Arise “Sir” Jonathan Ive - Apple’s Design Guru Gets Knighted

Apple’s design guru has just been knighted in Buckingham Palace, the official London residence and office of the British monarch. Princess Anne performed the honors after the 45-year-old told the Daily Telegraph he was “the product of a very British design education.”

Born in Chingford, East London, Ive is Apple’s chief of industrial design. He said today he was “both humbled and sincerely grateful” for the “absolutely thrilling honour” of getting knighted.

Ive studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and started work at Apple in 1992. It wasn’t until 1997 that he became chief of design under Steve Jobs’ guidance. Since then, Apple has churned up hit after hit, all bearing Ive’s signature designs.

The first iMac and the first iPods, regarded today as key products responsible for Apple’s rising from the ashes, were all designed by Ive. Today, Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Even after Steve Jobs’ death, the company, now run by Tim Cook, continues to report one record quarter after another.

In a rare interview with The Telegraph, Ive said: “All I’ve ever wanted to do is design and make; it’s what I love doing. It’s great if you can find what you love to do. Finding it is one thing but then to be able to practise that and be preoccupied with that is another. I’m very aware of an incredible tradition in the UK of designing and making, and so to be recognised in this way is really wonderful.”

“We’re keenly aware that when we develop and make something and bring it to market that it really does speak to a set of values. And what preoccupies us is that sense of care, and what our products will not speak to is a schedule, what our products will not speak to is trying to respond to some corporate or competitive agenda. We’re very genuinely designing the best products that we can for people,” he added.

Ive also dropped a teaser suggesting the best is yet to come. He specifically told interviewers that the best work he’d ever done “would be what we’re working on right now.”