Apple design head Jony Ive made chancellor of London's Royal College of Art

Posted:
in General Discussion edited May 2017
Apple's chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, has been made chancellor of London's renowned Royal College of Art, a position which will divert some of his attention away from the company.




Ive will start in his new role in July, replacing famous engineer Sir James Dyson, Business Insider reported. The position involves a five-year unpaid term in which Ive will preside over meetings and help run the college.

"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 said in a statement. "Our design team includes many RCA alumni, who embody the fundamental values of the college. I look forward to advising both the college and students, hoping that my experience proves useful in their work."

Ive holds an honorary doctorate from the RCA among many other British honors. He has similar doctorates from Oxford and Cambridge, and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2006, then a Knight Commander in a 2012 Honours list.

While often credited as the force behind the design of Apple's biggest products, he handed off some or most of his direct involvement when he was promoted to chief design officer in May 2015. Alan Dye is now in charge of User Interface Design, while Richard Howarth occupies Ive's one-time position as VP of Industrial Design.

Past reports have suggested that Ive wants to spend more time in his homeland, which the chancellorship will require.
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 32
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    In before someone else says it...

    So this is why we don't have a new Mac Pro. 
    entropyspulseimagesboredumb
  • Reply 2 of 32
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    macxpress said:
    In before someone else says it...

    So this is why we don't have a new Mac Pro. 
    Doubt it. 

    Dyson was still churning out vacuum cleaners and hand dryers while he was chancellor. These things are pretty ceremonial. 

    But If Ive is going to be a hands-in sort of chancellor then I don't think it'll make too much difference, since he's been delegating a lot of his work for quite some time. 
    baconstangStrangeDays
  • Reply 3 of 32
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    The good news is that Ive gets to spread his functional, clean, no-nonsense Apple aesthetic around more widely.

    The world could use it, looking at the present state of Darth Vader car design, for example.
    edited May 2017 retrogustopulseimagespscooter63baconstangmr o
  • Reply 4 of 32
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Rayz2016 said:
    macxpress said:
    In before someone else says it...

    So this is why we don't have a new Mac Pro. 
    Doubt it. 

    Dyson was still churning out vacuum cleaners and hand dryers while he was chancellor. These things are pretty ceremonial. 

    But If Ive is going to be a hands-in sort of chancellor then I don't think it'll make too much difference, since he's been delegating a lot of his work for quite some time. 
    I was joking....
    pscooter63fastasleep
  • Reply 5 of 32
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    This guy has the best job. Pretty much gets to work on whatever he wants and no responsibility of a large organization to manage.
    pulseimages
  • Reply 6 of 32
    macplusplusmacplusplus Posts: 2,112member
    This guy has the best job. Pretty much gets to work on whatever he wants and no responsibility of a large organization to manage.
    Yes, an award for wise executives who implemented a team spirit and trained their substitute for daily work...
  • Reply 7 of 32
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Europeans really love their titles.

    One of my favorites.  Just sounds so admirable...

    Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca


  • Reply 8 of 32
    anantksundaramanantksundaram Posts: 20,403member
    So, what's the buzz on what Ive has been up to, if anything, lately? Car? Speaker? Glucose monitoring? He appears to have completely dropped off the radar screen in the past year.

    I am speculating that this is the start of the end of the Ive era at Apple.
    edited May 2017
  • Reply 9 of 32
    bsenkabsenka Posts: 799member
    His first order of business? Make the campus thinner.
    slprescottbaconstangcogitodexterboredumbSpamSandwichGeorgeBMac
  • Reply 10 of 32
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    This guy has the best job. Pretty much gets to work on whatever he wants and no responsibility of a large organization to manage.
    I am pretty sure Jony Ive feels the burden of responsibility when it comes to Apple. He may no longer be at his desk personally designing every aspect of the next Apple computer, but he is still in charge of, and has a lot invested in the design work that takes place at the company. 
    pscooter63
  • Reply 11 of 32
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    So, what's the buzz on what Ive has been up to, if anything, lately? Car? Speaker? Glucose monitoring? He appears to have completely dropped off the radar screen in the past year.

