Apple promotes Jony Ive to post of Chief Design Officer

Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced in a memo to all employees that Sir Jony Ive has been promoted to a newly created designation of Chief Design Officer. This promotion will come into effect July 1 onwards, where he will handover managerial responsibilities of industrial design and user interface design to Richard Howarth and Alan Dye respectively.

Both Howarth and Dye have also been promoted. Howarth is now Vice President of Industrial Design while Dye is Vice President for User Interface Design. Both will continue to report to Ive and he will continue to oversee the overall direction of design at the Cupertino based company. The promotion for Ive means that he will relinquish day-to-day managerial responsibilities to Howarth and Dye.

"His new role is a reflection of the scope of work he has been doing at Apple for some time. Jony's design responsibilities have expanded from hardware and, more recently, software UI to the look and feel of Apple retail stores, our new campus in Cupertino, product packaging and many other parts of our company," said Tim Cook in his memo explaining the Ive's promotion to the newly created designation.

Howarth and Dye have worked with Ive for years and have been his key lieutenants. Howarth, for instance, has been working on the iPhone from day one and has worked at Apple for two decades. Dye started working with Ive more recently after he assumed control of design of human interface in the wake of former iOS chief Scott Forstall's ouster after the iOS 6 Apple Maps snafu. Dye worked on the dramatic redesign that Ive championed with iOS 7 and, in fact, was largely responsible for the look and feel of the OS on the Apple Watch. He joined Apple 9 years ago.

Ive is perhaps the most iconic modern industrial designer. He has his name on more than design and utility 5000 patents. Apple's design team is also quite star-studded. Last year, Apple also added famed designer Marc Newson, who is also Ive's friend.

Ive's influence doesn't just extend to the look and feel of Apple's hardware and software, but also the furniture used inside its campus, its stores, and even the packaging of its products. He has also had a say in the design of the new SpaceShip campus that Apple is building that will be home to 13,000 employees. A recent New Yorker profile of Ive even revealed that JJ Abrams the director of the upcoming Star Wars: Force Awakens consulted him while designing the new lightsaber for the movie.

more details : india today