APPLE

Two Apple Designers Step Up as Jony Ive Becomes Chief Design Officer

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With the new title of chief design officer, Jony Ive will still oversee overall design at Apple, but will also focus on broad projects like retail operations. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Over the last several months, Apple has been cranking up the volume on two lesser-known Apple employees: Richard Howarth and Alan Dye. And it’s no wonder as the two will soon take over day-to-day design responsibilities from Jony Ive, Apple’s all-important design guru.
Starting in July, Mr. Dye will head user interface design, and Mr. Howarth will oversee industrial design, Apple told staff in an internal memo over the weekend. Mr. Ive will still oversee overall design, but with the new title of chief design officer, he will also focus on broad projects like Apple’s retail operations.
“Richard, Alan and Jony have been working together as colleagues and friends for many years,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a memo to staff obtained by The New York Times. “Please join me in congratulating these three exceptionally talented designers on their new roles at Apple.”
At Apple, design has been a core part of the company’s philosophy. Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, strove to make complex computer technologies feel understandable and natural to people, and strong design was critical to achieving that goal. 
The two newly appointed design leaders have made recent press appearances. Mr. Howarth, an industrial designer who has spent two decades at Apple working on many products, including the iPhone, made a recent appearance in a lengthy profile about Mr. Ivepublished in The New Yorker in February. In the piece, the design chief described Mr. Howarth as a “feared” and intense person “in terms of driving things.”
Mr. Dye, the user interface design executive, also gained publicity in an article by Wired magazine last month about the creation of the Apple Watch. Mr. Dye, who was a former design director at Kate Spade, started at Apple in 2006 designing product boxes for its marketing department, before taking the reins for the human interface group. He became deeply involved in the Apple Watch and Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS.
So what’s left for Mr. Ive and his fancy new title? The chief design officer who was once described by Mr. Jobs as a “spiritual partner,” will still oversee overall design, but will travel more and focus on projects like Apple’s retail stores, he told The Telegraph, which first reported Mr. Ive’s promotion.