Jony Ive facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Sir Jony Ive KBE RDI
Ive at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2010
Born	Jonathan Paul Ive (1967-02-27) 27 February 1967 (age 58) Chingford, London, England
Citizenship	United Kingdom United States (since 2012)
Education	Newcastle Polytechnic (BA)
Occupation	Industrial designer
Known for	Former Chief Design Officer at Apple Inc. Co-designer of the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods and iOS 7 to iOS 13
Spouse(s)	Heather Pegg (m. 1987)
Children	2
Awards	List of awards and nominations


Chancellor of the Royal College of Art
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 July 2017
Preceded by	James Dyson (as Provost)

Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a famous British-American designer. He is best known for his amazing work at Apple Inc.. At Apple, he was the senior vice president of industrial design and later the chief design officer.

Jony Ive is also the founder of LoveFrom. This is a creative company that works with big brands like Ferrari, Airbnb, and OpenAI. Since 2017, he has been the head of the Royal College of Art in London. He also became a trustee of the British Museum in June 2025.

Ive joined Apple in September 1992. He became a senior vice president in the late 1990s after Steve Jobs returned to the company. From 2015 until he left in July 2019, he was Apple's Chief Design Officer. Working closely with Steve Jobs, Ive helped design many popular products. These include the Apple Watch, iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. He also helped design the look of Apple's mobile software, iOS.

Early life and education
Career
Influences
Personal life
- Automobiles
Charity work and public service
Honours and awards
See also

Early life and education

Jonathan Paul Ive was born on 27 February 1967 in Chingford, London, England. His father, Michael Ive, was a silversmith and a teacher. His grandfather was an engineer. When he was in secondary school, he found out he had dyslexia.

Ive became interested in design because he loved cars as a teenager. He studied industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic. There, he learned about a design style called Bauhaus. This style focuses on including only what is truly needed in a design. You can see this simple, clear style in his work at Apple. Some of his early designs, like a telephone and a hearing aid, were shown in the Design Museum in London. He finished his degree in 1989.

Career

Ive's designs won awards while he was at Polytechnic. These awards gave him money and travel expenses for a trip to the United States. He visited San Francisco and met other designers. After returning to England, he worked at a design company called Roberts Weaver Group.

Working at Tangerine

After a year, Ive joined a design company in London called Tangerine. He designed many different products there. These included microwave ovens, toilets, drills, and toothbrushes. He worked for clients like LG and Ideal Standard. However, he became unhappy when companies rejected his modern designs. They often said his ideas were too expensive or looked too new.

From 1990 to 1992, Apple tried to hire Ive. During this time, Apple became a client of Tangerine. Ive worked on a project for Apple that looked into the future of portable computers. This work helped set the stage for the PowerBook.

Designing at Apple

Apple Newton MessagePad, released in 1993. Ive designed the smaller models later.
The first iPod, introduced in 2001.
A drawing of the first iPhone, released in 2007. Its shape is credited to Ive.
Ive's team started designing an iPad-like device before the iPhone. The iPad was first released in 2010.

Ive officially joined Apple as a full-time employee in September 1992. At first, he was not sure about moving from the UK to the US. His first big project at Apple was for the second version of the Newton and the MessagePad 110. In the early 1990s, Apple did not focus much on design, which made Ive think about leaving.

Steve Jobs, who had left Apple in 1985, was returning to the company. He wanted Ive to help lead Apple in a new direction. Ive's boss at the time convinced him to stay. He told Ive that Apple was "going to make history" under Jobs in 1996.

The original 1998 iMac G3. Ive designed its clear plastic case.

Ive became the senior vice president of industrial design in 1997. He led the team that designed most of Apple's important hardware products. Ive's first big project in this role was the iMac, which came out in 1998. He designed its clear plastic case. The iMac helped lead the way for many other designs, like the iPod, and later the iPhone and iPad.

Ive had his own design office at Apple in the early 2000s. He oversaw his special design team there. Only his core team, about 15 people from different countries, and top Apple executives were allowed in. This office held all the new ideas and prototypes the team was working on.

Ive led the design of the Apple Watch starting in early 2012. The product was released in April 2015. It became the best-selling wearable device in the world. By December 2022, about 115 million people were wearing one. Ive said that the Apple Watch made technology "more personal and more accessible."

Ive played a key role in designing Apple Park (pictured), which opened in 2017.

In October 2012, Apple announced that Ive would also lead the design of the "Human Interface" (how people use software). In 2013, with the release of iOS 7, his title changed to senior vice president of design. On 26 May 2015, Apple promoted Ive to chief design officer (CDO). This was one of the highest positions at Apple. On 27 June 2019, Apple announced that Ive would leave the company after 27 years.

His friendship with Steve Jobs

Ive described his close relationship with Steve Jobs in 2014. He said that when they looked at objects, they saw and understood them in the same way. They would ask the same questions and be curious about the same things.

