If you’re browsing this article on your iPhone or MacBook screen, you owe a lot to former Apple design director Jony Ive. The award-winning industrial designer has been involved in nearly every Apple product to date, having spent more than 20 years working directly with the late Steve Jobs.
I started his career in industrial design at the London-based design start-up Tangerine, where he worked for a few years before being recruited by Apple in September 1992. The English-born designer feared leaving his post in London for the Apple headquarters in California, but eventually made the move – and continued to make moves – within the company, playing a vital role in the design of everything from the iMac to the Apple Watch.
Although Jony Ive has spent the past 25 years in one of the most coveted industrial design roles in the world, his subsequent act is equally impressive. Here’s what the former Apple design director is currently doing and why he made the decision to step down from such a coveted position.
Why did Jony Ive leave Apple?
There’s a lot of hearsay and gossip as to the real reason Jony Ive decided to step down from his role at Apple, but the consensus boils down to the fact that corporate culture and state growth-minded people had drifted away from what they were. when I worked closely with the late Steve Jobs. Ive and Jobs were known to be close, working collaboratively in the design studio on every new project and product.
Jobs’ death changed everything for Ive, who, according to several reports, didn’t like the way current Apple CEO Tim Cook dealt with the design team. Cook would not have collaborated with design in the same way Jobs did, nor did he buy into Jobs’ philosophies of balancing creativity and profit.
Additionally, Jony Ive’s new role with the ever-changing and ever-growing company reportedly left him exhausted and close to burnout. not change. In June 2019, Ive announced his departure, stating that “art needs the right space and support to grow. When you’re really big, that’s especially important.
What is Jony Ive doing now?
After leaving his role as design director at Apple in 2019, Jony Ive started a freelance design business in collaboration with Apple industrial designer Marc Newson. The LoveFrom company worked with Apple as a primary client from its inception until July 2022, when the company announced it would end its consulting agreement with Ive. This marked the end of Ive’s relationship with Apple.
Leaving Apple gave Ive and Newson more time to focus on other high-profile clients, including Airbnb and Terra Carta, on undisclosed projects. More recently, he was recruited by the Agnelli family to work with Ferrari and Ferrari’s holding company Exor. Details on exactly what Ive will do with the brand are slim, but some people in the automotive and design industry believe the collaboration could be linked to Ferrari’s first electric vehicle, which is due for release in 2025.
Ive has also been appointed Chancellor of the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London, where he is currently completing a fixed five-year term as head of the College. The industrial designer is also involved in various charitable causes, including Bono’s charity, Project Red.
Comments are closed.