he has built. After so many years working closely together, I’m happy that our relationship continues to evolve and I look forward to working with Jony long into the future.”

In the early 1990s, Apple was a client of Tangerine, and Ive, an employee of Tangerine, worked on designs for Apple’s PowerBook. Ive left Tangerine and joined Apple in 1992, and worked on the second-generation Newton and the MessagePad 110. A few years later, he would come to lead Apple’s design team and create a series of iconic designs, such as the iMac, the iPod, and his biggest hit, the iPhone.

Ive has received many honours and awards throughout his career, including being a recipient of the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year Award, being made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and receiving a gold Blue Peter badge.

He has also received honorary degrees from the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Royal College of Art, the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, and Northumbria University. Ive holds over 5,000 patents.

For more on his time at Apple see page 15.