Apple's low-key sultan of style

The 'DNA' of all-American Apple is Jonathan Ive, a quiet Briton who designed the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

With the retirement of the Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, the pressure now falls on chief designer Jonathan Ive to churn out successful products without Apple's technology visionary. Paul SShow more

Steve Jobs turned Apple into the world's richest technology company after it faced near-bankruptcy in the mid-1990s.

Fact Box: The creations of Jonathan Ive

iMac The iMac was Jonathan Ive's first personal computer range. The case was made of translucent coloured plastic and was rounded. The iMac was also the first computer to exclusively offer USB ports as standard.

iPod A number of MP3 players existed when Apple unveiled its music player to the world, but what made the original iPod such a dominant device was its slick design and scroll wheel.

iPhone The iPhone was not the first smartphone on the market, but, again, Mr Ive's landmark design of the product made it highly attractive and sought after.

iPad The iPad's slick design and simple user interface has ensured its market dominance. The iPad has become an inspiration for other computer makers to create their own tablets.

But the co-founder and former chief executive of the California-based giant could not have achieved that amazing turnaround without the help of his senior style guru, Jonathan Ive, a quiet Briton who designed the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Mr Ive, 44, grew up in Essex outside London before he went on to become senior vice president of industrial design at Apple in 1997.

Since then, he has been the creative force behind the company's popular products, known for their rounded corners, minimalist design and slick surfaces.

Clive Grinyer, the director of customer experience in Europe at Cisco, was Mr Ive's partner at the London design consultancy Tangerine and gives a refreshing insight into Apple's sultan of style.

"Jonathan is the DNA of the company," says Mr Grinyer. "He's very humble, shy and extremely trustworthy, a very, very nice guy."

Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design for New York's Museum of Modern Art, has also known Mr Ive for many years.

"He's a talented designer, but I think that also what is amazing about him is that he is a team player," Ms Antonelli says. "He's loyal and also very committed to making sure that things come together well."

Mr Ive's focus, talent and ability to work well with others resulted in the all-in-one iMac desktop range, his first design at Apple, shaking up the PC market in 1998.

The candy-coloured and bulbous iMac looked radically different from other brands, which at the time were box-like grey and black.

Apple sold 150,000 iMacs in the first weekend of its launch and 800,000 by the end of that year.

The iMac was followed by other design icons such as the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad last year. About 300 million iPods will probably have been sold by the end of this year since the first model was rolled out.

More than a 100 million iPhones have been sold, according to Mr Jobs, while iPad sales last year totalled US$9.5 billion (Dh34.89bn).

This has helped Apple grab a 90 per cent share of the tablet market - a glowing endorsement of Mr Ive's design.

Another crucial part of the company's success has been the App Store for the iPhone range. Again, Mr Ive has played a major role as his smartphone designs have made it easy for third-party developers to create applications.

"Because of the control that Apple has placed over its products, you've only got a few phones that you're designing for," says Kevin Brennan, an iPhone app developer based in Canada. "And they all have fairly similar specs, so you know what your app is going to look like."

But long before Mr Ive sketched out his revolutionary products, he studied design at Newcastle Polytechnic, which is now Northumbria University, in the north-east of England.

After completing his course, he co-founded the London design company Tangerine with Mr Grinyer, where the pair produced a range of products including combs and power tools.

In the end, "Jony", as his friends call him, became frustrated with the style scene in the UK and started to look to the US for more ground-breaking opportunities.

"I think in many ways it was a very frustrating time to be a product designer in the UK," says Mr Grinyer. "There wasn't a huge amount of work, and the culture was very much unappreciated, to be honest. And Jonathan felt that very keenly.

"I think it is slightly damning that there was not a [UK] company able to support Jonathan as well as Apple [did]."

Mr Ive started working for Apple while he was still at Tangerine, but in 1992 he was hired full-time for the Cupertino City corporation by Robert Brunner, Apple's design chief at the time.

After making an impressive start, he quickly worked his way up to become the creative studio manager and helped build the design team during a period in which Apple struggled to innovate.

In 1996, Mr Brunner left and suggested that Mr Ive should take over his job, even though he was only 29. When Mr Jobs returned from an 11-year exile from the company and became interim chief executive a year later, he named Mr Ive as senior vice president of industrial design.

With Mr Jobs again at the helm and Mr Ive as his style guru, Apple refocused on polished products, starting with the iMac, which ushered in a period of staggering growth for the company.

Now that Mr Jobs has stepped down, Mr Ive's working relationship with Tim Cook, the new chief executive, will be vital to the company sustaining its creative leadership in the technology industry.

"The relationship between Jonathan and Steve Jobs and their role in actually delivering such amazing sets of products is absolutely historical and has never been seen before," says Mr Grinyer. "I think Jonathan's role is hugely important, and I think people make the mistake that he is only the industrial designer.

"His creative influence goes right across the whole experience of something like the iPhone - the software as well as the hardware."