Apple has lost three members of its famous Jony Ive-led industrial design team, says a new report from The Wall Street Journal.
Three longtime industrial design team employees have either left or are leaving the team. Rico Zorkendorfer and Daniele De Iuliis both left Apple recently, and another team member, Julian Hönig, is leaving in the next few months.
Together, Zorkendorfer and De Iuliis have worked at Apple for a combined 35 years, while Hönig has been on the team for a decade.
The Cupertino firm’s industrial design team consists of around two dozen employees and is overseen by Jony Ive. The team is responsible for the look and feel of Apple products.
Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart, who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, says it makes sense for the teams membership to shift as Apple develops new products.
This group is all-powerful in Apple,” said Neil Cybart, who runs Above Avalon, a site dedicated to Apple analysis. “Industrial designers have the final say over the user experience found with Apple devices, and they really do work like a family in a way. No one would argue, though, that new blood is a bad thing.”
The three employees are leaving the industrial design team when iPhone sales are at an ebb and services continue to become more important to Apple.
One of the departed designers, Rico Zorkendorfer told The Wall Street Journal there are there are “incredible new designers” at Apple. “What we’ve been able to do the last few decades will continue.”
