Jony Ive is tech giant's new Chief Design Officer

Apple’s inspirational designer, Jony Ive, will be assuming a new position as Chief Design Officer at the company.

The move will see him still hold control over industrial design and user interface divisions at Apple, but will be taking a step back from day-to-day operations.

The news was revealed in a profile of Ive written by Stephen Fry for The Telegraph. Hardware design will now be overseen on a daily basis by Richard Howarth, while software will be UI designer Alan Dye.

Both who are long-time employees of Apple. Until recently, Ive held the role of Senior Vice President of Design. Ive explained to Fry why we shouldn’t worry about his move:

“Those two are as good as it gets. Richard was lead on the iPhone from the start. He saw it all the way through from prototypes to the first model we released. Alan has a genius for human interface design. So much of the Apple Watch’s operating system came from him.”

The reshuffle will, free Ive “up from some of the administrative and management work” in his own words.

Fry explains in his piece that it will allow him to travel more and “think more freely”; seemingly one of his first projects will be to spend some time working on Apple Stores around the world.