Steve Jobs called Ive his "spiritual partner at Apple." Jobs said that Ive made a huge difference at Apple and in the world. He described Ive as very intelligent and someone who understood business and marketing. Jobs said that Ive understood Apple's core mission better than anyone. He added that he and Jony thought up most products together. Ive understood both the big picture and the tiny details of each product. Jobs said Ive had more power at Apple than anyone else except himself.

Jobs's and Ive's offices at Apple's headquarters were connected by a covered walkway. Ive gave a speech at Jobs's memorial services in 2011.

Royal College of Art

Ive received an honorary degree from the Royal College of Art (RCA) in 2009. On 25 May 2017, Ive was appointed Chancellor of the RCA in London. He started this role on 1 July 2017. In this position, he leads the college as an academic administrator for a five-year term. Ive began leading meetings and giving out degrees in the summer of 2017. He said he was excited to have a formal relationship with the RCA. He noted the college's big influence on many artists and designers he admired. Ive was still the chancellor in January 2023.

LoveFrom

In June 2019, Ive announced he was starting his own company called LoveFrom. He started it with fellow designer Marc Newson. LoveFrom is a private company, but in October 2021, it launched a simple website.

When LoveFrom started in 2019, Apple was one of its first clients. However, in July 2022, the agreement with Apple ended. This also ended Ive's direct relationship with Apple.

LoveFrom works with several brands, including Ferrari and Airbnb. Ive is good friends with Airbnb's chief executive, Brian Chesky. Ive has also created designs for Charles III, including for the coronation in 2023.

In 2023, Ive led the design of a new foldable red nose for Comic Relief. In the same year, LoveFrom started its own scholarship program. This program helps designers from all backgrounds by covering their full tuition at certain art colleges.

In September 2024, LoveFrom announced a new clothing collection with Moncler. In the same month, the company showed off a new logo. The new logo includes a bear, which is LoveFrom’s mascot named Montgomery. It is named after Montgomery Street in San Francisco, where the company is based.

In September 2024, New York Times reported that LoveFrom was working with OpenAI. They were developing an artificial intelligence hardware device. In May 2025, it was announced that OpenAI would buy Ive’s AI company, called io. This deal valued io at $6.5 billion. Ive founded io in 2024 with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan. As part of the deal, OpenAI became a customer of LoveFrom. Ive and LoveFrom took on creative and design roles across all of OpenAI’s work. LoveFrom remained an independent company with other customers. On 9 July 2025, OpenAI and io announced that their merger was complete.

British Museum

In June 2025, Ive was appointed a trustee of the British Museum. Ive said he was excited to work with the museum's team. He looked forward to supporting their plans for big changes.

Influences

An Apple iPod next to a 1958 Braun T3 transistor radio.

The work of Dieter Rams greatly influenced Jony Ive. Rams was the chief designer for Braun from 1961 to 1995. In a 2009 film, Rams said that Apple is one of the few companies that design products following his "ten principles of good design." Ive also wrote an essay for a book about Rams in 2011.

Ive was also influenced by the Bauhaus design tradition. This style came from Germany in the 1920s. It is known for ideas like "form follows function" (meaning a design's shape should be based on what it does) and "less is more" (meaning simplicity is best). This design style was also used by the car brand Audi in the 1980s, which also influenced Ive's designs.

Personal life

Jony Ive met his future wife, Heather Pegg, in 1987 while they were in secondary school. They have two sons. His family lives in San Francisco, California. Their home was bought for US$17 million in 2012. While working at Apple, Ive drove an hour and a half each way from San Francisco to Cupertino every day. Ive also owns a house in the Cotswolds in England.

Ive is known for living a quiet, private life. He avoids being in the public eye. In March 2025, he was a guest on a radio show called Desert Island Discs.

Automobiles

Since he was young, Ive has loved cars and automotive design. When he was in university, he drove a Fiat 500. He often goes to car shows and events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed. There, he helps judge competitions.

It has been reported that Ive likes carmakers that were once British, such as Aston Martin, Bentley, and Land Rover. He has been linked to owning several luxury cars.

Charity work and public service

A sign for the 2013 Jony and Marc's (Red) Auction in Hong Kong.

Ive has designed products for charity. These include a special Leica camera that sold for a world record price at auction. He also designed a Jaeger-LeCoultre sports watch for an HIV/AIDS charity. At this auction, Ive and fellow designer Marc Newson raised $13 million for Bono's Product Red charity. With matching funds, the total raised was $46 million.

In 2023, Ive redesigned the Red Nose. This is the symbol of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day, which raises money for charity. He also designed the emblem for the coronation of Charles III. This emblem features a rose, thistle, daffodil, and shamrock. These are traditional symbols for the four parts of the United Kingdom. Ive said the design was inspired by King Charles's love for nature.

Honours and awards

Throughout his career, Jony Ive has received many awards for his work. In the United Kingdom, he has been named a Royal Designer for Industry (RDI). He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (HonFREng). He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006. In 2012, he became a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE).

He has also received honorary degrees from several universities. In 2004, a BBC poll of cultural writers named him the "Most Influential Person on British Culture."