14 DAY TRIAL // Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer and the man responsible for several iPhone, iPad, iOS generations, has decided to leave the company in order to create his own design firm.
Ive, however, will continue to work with Apple, as the Cupertino-based tech giant will become the primary client of his new design company, which means that the next iPhones would still be his creations.
Ive spent more than 20 years at Apple, and he says LoveFrom, the name of his company, is inspired by none other than Steve Jobs.
“There was an employee meeting a number of years ago and Steve [Jobs] was talking . . . He [said] that one of the fundamental motivations was that when you make something with love and with care, even though you probably will never meet . . . the people that you’re making it for, and you’ll never shake their hand, by making something with care, you are expressing your gratitude to humanity, to the species,” he said in an interview with FT.
“I so identified with that motivation and was moved by his description. So my new company is called ‘LoveFrom’. It succinctly speaks to why I do what I do.”
Apple, LoveFrom’s top client
In a press release (embedded below), Apple says the design team leaders Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design, and Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design, will report to Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer.
While LoveFrom will also sign other clients, Ive’s company will design several key Apple products in the coming years.
“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,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said.
Marc Newson, one of the leading Apple designers who joined the company five years ago, will leave the Cupertino-based firm as well to join LoveFrom.