Four Apple designers poached by Jony Ive for LoveFrom
Apple's former design chief, Jony Ive, has snapped up colleagues on his way out the door, with the total at least four since he departed in 2019.
The newest acquisition is Wan Si, a designer who spent 16 years with Apple working on Apple app icons, buttons, and home screens.
According to a source who spoke to The Information, Wan Si joins three other former employees, including Chris Wilson, Patch Kessler, and Jeff Tiller. Wan and Wilson were previously part of Apple's human interface team, dedicated to creating GUI elements such as icons and menus. Both share a design credit for the Apple Health app icon on iOS.
Tiller is a former Apple communications expert who managed administrative matters on Apple's design team. Kessler worked at Apple for ten years in product design and is known for his work on the Force Touch trackpad for the MacBook.
All four colleagues now list LoveFrom as their current employer on their LinkedIn profiles.
Ive departed from Apple in 2019 after nearly three decades with the Cupertino-based tech giant. He was involved in many iconic projects iMac to iPod to iPhone, and even Apple Park itself.
It was reported in July 2019 that he left after years of dissatisfaction and absenteeism. Ive reportedly disliked how the company focused on operations more than design and would regularly fail to attend his own design meetings
LoveFrom remains somewhat secretive. The company does not have a public-facing website, but it was discovered in October 2020 that Airbnb had hired LoveFrom to assist in the design of future products and services.
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The newest acquisition is Wan Si, a designer who spent 16 years with Apple working on Apple app icons, buttons, and home screens.
According to a source who spoke to The Information, Wan Si joins three other former employees, including Chris Wilson, Patch Kessler, and Jeff Tiller. Wan and Wilson were previously part of Apple's human interface team, dedicated to creating GUI elements such as icons and menus. Both share a design credit for the Apple Health app icon on iOS.
Tiller is a former Apple communications expert who managed administrative matters on Apple's design team. Kessler worked at Apple for ten years in product design and is known for his work on the Force Touch trackpad for the MacBook.
All four colleagues now list LoveFrom as their current employer on their LinkedIn profiles.
Ive departed from Apple in 2019 after nearly three decades with the Cupertino-based tech giant. He was involved in many iconic projects iMac to iPod to iPhone, and even Apple Park itself.
It was reported in July 2019 that he left after years of dissatisfaction and absenteeism. Ive reportedly disliked how the company focused on operations more than design and would regularly fail to attend his own design meetings
LoveFrom remains somewhat secretive. The company does not have a public-facing website, but it was discovered in October 2020 that Airbnb had hired LoveFrom to assist in the design of future products and services.
Follow all of WWDC 2021 with comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details on new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
in this case, it is clear that Ive is not competing with Apple, so no one was “poached.”
Just another sensationalized article to attract clicks.
Jony Ive working at his own company might be the best setup for both Apple and Ive because Ive gets to be in control of his own time and doesn't have to deal with the operational pressure at Apple and Apple can be as efficient as possible without the internal design studio working on other things.
Jony Ive was reportedly not happy about some of the finance people getting involved. The unfortunate part of Apple making so much revenue is it attracts greedy investors who are only ever interested in how much more money they can make. These changes happened around the time when Carl Icahn was stirring things up:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveschaefer/2014/01/23/icahn-lashes-out-at-apple-board-stake-climbs-to-3-6-billion/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-appoints-blackrock-founding-partner-212056338.html
They were proposing all sorts of things like Apple getting into different consumer electronics products and doing more buybacks and none of this was in the interests of making great products. Finance people don't care about this in the least, they'd happily invest in trash products if they sold by the boatload and it increased their numbers. The more that Apple can remove those types the better because they are so far out of alignment with what makes them a great company but maybe they can't do that.
Tim Cook is in the position of trying to maintain Steve Jobs' legacy as bet he can while keeping so many conflicting interests happy and he's done a spectacular job of it. So many great companies in history have been destroyed by people who only have an interest in money and if Apple allows them to fester, those people will do the same and move onto the next victim without a care in the world.
Jony Ive was also reported to have missed the interaction he got from Steve Jobs and didn't get the same interest from other executives. Perhaps that's why Marc Newson was brought in so he'd have a peer to confer with. I suspect the biggest problem is that Ive didn't have any more interesting things to work on at Apple. The products have evolved to a point where it's hard to improve on them, the main challenge is in new products and they don't make new products often.
In many ways it's a positive thing that Apple outgrows its biggest individual employees because it brings long-term stability. That's what Microsoft and Google managed to do and they don't have any idols that the company's long-term success depends on. Jony Ive became as much an idol for Apple as Steve Jobs and that's a significant risk for a company as big as Apple. They have to be able to operate without Ive, just as they have without Steve Jobs. As much as it would be nice to see Ive involved at Apple again, even a narrated video for the new Macbooks or something, it would be nice to see some of Ive's mentees stepping up into that role. Apple has to outlive them all and that's the only way it will happen.