Apple loses three core members of small industrial design team
Three members of Apple's vaunted industrial design team have departed or are planning to depart the company, taking with them decades of combined experience in creating some of the world's most iconic products.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reports Rico Zorkendorfer and Daniele De Iuliis recently left Apple, while Julian Hnig plans to leave in the coming months. Together, the three designers have nearly 50 years of experience at the tech giant.
Zorkendorfer in a statement said he is taking a break from professional life to spend more time with his family, adding that he felt privileged to be part of Apple's design team. He noted that Apple is in good hands, pointing to the fresh blood that will work under CDO Jony Ive.
"We have incredible new designers -- a new generation," Zorkendorfer said. "What we've been able to do the last few decades will continue. The talent is there."
De Iuliis did not respond to a request for comment, while Hnig declined to issue a statement on his reported departure.
According to the report, the team is slowly disbanding after the success of products like iPhone afforded comfortable lives and relatively secure futures. In 2016, Danny Coster left for GoPro after 23 years of service, while prominent ID group figure Christopher Stringer departed in 2017 after 21 years on the job. Stringer is named on numerous breakthrough design patents, many of which involve aspects of iPhone.
As veterans depart, new hires from Nike, independent studios and design schools will be given more responsibility in the development of new product lines, the report said.
As noted by the WSJ, the turnover at Apple's core design team coincides with the company's newly placed emphasis on digital services. The team that dreamed up iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch designs under Ive most has experienced a slowdown in important new devices over the past few years. The most recent memorable releases to come out of Apple's ID group were AirPods in 2016 and HomePod in 2017.
Beyond evolutionary updates to existing product lines like iPhone, iPad and Mac, Apple's designers are rumored to be hard at work on a variety of devices. Likely to debut first is an augmented reality headset that could be unveiled in 2020.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reports Rico Zorkendorfer and Daniele De Iuliis recently left Apple, while Julian Hnig plans to leave in the coming months. Together, the three designers have nearly 50 years of experience at the tech giant.
Zorkendorfer in a statement said he is taking a break from professional life to spend more time with his family, adding that he felt privileged to be part of Apple's design team. He noted that Apple is in good hands, pointing to the fresh blood that will work under CDO Jony Ive.
"We have incredible new designers -- a new generation," Zorkendorfer said. "What we've been able to do the last few decades will continue. The talent is there."
De Iuliis did not respond to a request for comment, while Hnig declined to issue a statement on his reported departure.
According to the report, the team is slowly disbanding after the success of products like iPhone afforded comfortable lives and relatively secure futures. In 2016, Danny Coster left for GoPro after 23 years of service, while prominent ID group figure Christopher Stringer departed in 2017 after 21 years on the job. Stringer is named on numerous breakthrough design patents, many of which involve aspects of iPhone.
As veterans depart, new hires from Nike, independent studios and design schools will be given more responsibility in the development of new product lines, the report said.
As noted by the WSJ, the turnover at Apple's core design team coincides with the company's newly placed emphasis on digital services. The team that dreamed up iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch designs under Ive most has experienced a slowdown in important new devices over the past few years. The most recent memorable releases to come out of Apple's ID group were AirPods in 2016 and HomePod in 2017.
Beyond evolutionary updates to existing product lines like iPhone, iPad and Mac, Apple's designers are rumored to be hard at work on a variety of devices. Likely to debut first is an augmented reality headset that could be unveiled in 2020.
Comments
This isn't like losing a bigwig in microprocessor design.
HOWEVER
IMO Apple’s designs are a bit stale. The iMac is essentially unchanged in ages. The Mac Mini is the same. The phone has gone through iterations but “thinner” isn’t really a groundbreaking design concept. I’m glad to see the team will be getting some new blood.
if caucasians gave us Apples stellar design, I’m all for more of that.
Not to the exclusion of orher ethnicities, but “caucasians” should t lose out on replacing other caucasians just because their skin is too similar. That whole bit is unfair and its been played out. Next.
Same with laptops and smartphones. The greatness of apples designs is that they still look New Years down the road. No need to change perfection just for the sake of change.
Take the statement at face value. They enjoyed working there, they did great work, Apple has a deep bench of solid designers, but they're old and rich now and have put decades in at Apple and are doing exactly what they should be doing: retiring after passing on their wisdom to the next batch.
The article should say 50 man-years, not 50 years.
besides, 49 years of experience might have been depleted and written off already.
iMac is excellent, and as classic as they come. It’s like the Coke bottle. As Apple has said, they don’t do change for change’s sake. Their design ethos simply isn’t meant to entertain bored forum-goers.
The biggest opportunity for breaking new design ground may come from the module Mac Pro. We are no longer encumbered with optical drives or even 2.5/3.5 drives. The latitude in which a designer has to create design that simply doesn't exist today is as wide as it has ever been.
Good riddance!