    I am speculating that this is the start of the end of the Ive era at Apple.
    The buzz a while back was he was focused on Campus 2 and Apple retail stores. When he was first promoted to CDO the hot takes were he was close to retirement. But his bio on Apple's leadership page says he's responsible, in part, for "new ideas and future initiatives". So far recently Ive has narrated Apple Watch, 3D Touch, iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, AirPods, iPhone 7 and MacBook Pro with TouchBar product videos. I think we'll know that the Ive era is over when he no longer narrates those.
    edited May 2017 anantksundarambaconstangStrangeDays
  • Reply 12 of 32
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    bsenka said:
    His first order of business? Make the campus thinner.
    What neckbeard nerds want has never been Ive’s concern. That crowd wants a 6 pound phone with unlimited battery life (charge once a month), all legacy ports supported, a built-in DVD burner, and autographs of AC/DC on the back. Maybe that’s why they flock to Android.
    edited May 2017 anantksundaramStrangeDaysfastasleep
  • Reply 13 of 32
    dachardachar Posts: 330member
    So, what's the buzz on what Ive has been up to, if anything, lately? Car? Speaker? Glucose monitoring? He appears to have completely dropped off the radar screen in the past year.

    I am speculating that this is the start of the end of the Ive era at Apple.
    There have been various hints that he had been involved with the new Apple campus. As a key client contact for the Architects and contractors  this could easily be more than a full time task for Ive for a project so big.
  • Reply 14 of 32
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    Do you suppose there is so much freak out when the guy in your office takes up coaching his kid's little league? Yeah no.

    But the sense of entitlement is so great with some Apple customers that they simply cannot tolerate news of a guy doing stuff outside of his day job.
    edited May 2017
  • Reply 15 of 32
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    So, what's the buzz on what Ive has been up to, if anything, lately? Car? Speaker? Glucose monitoring? He appears to have completely dropped off the radar screen in the past year.

    I am speculating that this is the start of the end of the Ive era at Apple.
    I think the Ive era effectively ended with the passing of Jobs. Neither he, nor Tim possess the holistic product + marketing + corporate vision that Jobs had as the father of Apple. Ive needs to move on and another product visionary needs to fight their way to the top of the heap.
    anantksundaram
  • Reply 16 of 32
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    dachar said:
    So, what's the buzz on what Ive has been up to, if anything, lately? Car? Speaker? Glucose monitoring? He appears to have completely dropped off the radar screen in the past year.

    I am speculating that this is the start of the end of the Ive era at Apple.
    There have been various hints that he had been involved with the new Apple campus. As a key client contact for the Architects and contractors  this could easily be more than a full time task for Ive for a project so big.
    And if that's what he's been doing, he's not leading the Apple design team. Let him move on already.
    anantksundaram
  • Reply 17 of 32
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Europeans really love their titles.

    One of my favorites.  Just sounds so admirable...

    Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca


    Also off topic but know what you mean, sadly, not sure these days many of the English want to be considered as 'European'.
  • Reply 18 of 32
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Apple should focus a bit more on function and a bit less on form. Specially for Mac.
    GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 19 of 32
    Do you suppose there is so much freak out when the guy in your office takes up coaching his kid's little league? Yeah no.

    But the sense of entitlement is so great with some Apple customers that they simply cannot tolerate news of a guy doing stuff outside of his day job.


    Yeah, that's a fair comparison.  If it were a mission critical person and the league were on another continent and it was actually a professional team, yeah I might be concerned about such a guy in my office.

    But hopefully this won't be any bigger deal than, for example, Cook serving as the lead outside director of ... a major corporation that I can't remember off hand (it was mentioned here last week).

    GeorgeBMac
  • Reply 20 of 32
    newclasstraitornewclasstraitor Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    "Chancellor" of a British university is a largely ceremonial/honorary position. The Chancellor of Durham University, for instance, is whoever is the incumbent Bishop of Durham. The Vice Chancellor is the person actually running the university.
    dmcdee
Sign In or Register to comment.