As expected, Jony Ive, the iconic Apple designer, has officially departed the company. Apple has quietly updated its executive leadership page to remove Jony Ive as the Chief Design Officer from the page, marking the end to a remarkable era.
Ive has long been cutting down on his responsibilities at Apple. Rumors previously claimed that Ive felt ‘dispirited‘ by the CEO’s lack of interest in design, which Apple CEO Tim Cook later denied.
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Apple announced before that Ive won’t have an immediate successor, which means there is not a single design-focused executive on Apple’s leadership page yet, says 9to5Mac. For now, Evans Hankey, vice president of Industrial Design is becoming the head of design at Apple, reporting directly to Apple’s chief operating officer Jeff Williams. Hankey will also be supported by Alan Dye, vice president of Human Interface Design at Apple.
When Apple originally announced Ive’s departure, the company said it would continue to work with Ive via his new design company LoveFrom. Apple is apparently the first client of Ive’s LoveFrom — so yes, Ive may still have an impact on Apple design going forward. To what extent LoveFrom will actually participate in the design process for Apple products is, obviously, the big unknown here.