Jonathan Ive

As senior vice-president of industrial design at Apple, Jonathan Ive is one of the world’s most inspiring product designers. Born February 1967 in Chingford, London and studied industrial design at Northumbria University (it was called Newcastle Polytechnic at the time). After a short time at the London design agency “Tangerine”. Tangerine was created in 1988 and design specialized products and delves into research involving their client’s needs. In 1992, Apple, which was one of Tangerine's clients, offered Ive a job. He worked on some projects with the company before accepting a full-time position and since then he is in charge of the Industrial Design team responsible for most of the company's significant hardware products.
Reporting directly to the CEO Steve Jobs. Since 1996 he has been responsible for leading a design team widely regarded as one of the world’s best. Recognized with numerous design awards, Apple products are featured in the permanent collections of museums worldwide including MOMA in New York and the Pompidou in Paris.


Jonathan Ive (on the left) with Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs

Critics regard Ive's work as being among the best in industrial design, and his team's products have repeatedly won awards such as the Industrial Designers Society of America's “Industrial Design Excellence Award”.
Ive was the winner of the Design Museum's inaugural Designer of the Year award in 2002, and won again in 2003. In 2004, he was a juror for the award.
“The Sunday Times” named Ive as one of Britain's most influential people on 27 November 2005.
Ive was also listed in the 2006 New Years Honours list, receiving a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), for services to the design industry.
A recent “Macworld” poll listed Ive joining Apple in 1992 as the sixth most significant event in Apple Inc. history.
On July 18, 2007, Ive received the 2007 National Design Award in the product design category for his work on the iPhone.
“The Daily Telegraph” rated him the most influential Briton in America on 11 January 2008.
In July 2008, Ive was awarded the MDA Personal Achievement award for the design of the iPhone.
In May 2009, Ive received an Honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design.
“Fortune” magazine named Ive as the "world's smartest designer" in 2010, for his work on Apple products.
Jonathan Ive’s iPod design is my favourite of all of the products for Apple as when the first iPod came out it was so different, nothing like it was out in the market and in my opinion has had the greatest impact on the market and on how designers now think about a similar product. When all of Apple’s competitors saw the iPod they immediately tried to come up with a similar product but all of theses other products looked exactly like the iPod. Apple products are easily recognisable and are the benchmark in my mind in their designs, which Jonathan Ive and his design team are responsible for.
Some of Jonathan Ive’s Designs for Apple