The renowned Apple design team has experienced significant leadership changes since the departure of Jony Ive. With COO Jeff Williams announcing his retirement, the design team will soon report directly to CEO Tim Cook. While Cook is known for his expertise in supply chain strategy, he does not have a reputation for industrial or software design. By the end of 2025, as Williams retires, the design team will have to adapt to this new leadership structure.
Williams has been overseeing design since Scott Forstall was controversially ousted after the troubled launch of Apple Maps in 2012. Following Forstall’s exit, Jony Ive took over as the Senior Vice President of Design, later becoming the Chief Design Officer in 2015 as Apple sought to retain him. Ive left Apple in 2019, leaving a void in the design leadership. After his departure, Evans Hankey stepped in as Vice President of Industrial Design but left the company in 2023, resulting in another leadership gap.
In the interim, the design team has reported directly to Williams while waiting for a permanent replacement. With Williams stepping down, the uncertainty surrounding the future of the design team remains. It is unclear how much influence he held over hardware design and how much Cook will exert going forward. Despite the leadership upheaval, Apple’s industrial design has thrived over the last five years.
Notable releases such as the iPad Pro, the new MacBook Pro, and dynamic features like Dynamic Island highlight this success. As Apple’s design processes often take years to implement, it is likely that we won’t see Cook’s influence on new products for some time. The company seems to have a solid product pipeline in place and might look to announce a new design head soon, though no plans have been made public. In the meantime, the current design leadership will likely maintain momentum during this transition.
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