Apple design chief Jony Ivy leaves company

In what marks the end of an era for Apple, Jony Ive has decided to move on from Apple and start his own design firm. Ive had been the chief architect of Apple’s design language, creating products like the infamous translucent iMac G3, the iPod with its wildly popular click wheel and now, the iPhone, a device whose design is copied voraciously across the smartphone world.

After the passing of Steve Jobs, it was largely accepted that Jony Ive was the man keeping Jobs’s obsession with perfection alive through the design of Apple products. In 2015, Ive stepped down from his role intermittently to work on the design of the Apple Campus, but since then, his role in the company has been seen more as one that was more managerial.

In a statement published on Apple Newsroom, “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 Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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.”

Team leaders Evans Hankey, Vice President, Industrial Design and Alan Dye, Vice President, Human Interface Design, will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. A statement from Ivy in the press note reads “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. Today it is stronger, more vibrant and more talented than at any point in Apple’s history,” said Ive. “The team will certainly thrive under the excellent leadership of Evans, Alan and Jeff, who have been among my closest collaborators. I have the utmost confidence in my designer colleagues at Apple, who remain my closest friends, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come.”

Ivy’s contribution to bringing Apple back from the brink of obscurity has been a monumental one. IT all started with the translucent iMac G3, the design of which was also adopted for the iBook G3 released in 1999. After that, probably one of the most futuristic looking products from Ivy’s design stable was the G4 Cube, a computer that was encased in clear polycarbonate. Since then, Ivy has not only become synonymous with some of the most popular Apple products like the iPhone and the Apple watch, but was also voice of Apple in all the promotional videos for new devices.

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