Jony Ive: From Apple’s Design Era to What Comes Next

Before the iMac, iPod, and iPhone: Jony Ive’s early life, his first Apple projects, why Steve Jobs trusted him, and the design culture that shaped modern consumer tech.

28.01.2026 BY Jakub

Jony Ive: From Apple’s Design Era to What Comes Next header image

Introduction

Early years ↓ Before Apple ↓ The first Apple years (1992–1997) ↓ Why Jobs chose him ↓ The iconic products (and why they’re iconic) ↓ After Apple: LoveFrom → Airbnb → OpenAI ↓ What’s behind the success ↓

The quiet designer who redefined what “a product” feels like

If you grew up in the last twenty years, chances are you learned what “modern” looks like from one place: Apple hardware.

But Apple’s “modern” wasn’t just a style trend. It was a design culture — and Jony Ive was one of its chief architects. What’s fascinating is that his influence didn’t start with a blockbuster product. It began with craft, frustration, and a unique moment in Apple’s history when the company had almost nothing to lose.

If you enjoy Apple design history beyond hardware, you’ll appreciate our deep dive on macOS identity: Design Ups & Downs of Apple macOS: The Signature That Survived Every Redesign.

“Great product design is rarely about new decoration. It’s about new standards.”

Product design sketches and refinement: from concept to object

Early years

Craft first, aesthetics later

Ive’s early story isn’t about innate genius or a predetermined path. It’s more grounded: tools, materials, and a deep respect for making things well.

From profiles and interviews, a few themes stand out early on:

a strong pull toward physical craft (how objects are made, not just how they look)
an obsession with details most people overlook as “unimportant”
the ability to hold a big-picture vision and dive deep into millimeter-level precision

One often overlooked benefit of industrial design education: it trains you to fail cheaply. Foam models, tape, rough prototypes — fast learning before committing to a “perfect” solution.

Early years: hands-on prototyping and material exploration in industrial design

Before Apple

Tangerine, real products, real constraints

Before Apple, Ive worked at a London design consultancy called Tangerine. This experience matters because consultancies force you to face reality:

budgets
manufacturing limits
clients who don’t share your “design philosophy”

It’s the opposite of internet-era design: not about vibes or mockups — but hard tradeoffs.

In several accounts, Apple appears in this phase too: the company worked with external designers in the early 1990s, and Ive’s work intersected with Apple projects before he officially joined.

Design teams work through constraints: prototypes, reviews, and tradeoffs

The first Apple years (1992–1997)

He didn’t arrive as a star — he joined at a low point

Ive joined Apple in 1992. The Apple of that time was very different from today: messy product lines, inconsistent choices, and plenty of internal chaos.

One of his early projects is often cited as work on Newton-era hardware — especially the MessagePad 110 generation. The device itself wasn’t a mass-market hit, but the work was crucial: it pushed a young designer to face the hard realities of product design:

industrial design isn’t separate from engineering
manufacturing is part of the design process
“almost right” becomes costly at scale

There’s also a telling detail from this period about his temperament: when he cared, he cared too much. He was known for staying close to manufacturing to ensure the object matched the original intent — the kind of dedication that goes beyond treating design as mere “surface”.

Early Apple era: the interface and object had to evolve together

Why Jobs chose him

Taste, trust, and a reset of Apple’s priorities

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he needed something very specific: a person who could translate a new Apple into objects people instantly understood.

Jobs didn’t pick Ive because he was the only talented designer available. He chose him because Ive embodied the kind of decision-making Jobs wanted to make standard:

fewer products
clearer hierarchy
ruthless editing
coherence across the entire experience (hardware, UI, packaging, even the way you open the box)

That’s also why Jobs protected the design function. The design studio became a uniquely powerful place inside a tech company — not just a service department, but a core engine of direction.

“If I have a spiritual partner at Apple, it’s Jony.”

This quote is often repeated — but the key point is practical: Jobs trusted Ive’s taste enough to let it guide product decisions.

The Apple turning point: simplifying decisions and focusing the product line

The iconic products (and why they’re iconic)

A short timeline of “objects that rewired expectations”

You don’t have to be an Apple fan to recognize this list as historically significant:

iMac G3 (1998): made computers feel friendly, physical, and intentional again.
iPod (2001): a masterclass in one job done obsessively well.
iPhone (2007): changed the default shape of a phone (and therefore the software world).
MacBook Air (2008): popularized the obsession with thinness (for better and worse).
iPad (2010): made “tablet” feel like a real category, not a strange laptop.
Apple Watch (2015): Apple moved from “devices” into something closer to personal objects.
Apple Park (2010s): design ambition extended to architecture and company culture.

The real question is: what’s the shared DNA?

It’s not just “minimalism.” Minimalism is the visible outcome.

The shared DNA is:

clarity under constraint
refusal to ship the “almost” version
an obsession with material honesty (what is this object really made of?)
a belief that user experience includes everything around the product, not just the product itself

Minimal forms and materials: the aesthetic outcome of a strict design process

After Apple: LoveFrom → Airbnb → OpenAI

What he does now (and why it makes sense)

In 2019, Ive left Apple to start LoveFrom, with Apple as an early client and the door open to other collaborations.

One notable partnership: Airbnb announced a multi-year relationship with LoveFrom to help design the next generation of its products and services.

More recently, Ive’s “what’s next” has shifted toward AI-era hardware: OpenAI acquired Ive’s hardware startup (io) in 2025, with Ive and LoveFrom taking on design responsibilities across OpenAI while remaining independent.

Whether you’re a fan of AI or not, this is a very “Ive” problem: current computing devices weren’t designed for this kind of interaction. If the interface changes, the object probably needs to change too.

A new era: product design shifts toward AI-first interaction models

What’s behind the success

The parts you can copy without copying the style

Most teams copy the look (white, clean, thin). The harder advantage lies in the mindset behind the design.

The repeatable principles:

Design is a decision-making function. If design can’t say “no,” it becomes decoration.
Prototype early, then refine relentlessly. Cheap failure is a competitive edge.
Small teams protect taste. Large committees produce average results.
Details communicate respect. Users sense when someone truly cared (even if they can’t pinpoint why).

If you’re building products today, the lesson isn’t to “be minimalist.” The lesson is: make the product’s standards visible. Make the care measurable.

Sources:

🎓 Study: Jonathan Ive — Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) 📓 Jony Ive — Vogue (Apple Watch era) 📚 Steve Jobs (Walter Isaacson) — Jobs/Ive partnership quote + context 📚 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products (Leander Kahney) 📓 Jony Ive is leaving Apple to launch LoveFrom (2019) 📓 Airbnb working with LoveFrom (2020) 📓 OpenAI acquisition of Jony Ive’s io startup (2025)

Thanks for reading ✌️