Apple’s Jony Ive is starting a new chapter this summer, with a surprise promotion that’s left many wondering what his new role at the company will be.
As first reported in the British paper the Telegraph, Ive has been named the company’s first “chief design officer,” giving him broad control and freedom to shape Apple’s design aesthetic in its products, software and retail stores.
Ive’s new job, as described in the report, seems to amplify his de facto place as the company’s leading big thinker – a role he was hand-picked to fill by Apple’s late co-founder, Steve Jobs. It’s also, arguably, the position over which Jobs casts the longest shadow. Since Jobs’s death, Ive and Apple chief executive Tim Cook have been under enormous pressure to prove that Apple can still break new ground.
Not all of Ive’s moves in the post-Jobs era have been welcomed by the tech giant’s biggest fans. Under Ive’s tenure, iOS has become flatter and has used brighter, almost fluorescent, colors – a move that earned the top designer his fair share of mockery. That said, Apple has also continued to produce stylish gadgets that have Ive’s distinctive sleek and minimalist look.
Yet pressure has only increased – on Ive in particular – as more time passes after an executive reshuffle ousted Apple’s other leading design light, former software design head Scott Forstall. That left Ive in charge of all design, for both hardware and software, a change that was supposed to give the company a more cohesive design vocabulary.
But running the daily operations of the company’s hardware and software design teams just wasn’t the best use of Ive’s talents, the executive told the Telegraph. So Apple will split the two teams again: Ive will hand the reins for each team over to trusted deputies while still setting the direction of the company’s design. Alan Dye will lead the “user interface” team, while Richard Howarth will be responsible for hardware design.
“Having Alan and Richard in place frees me up from some of the administrative and management work,” Ive said. In his new role, he will still oversee the design on both teams but will also be able to travel more and apply his thinking to more than iDevices. The article mentions that Ive will play a larger role in designing the company’s retail stores and its new spaceship-like headquarters.
Howarth will take over Ive’s daily role as the company’s new head of industrial design. Another prominent Apple Brit, Howarth has been with the company for “two decades,” according to a company memo from Cook published by 9 to 5 Mac. He has worked on Apple’s core products, namely the iPhone, as well as the Mac and other products.
On the software side, Alan Dye will serve as the new head of user interface, or, basically, software. According to Ive’s interview with the Telegraph, Dye was a huge influence on the operating system of the Apple Watch. Dye is an nine-year veteran at the company, according to his LinkedIn profile. He came to Apple from the fashion designer Kate Spade – experience that may serve the company well as it looks to make a bigger fashion play with the Apple Watch.
Ive’s new role has yet to be reflected on Apple’s executive leadership team Web site; Cook’s memo indicated that Ive, Dye and Howarth will assume their new duties July 1. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some have raised questions about whether the change signals that Ive may be eyeing the exit. Seth Weintraub of 9to5 Mac gave voice to some of those thoughts in asking whether Ive’s mention of “travel” may signal a return to his native England – and one foot out the door from the company. On the other hand, he said, it could also mean that Ive really is taking a step back to think big, perhaps to delve deeply into other projects such as the rumored Apple car.
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