Last night the company Apple announced that Jony Ive will leave the position of chief designer to open his own design firm, whose clients will be those from Cupertino. Although Apple is only now announcing the departure of its famous designer, very close to Steve Jobs, in reality it seems that he is no longer actively involved in his role since 4 years ago.
It seems that Jony Ive worked more in San Francisco, in his own design studio, and visited the Apple offices only a few times a week. The rest of the time, Apple's designers went to Jony Ive, in San Francisco, and things have been going like this since 2019, just so that he doesn't leave the American company altogether.
Even if Tim Cook didn't want this, it seems that Jony Ive has other plans, and will completely leave the function within Apple this year, becoming only a collaborator. Considering that Jony Ive has not been actively involved in the design of Apple products for 4 years, theoretically nothing should change for the worse after his departure.
"Jony Ive in early 2015 said he's "deeply, deeply tired" and Laurene Powell Jobs publicly said he should have a reduced role. And then 3 months later, he was "promoted" and "more connected to Apple design than ever." Never made sense, never was really true. That change actually happened on Memorial Day in 2015, when the stock market was closed, Apple said it "promoted" Ive to chief design officer. That was actually him officially becoming less involved than ever. Some on Jony Ive's now former team don't even think anything will feel immediately different. That's how disconnected I've become in recent years. Usually when a leader resigns, there's a change."
