Jony Ive

Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British-American designer. He is best known for his work at Apple Inc., where he was senior vice-president of industrial design and chief design officer. Ive is the founder of LoveFrom, a creative collective that works with Ferrari, Airbnb, OpenAI and other global brands.

Ive joined Apple in September 1992, and was promoted to senior vice-president of industrial design in the late 1990s after the return of co-founder Steve Jobs. He was chief design officer from 2015 until his departure in July 2019. Working closely with Jobs, Ive played a vital role in the designs of products including the Apple Watch, iMac, Power Mac G4 Cube, iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and the user interface of Apple's mobile operating system iOS. He was involved with the design process of major architectural projects, including Apple's Cupertino headquarters complex, Apple Park, and Apple Stores.

Born in London, Ive lived there until his family moved to Stafford when he was about 12. He studied design at Newcastle Polytechnic and later joined the London-based design firm Tangerine, where he worked on client projects for LG and Ideal Standard as well as Apple. After leaving Tangerine to join Apple full time, he began designing the decade's PowerBooks and Macs. He acquired US citizenship in 2012. In a 2004 BBC poll of cultural writers, Ive was ranked the most influential person in British culture. His designs have been described as integral to the successes of Apple, one of the world's largest information technology companies by revenue and market capitalisation.

Early life and education

Jonathan Paul Ive was born on 27 February 1967 in Chingford, London, United Kingdom. His father, Michael Ive, was a silversmith who lectured at Middlesex Polytechnic, and his grandfather was an engineer.

Ive was inspired to become a designer by his teenage love of cars. He investigated car design courses in London, including one at the Royal College of Art, but was repelled by the students: "The classes were full of students making vroom! vroom! noises as they drew." While at Newcastle, some of his designs – including a telephone and a hearing aid – were exhibited at the Design Museum in London. He travelled to San Francisco, where he met designers including Robert Brunner, who ran a small consultancy firm that would later join Apple Computer. He designed a diverse array of products, such as microwave ovens, toilets, drills and toothbrushes for clients including LG and Ideal Standard. However, he became frustrated after he designed a toilet, bidet and sink for Ideal Standard, and the company rejected the work, stating that the products were too costly and looked too modern. He became unhappy with his clients who had different ideas.

Apple

File:Apple Newton-IMG 0454-cropped.jpg|Apple Newton MessagePad, released in 1993. Ive designed the smaller models following.

File:Ipod 1G.png|First iPod, introduced in 2001. Jon Rubinstein assembled the original design team including Ive as lead design engineer.

File:IPhone 1st Gen.svg|A vector rendition of the first-generation iPhone, first marketed in 2007. Its form factor is credited to Ive.

File:IPad 3.png|Although Ive's studio began designing an iPad-like device before the iPhone, the iPad was first released in 2010.

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He was formally recruited to Apple as a full-time employee in September 1992.

Ive was given his own design office at Apple during the early 2000s in which he oversaw the work of his appointed design team, and he was the only Apple designer with a private office. Only his core team—which consisted of around 15 people from the UK, the US, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand (who had worked together for around two decades)—and top Apple executives were allowed into the office, because it contained all of the concepts, including prototypes, that the design team was working on. His compensation ceased to be publicly disclosed by the firm thereafter, rendering him the only Apple executive to be afforded such a provision. The product was released in April 2015 and has become the best-selling wearable device in the world with 115 million people estimated wearing one as of December 2022. Talking about the product, Ive said in 2018: "we were all routinely carrying around incredibly powerful products, in terms of their technical ability, in our pockets … an obvious continuation of this path that we’ve been on for so many years was to make technology more personal and more accessible."

thumb|224x224px|Ive played a pivotal role, with [[Norman Foster, in the design of Apple Park (pictured) throughout much of the 2010s, which opened in 2017.]]

On 29 October 2012, Apple announced that Ive would "provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company, in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design." With the 2013 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) announcement of iOS 7 and Ive's role as principal, Apple press information was also updated to reflect his new title: senior vice-president of design. On 8 December 2017, Apple announced that Ive would resume direct responsibility for the company's product design.

On 27 June 2019, Apple announced that Ive would depart Apple after 27 years.

Relationship with Steve Jobs

Ive described his rapport with Jobs in 2014: "When we were looking at objects, what our eyes physically saw and what we came to perceive were exactly the same. And we would ask the same questions, have the same curiosity about things."</blockquote>

The offices of Jobs and Ive in Apple's Cupertino headquarters were linked by a covered corridor. Ive delivered the eulogy for Jobs at both the Apple employee memorial service and the family service in 2011. In this position he serves a fixed five-year term as the Head of college, where he will govern the college as an academic administrator. Ive said of the appointment: "I am thrilled to formalise my relationship with the RCA, given the profound influence the college has had on so many of the artists and designers that I admire." Ive was still chancellor in January 2023.

LoveFrom

In June 2019, Ive announced the launch of his own independent firm named LoveFrom, along with fellow designer Marc Newson. LoveFrom keeps a low profile but in October 2021 unveiled a minimalistic website.

