Background
Mr. Ive was born in London, United Kingdom, on February 27, 1967. His father, Michael Ive, was a silversmith who lectured at Middlesex Polytechnic, and his grandfather was an engineer.
Jony Ive’s ‘promotion’ to Chief Design Officer.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge meets meeting British designer and Sir Jonathan Ive as she attends the UK's Creative Industries Reception at the Royal Academy of Arts on July 30, 2012 in London, England.
AppleChief Design Officer Jonathan Ive speak onstage during Changing Worlds, Inventing Worlds at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 7, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
Apple chief design officer Jony Ive speaks at the Manus x Machina Fashion in an Age of Technology press preview at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 New York City.
Apple Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive (C), point at a new Apple Watch to actor Stephen Fry (L) during a launch event on September 7, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Apple Inc.
The New Yorker Editor David Remnick and Apple's Cheif Design OfficerJony Ive speak onstage during the 2017 New Yorker TechFest at Cedar Lake on October 6, 2017 in New York City.
Young Jonathan Ive.
The New Yorker Editor David Remnick and Apple's Cheif Design OfficerJony Ive speak onstage during the 2017 New Yorker TechFest at Cedar Lake on October 6, 2017 in New York City.
Jony Ive’s ‘promotion’ to Chief Design Officer.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge meets meeting British designer and Sir Jonathan Ive as she attends the UK's Creative Industries Reception at the Royal Academy of Arts on July 30, 2012 in London, England.
AppleChief Design Officer Jonathan Ive speak onstage during Changing Worlds, Inventing Worlds at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 7, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
Apple chief design officer Jony Ive speaks at the Manus x Machina Fashion in an Age of Technology press preview at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 2, 2016 New York City.
Apple Chief Design Officer Jonathan Ive (C), point at a new Apple Watch to actor Stephen Fry (L) during a launch event on September 7, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Apple Inc.
computer company executive Product designer
Mr. Ive was born in London, United Kingdom, on February 27, 1967. His father, Michael Ive, was a silversmith who lectured at Middlesex Polytechnic, and his grandfather was an engineer.
Jonathan Ive attended the Chingford Foundation School, then Walton High School, in Stafford. After leaving Walton, he explored the option of studying car design in London, such as the course offered at the Royal College of Art; however, he encountered a learning environment that was off-putting. Instead Mr. Ive studied industrial design at Northumbria University, from which he graduated with a first class Bachelor of Arts degree in 1989.
After graduating in 1989, Mr. Ive cofounded Tangerine, a London-based design consultancy that counted Apple among its clients. In 1992 Apple offered him a full-time position at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. He accepted, but it was not until Apple cofounder Steve Jobs returned to the troubled company as a chief executive officer (CEO) in 1997 that the real impact of Mr. Ive’s design ethos began to be felt.
Working on the belief that the computer had become the centre of home life, Jonathan Ive, since 1997 Apple’s vice president of industrial design, fashioned machines that were sleek, touchable, and amenable to display. Jonathan Ive runs his own design office at Apple, in which he oversees the work of his appointed design team, and he is the only Apple designer with a private office. Only his core team - which consists of around 15 people from the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand (who have worked together for around two decades) - and top Apple executives are allowed into the office, as it contains all of the concepts, including prototypes, that the design team is working on.
Ease and simplicity of use - his watchwords - were achieved by devoting "obsessive attention to details that are often overlooked." Mr. Ive’s design for the 1998 iMac, for example, stunned consumers and critics alike with its translucent candy colours and a seductively rounded exterior over a functional core that was itself a product of high design. The design also called for reshaping the processor to fit within the machine’s colourful shell and thus dramatically shrank the computer’s footprint. After two million iMacs were sold in 1998, the design gave Apple its first profitable year since 1995.
Subsequent designs reflected his continuing effort to maximize efficiency and convenience for the user. The 2000 Power Mac G4 Cube could be easily removed from its one-piece plastic housing for internal access, and air circulated freely through its suspended core, obviating the need for noisy fans. The 2003 PowerBook G4, launched as the world’s lightest and slimmest laptop computer, included a 43-cm (17-in) LCD screen, a backlit keyboard, the latest wireless technology, and a bevy of other features that brought Ive’s vision of the comforts of home to computing on the road.
Mr. Ive became Apple’s senior vice president of industrial design in 2005. At Apple he continued to develop the design of such popular products as the iPod portable MP3 player (first introduced in 2001) and the iPhone (2007). On October 29, 2012, Apple announced that "Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design." With the WWDC13 announcement of iOS 7 and Ive's role as principal, the Apple Press information was also updated to reflect his new title: Senior Vice President of Design.
On May 26, 2015, Apple announced that Jonathan Ive was promoted to the new role of chief design officer. He is one of only four C-level executives at Apple along with CEO Tim Cook, CFO Luca Maestri and COO Jeff Williams. On December 8, 2017, Apple announced that he will resume direct responsibility for the company’s product design.
On May 25, 2017, it was announced that Mr. Ive was appointed Chancellor of the Royal College of Art in London effective 1 July 2017. In this position he serves a fixed five-year term as the Head of College, where he will "preside over meetings and help to govern [the college]."
After Jonathan Ive has led Apple’s design team, its design has become widely regarded as one of the world’s best. He holds over 5,000 patents and has been recognized with numerous design awards, including the Design Museum London’s first Designer of the Year in 2003, the Design and Art Direction President’s Award in 2005 and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s Product Design Award in 2007. In a 2004 BBC poll of cultural writers Mr. Ive was ranked the most influential person in British culture.
In 2012, Design and Art Direction named him and his team the Best Design Studio of the past 50 years. A native of London, Sir Jonathan Ive was made a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 2013 "for services to design and enterprise." On successive Wednesdays in June 2016, Jonathan Ive was awarded honorary Doctor of Science degrees at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He is an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Jonathan Ive is a confidential person who avoids publicity.
Ive married British writer and historian Heather Pegg in 1987, with whom he raises twin sons. His family resides in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco, California, US. Starting from March 2014 Steve Jobs has become his "closest friend." At the same time, Steve Jobs considered Mr. Ive to be his "spiritual partner at Apple."
