Jony Ive leaving Apple: British iPhone designer announces plans to set up own creative firm called LoveFrom
Jony Ive revealed his plans in an exclusive interview with the Financial Times
Iconic Apple designer Sir Jony Ive has announced he is leaving his executive role at the firm to set up his own design company.
In an exclusive interview with the FT, the British-born designer told Tim Bradshaw, “While I will not be an [Apple] employee, I will still be very involved — I hope for many, many years to come,” before adding. “This just seems like a natural and gentle time to make this change.”
He is reportedly setting up his own creative business called LoveFrom and Apple will be its first client. The FT piece continues that the transition will begin later this year and LoveFrom will officially launch in 2020.
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said the company’s team of in-house designers is “the strongest it’s ever been” and is looking forward to continuing his work with Sir Jonathan in his new role.
Sir Jonathan has led Apple’s design team since 1996, responsible for the look and feel of Apple hardware, software, packaging plus its architectural projects including Apple Park and Apple’s retail stores.
He was appointed vice-president of industrial design at Apple in two years later and was responsible for the launch of the original iMac. This sold 2 million units in its first year.
Over the following three years, he oversaw the introduction ofthe iBook, PowerMac G4 Tower, iSub, and G4 Cube before being fundamental in the launch of the iPod in 2001.
2002 saw the launch of the iMac with 15″ and 17″ floating screens with the 12″ PowerBook and the 17″ PowerBook, the slimmest notebooks at the time, in 2003. It was this year that he won his first Design Museum’s Designer of the Year aware.
A year later he led the team that launched the multi-coloured iPod mini and the iMac G5 before being appointed senior vice-president of design at Apple and launching the Mac Mini.
A CBE followed in 2005 and, in 2007 when Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone, Sir Jonathan received a National Design Award and the MDA Personal Achievement Award for his work into the design of the iPhone. He was made a knight commander of the British Empire in 2013 “for services to design and enterprise” and promoted to Chief Design Officer in 2015.