Upon launch in 2019, Apple was a client of Ive's.

LoveFrom works with a number of brands including Ferrari and Airbnb. Ive is close friends with Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky. Through Terra Carta Design Lab in 2021 and Charles's coronation in 2023, Ive has produced designs for Charles III.

In 2023, Ive led the development of a foldable red nose for Comic Relief. In the same year, LoveFrom announced its own scholarship programme, which is aimed at increasing representation in the design industry by supporting designers from all backgrounds. The programme covers the full tuition of a student at the California College of the Art, the Rhode Island School of Design and two students at the Royal College of Art each year.

In September 2024, LoveFrom announced the launch of a new outerwear collection in collaboration with Moncler. In the same month, the company unveiled a new logo in the latest iteration of its brand. The new logo includes the addition of a bear, which is LoveFrom's mascot called Montgomery, named after San Francisco's Montgomery Street where the company is based. In May 2025, it was announced OpenAI would acquire Ive's AI venture io for $6.5 billion. Ive founded io in 2024 with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tang Tan. As part of the deal, OpenAI will become a customer of LoveFrom with Ive and LoveFrom assuming creative and design responsibilities across all of OpenAI's operations. On 9 July 2025, OpenAI and io announced the completion of the merger.

In February 2026, Ferrari revealed the interior and interface design of the Ferrari Luce, its first electric car, designed by LoveFrom. Ive has worked with Ferrari since September 2021, when LoveFrom and Exor agreed a multi-year partnership as one of his first clients after leaving Apple. The car's exterior, designed with Ive and LoveFrom, was revealed in May 2026. Critical reception of the design was significantly negative, and caused a dip in Ferarri's stock.

In March 2026, Christie's announced the redesign of its new rostrum at its London salesroom, designed by Ive and LoveFrom. Christie's asked Ive to redesign its rostrum to mark its 260-year anniversary. The new design, made from oak with stainless steel elements, was inspired by the original rostrum designed by Thomas Chippendale in the 1700s.

British Museum

In June 2025, Ive was appointed a trustee of the British Museum. Ive said of the appointment: "I am thrilled to be working with such a wonderful team, and look forward to supporting the Museum's appropriately ambitious Masterplan for transformation." Chief among his public image is his "nearly shaved head and tightly trimmed beard". His look had him referred to as one of the "100 Most Powerful Bald Men in the World" by GQ in their 2013 listing. Known for its minimalist look, grooming regimens, and a small-scale fashion movement, among other things.

He has been known to sport "signature looks" that include: multi-coloured pied-de-poule suits, painter's pants,

Influences

The work and principles of Dieter Rams, the chief designer of Braun from 1961 until 1995, influenced Ive's work. In Gary Hustwit's documentary film Objectified (2009), Rams says that Apple is one of only a handful of companies existing today that design products according to his ten principles of good design. Ive contributed an essay to a 2011 Rams monograph, Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible.

He is also said to have been influenced by the Bauhaus tradition (known for its credos form follows function and less is more), which emerged in Germany during the 1920s and became a staple design approach adopted by the Ulm School of Design during the 1950s. The Bauhaus / Ulm design style was also adopted during the 1980s by luxury automotive brand Audi, which also influenced Jonathan Ive's designs (particularly his work with Apple), and has garnered comparisons in colour stencil, structure, and lighting design.

Personal life

While he was attending secondary school at Walton High School in Stafford he met his future wife, British writer Heather Pegg in 1987.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List in 2019, Ive was worth an estimated £192 million.

Ive is known to live a reserved, private home life and to shun publicity.

Automobiles

Since his early years in England, Ive has expressed an interest in automobiles and automotive design. He frequently attends car shows and exhibitions such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where he serves as a jury member for competitions.

It has been reported that Ive's preferred carmakers were all once-British: Aston Martin, Bentley, and Land Rover. Land Rover Discovery 3, and a Jaeger-LeCoultre sports watch — one of only three — for an HIV/AIDS charity.

In 2023, Ive redesigned the Red Nose, the symbol of Comic Relief's Red Nose day, sold to raise money for charity. He also designed the emblem for the coronation of Charles III, which features a rose, thistle, daffodil, and shamrock— traditional symbols representing the four parts of the United Kingdom – in the shape of St Edward's Crown. Ive described the choice of these flowers as being "inspired by King Charles's love of the planet, nature, and his deep concern for the natural world," and that it is intended to refer to the "optimism of spring".

Honours and awards

Throughout his career at Apple, Ive has received nominations and garnered awards for his work. He has been appointed a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI), an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (HonFREng), a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006 and Knight Commander of the same Order (KBE) in 2012. He has received honorary degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design and California College of the Arts, and made an honorary doctor of the Royal College of Art. On successive Wednesdays in June 2016, Ive was awarded honorary doctorates at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. In 2004, he was named the "Most Influential Person on British Culture" in a BBC poll of cultural writers.