Another Ive-Era Designer Leaves Apple - MacRumors
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Another Ive-Era Designer Leaves Apple

Yet another industrial designer that worked under Jony Ive is leaving Apple, reports Bloomberg. Peter Russell-Clarke has stepped down from his role at Apple after 17 years, and he plans to join space technology company Vast.

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Under Ive, Russell-Clarke worked on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Park campus. He left Apple earlier in the year in order to "pursue passion projects," according to a press release put out by Vast.

As Bloomberg points out, almost all of the designers who worked under former Apple design chief Jony Ive have departed. Ive left Apple in 2019 to start his design firm LoveFrom, but he continued to work with Apple as a consultant until 2022. Apple paid Ive more than $100 million to be LoveFrom's primary client, but Ive was not able to work on projects that Apple felt were competitive, leading to the dissolving of the partnership.

Several Apple designers that worked with Ive opted to join LoveFrom, and in February 2023 when Ive replacement Evans Hankey left, Apple opted to drop the Product Design Chief role, restructuring its product design team under operations chief Jeff Williams.

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Top Rated Comments

eicca Avatar
31 months ago
Can they please hire some designers that will get rid of the horrendous camera protrusions?

Not only is it a hilarious ergonomic joke that a premium phone can't lay flat on a surface, the bump is creating wear spots in all my jeans.
Score: 37 Votes (Like | Disagree)
19callum93 Avatar
31 months ago
I actually miss Jony Ive.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bollman Avatar
31 months ago
Product design is now part of "operations". Doesn't sound like "design" is as much of a thing at Apple anymore.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SanderEvers Avatar
31 months ago
Honestly I hated most of Ive's design choices, removing ports, making everything thinner because "they can", butterfly keyboard, etc.

In recent years Apple has been moving away from this, and it shows.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Armada2 Avatar
31 months ago
So all the "make it thin" designers have left now?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
springsup Avatar
31 months ago
Yeah you can definitely feel that a new generation has taken over at Apple.

It’s been apparent for a while, really. Stuff like the horrible Safari redesign really made it obvious.

To be honest, I feel that Apple is stagnating. Their products just lack soul, the pricing ladder is so BS that a lot of their products are just plain crap, and now they’re in to everything from TV shows to credit cards. It’s just so corporate. It doesn’t feel like Apple any more.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)