Famous Apple whistleblower Mark Gurman recently wrote that Bart Andre, the longest serving senior industrial designer at Apple, is about to resign, marking the almost complete dissolution of the team led by former well-known Apple designer Jony Ive.
Gurman wrote that Andre joined Apple with Eve in 1992, earlier than Steve Jobs' second entry into the palace. As Ive's senior deputy, Andre helped create the aesthetics of all the products released by Apple over the past thirty years, making him one of the employees holding the most patents from Apple.
After Eve left office, he also helped the company maintain the operation of the design team. Christopher Stringer, who used to work with Andre at Apple and now runs the audio company Syng, commented, "His mark on Apple products is indelible, and I always see his figure in the details of the products."
But according to insiders, the designer who has been working at Apple for over 30 years told colleagues that he is about to retire. This is undoubtedly another huge blow for Apple. Around the end of last year, top designers Colin Burns, Shota Aoyagi, and Peter Russell Clarke announced their departure.
According to Gulman, in the past decade or so, Ive's core design team has had about two dozen designers, or around 24 people. After Ive left Apple in 2019, the team began to continuously decline, and many people joined LoveFrom, a design company founded by Ive. Two years ago, the company began collaborating with Apple.
Previously, it was reported that Sam Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence research company OpenAI, has planned to collaborate with Ive's LoveFrom to develop hardware devices for consumers, and they also hope to obtain over $1 billion in financing from SoftBank.
Returning to Apple, citing the departure of designers such as Andre, insiders explained that last year Apple's Chief Operating Officer, Jeff Williams, began directly managing the industrial design team, leading to dissatisfaction among some employees who found it difficult to accept the management of this design and innovation department by operations personnel.
The employees of the design team also stated that the cost reduction measures have exacerbated the instability in the department, as Ive has led some exploratory projects that may not immediately yield returns and are now strictly controlled.
Previously, Apple CEO Cook mentioned that Apple already has a very detailed succession plan, and Williams is considered one of the popular candidates by the outside world.