Apple ends collaboration with iPhone designer Jony Ive

The design precursor of the iMac, the famous white iPod earphones, the Apple Watch and of course the iPhone: that’s him. Iconic designer Jony Ive will no longer work for US giant Apple, reports the New York Times in a July 12 article. When his contract expired, it was not renewed by mutual agreement. This ends a thirty-year collaboration.

Jony Ive officially left Apple in 2019 to start his own design agency, called LoveFrom. The iPhone maker then signed him to a multi-year contract, valued at more than $100 million, again according to sources interviewed by the New York Times. In fact, Apple was therefore the main client of Jony Ive’s company.

a desire for freedom

The contract guaranteed that the designer would work on the next products of the American giant, such as its augmented reality glasses that should be marketed next year. But the agreement prohibited Jony Ive from working on projects considered competitive by Apple.

As the contract that united them came to an end, some Apple executives have wondered in recent weeks about the designer’s compensation, according to the American newspaper. They would also see with bad eyes the departure of several of their designers to Jony Ive’s company.

For his part, the designer would have liked to regain his freedom and choose his clients as he saw fit, without having to ask Apple for permission.

A close friend of Steve Jobs

Jony Ive joined Apple in 1992. Five years later, the group is on the brink of bankruptcy and looking to revive. Its founder, Steve Jobs, then asked the designer to shape the iMac, the American giant’s first consumer computer. A rounded shape, bright colors and a transparent frame: success is there.

A feat that will make Jony Ive one of the closest collaborators of the essential Steve Jobs. “He’s not just a designer,” Apple’s founder tells his biographer, Walter Isaacson. “He has more operating power than anyone at Apple except me.”