Ex-Apple Design Chief Jony Ive Talks About Leaving The Company And Working With Steve Jobs

Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 but his imprint is still widely visible in the products from the company, even though the design language has steadily moved towards an industrial layout. But Ive has mostly remained silent since his departure from Apple, but the new podcast has given us insights into his decision, how he felt working on Steve Jobs and his own design inspiration.

So, why did Ive leave the company, and did the demise of Jobs have anything to do with his decision? He says that leaving Apple was one of the toughest decisions but we wanted to move to the next chapter in his life, which is a fair way to suggest that he wanted to do different things beyond Apple in his career.

“I mean, it’s a very natural thing, isn’t it, that there are chapters and leaving Apple was in some senses, you know, a terribly hard thing to do because I did and I do love the company so, so hugely,” he was quoted saying in the podcast.

Ive started his own called LoveFrom after leaving Apple, and his former company was one of his client when he set up the business. Talking about Jobs, Ive had nothing but admiration and respect for his former boss, who he claims was instrumental in letting him work on breakthrough designs and giving him the free hand to develop ideas that he was barely able to describe himself. “Here was somebody who could almost without thought, it made it appear effortless to describe really complex feelings and perceptions of ideas and opportunities,” he adds.

He even talked about Jobs’ fascination to see him working and spend time in the studio looking at the products he was working on over the years. And yes, Ive said he remembers Jobs every day, and there’s not a day when he is not aware of his loss. He is also grateful for the time Jobs spent with him and what he learned from the Apple co-founder.

Ive’s company has been reportedly in talks with OpenAI about developing an AI-powered hardware but we haven’t heard much about it since the news came out last year.