Great tech innovators: Sir Jony Ive
Apple designer who made form as important as function
- Age: 48
- Company: Apple
- Best known for: iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
- Quote: ""Very often design is the most immediate way of defining what products become in people's minds."
In a list of current tech innovators it's hard to overstate the importance of Apple's British designer Sir Jony Ive.
There are plenty of brilliant and talented engineers in Cupertino that disprove any mutterings about a lack of innovation in Apple, but it is perhaps Ive's insistence on a marriage between function and form that remains key to making big new products not only sell like hot cakes, but exert such an influence across the tech world.
From the smartwatch sector to his greatest hits - the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod - the 48-year-old Ive has played a huge role in moving our tech lives from beige boxes to sleek and sexy designs.
Ive started his career in Hoxton Square at a design company called Tangerine, but after being courted for years by Apple was brought over to work on projects like the second gen Apple Newton.
It was the iMac that began to bring the attention that Ive deserved, and after Steve Jobs' sad death, the Chingford-born designer's influence at Apple remains critical in all of its future projects.
- In partnership with Microsoft, powered by the HP Spectre 360
Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content. After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.