If your mornings are set in motion by the sharp sonics of your iPhone’s alarm, your right thumb has retained the muscle memory from the period in which it ceaselessly caressed the halo-like scroll wheel of an iPod (perhaps the second most important wheel in history) and you often find yourself mentally undressing your MacBook’s packaging in the Uber back from the Apple store, then you are probably accustomed to the visual lexicon of Sir Jony Ive.

Ive, the one-time lead designer at Apple, is widely hailed as the custodian of the most recognisable desktop and pocketable devices of our time – from the 1998 iMac to several generations of the iPod, iPhone and 

 – and late last month it was announced that the 53-year-old will now offer his creative services to 

After having quit the Cupertino giant in 2019 to open his own creative agency, LoveFrom, Ive is now set “to design the next generation of Airbnb products and services”, which will include an overhaul of its website and app. An upgrade to the current rating system, which screens guests and properties, will be one of the first tasks in the Brit’s in tray, according to the BBC.

News of the “special collaboration” between Airbnb and LoveFrom was first revealed in a blogpost by the holiday rental platform’s chief exec, Brian Chesky, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, and a long-term friend of Ive. “We each believe not only in making objects and interfaces, but in crafting services and experiences,” Chesky wrote. “We’ve seen how design can facilitate trust and enable more human connection, something people are desperate for during an unprecedented time of loneliness and disconnection. We have made the decision to work together through a multi-year relationship.”

 – who viewed Ive as his “spiritual partner” – is often synonymous with the Apple name, the general public often fail to recognise that it was the British creative who played an integral role in pioneering the tech company’s less-is-more aesthetic. (Shortly following the news of Ive’s departure, Apple’s stock dropped by around 1% in after-hours trading.)

Born in Chingford, in north-east London, Ive studied industrial design at Newcastle Polytechnic, and it was there he first conceived a concept for a video phone. Following graduation, he cut his teeth at London design consultancy Tangerine, where he not only worked on projects for LG and bathroom firm Ideal Standard, but also contributed to the original Apple PowerBook 140, which debuted in 1991. Ive eventually became a full-time Apple employee in 1992, joining its industrial design group, and rose among the ranks to lead the design team, from 1996 to 2019, when he ended his 27-year-long tenure as chief design officer.

His first smash hit – the iconic 1998 iMac, whose ‘Bondi Blue’ translucent plastic casing broke away from the market’s uninspiring grey boxes – was later joined by a conveyor belt of other landmark products, including the iPod (2001), the iPhone (2007) and the Apple Watch (2015). Ive’s fingerprints can also be found beyond the sphere of hardware design, having lent his hand in producing iOS 7, Apple’s 2013 operating system. Out went the skeuomorphism-style icons and in came the flatter, cleaner user interface to which we are accustomed today.

The designer was also a central figure in Apple’s architectural ventures, collaborating with Foster + Partners on Apple Park – the $5 billion spacecraft-style HQ – and assisting Angela Ahrendts, the former retail chief, with updating the aesthetic and feel of its physical stores, a task that included further refining product packaging. “Don’t mess with the tables,” Ive also advised.

The 1998 iMac. Image courtesy Heinz Nixdorf MuseumForum/Jan Braun


Personal projects, such as a diamond ring that auctioned for $250,000, can also be found in Ive’s brick-thick portfolio. In May 2012, he was knighted for his services to design and enterprise. Seven years later, immediately following his exit from Apple, he launched LoveFrom with Marc Newson, a creative who also contributed to the development of the Apple Watch.

Ive’s resume is there for all to see – just gaze slightly northwards from this article and ogle the glossy, bezel-less design of your iPhone – and for Airbnb to secure the services of one of tech’s most seminal figures seems to be a masterstroke. But why was he recruited by Chesky? Well, put simply, Airbnb is due a serious spruce up.

The ride hasn’t been easy for the lodgings platform lately with travel continuing to see a massive downturn due to the pandemic. Its revenue for 2020 is forecasted to be less than half of what it made last year and, as a result of its flustering performance, the company announced in May that it was laying off a quarter of its workforce. It also stated that efforts going into newer projects would either be paused or minimised. “We are collectively living through the most harrowing crisis of our lifetime, and as it began to unfold, global travel came to a standstill,” Chesky said in an internal memo at the time.

Apple Park in Cupertino. Image courtesy of Gregory Varnum.


For a firm that has consistently viewed design as a way to separate itself from the rest of the pack (it has its own-brand typeface and often makes noise when its app and site undergo stylistic changes), a makeover would be a natural way to help encourage people to travel once again. And even though it remains unclear whether Ive’s faculty will be used for overhauling current products (Samara, Airbnb’s in-house multidisciplinary studio, works on projects such as house design) or developing new ones, one would safely assume that he – a creative juggernaut who compressed the awesome powers of the computer into a flatscreen with a depth of only a few inches – would be able to offer sound design solutions, wherever they are deployed.

Moreover, despite being proud of its visuals, Airbnb has been mocked for previous aesthetics. Its signature ‘Belo’ logo, which was conceived by the London-based DesignStudio and revealed in 2014, was ridiculed over social media as it drew comparisons to sexual organs, with several users assimilating the emblem into pornographic illustrations. Would Ive circumvent such phallic-related gaffes? Probably.

Recruiting Ive can also be seen as an attempt by Airbnb to refresh its PR image, as many now fear that its services not only bring disruptive parties and behaviour to major towns and cities, but also have a negative impact on local housing supplies. “Short term lets are having a terrible impact. They are hollowing out communities,” said Councillor Kate Campbell (SNP), housing convenor at City of Edinburgh Council.

Ive certainly has some experience in reviving flailing enterprises. Although hard to imagine now, the Brit joined Apple during its economic slump in the early-to-mid 1990s, a period which saw thousands of job cuts within the organisation. It was through his creations, catalysed by the breakthrough 1998 computer, that the Cupertino enterprise finally saw its products gain desirability once again – a notion which triggered a paradigm shift and two decades of success that have gone unrivalled in Silicon Valley history.

AirBnB&#8217;s headquarters. Image courtesy of Creative Commons/Dllu


, Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, praised Ive’s role in giving new life to the firm: “The work on the original iMac was sort of the point at which people began to pay attention to Apple again on something other than how badly economically the company was doing.”

Airbnb’s attempt at polishing its reputation must also be attributed to its alleged goal of floating on the stock market by December. Despite initial plans being shelved earlier this year, the San Fran firm filed confidential documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission in August, although it is yet to announce any details regarding an expected price or timeframe. So, until more is revealed about Airbnb going public, the question remains whether or not Ive will manage to reverse the company’s fortunes.

It’s hard to say. Shaping the course of the pandemic, and with it the possibility of travel, is beyond one individual’s limits – even for the creative whose mastery of minimalism sits on a level with Goya’s ability to tease beauty from death. But, having metamorphosed a computer mouse into a slick white pebble – a device whose curvaceous, organic form looks as though it simply oozed out from its mother Mac – Apple’s one-time design chief certainly seems the right man to resuscitate yet another West Coast juggernaut.

Become a Gentleman’s Journal member. Find out more 

Nearly all customers of FTX will allegedly get their money back, plus interest. How is that possible?

What next for Sam Bankman-Fried? 

The best private members' clubs in New York