Apple's industrial design team loses three employees

Apple's renowned team of industrial designers, working under the leadership of Apple's chief designer, Jony Ive, is changing, according to a new report by Apple The Wall Street Journal.

Three long-standing employees of the industrial design team leave the team. Rico Zorkendorfer and Daniele De Iuliis have recently left Apple and another member of the team, Julian Hönig, will leave in the next few months. Together, Zorkendorfer and De Iuliis have been working at Apple for 35 years, while Hönig has been part of the team for a decade.

Zorkendorfer said The Wall Street Journal that he decided to leave Apple to spend time with his family, while the other two refused to comment.

Apple's industrial design team is made up of about two dozen employees and is directly supervised by Jony Ive. These employees are responsible for the appearance of Apple products, including the iPhone.

According to Neil Cybart, an analyst with Above Avalon, who spoke with The Wall Street JournalIt is "logical" that the team's composition evolves, with Apple adopting new products in areas such as augmented reality and autonomous vehicles. The industrial design team is described as "almighty" by Apple.

This group is all-powerful at Apple, "said Neil Cybart, who runs Above Avalon, a site dedicated to Apple analysis. Industrial designers have the last word on the user experience of Apple devices and they really work like a family. in a sense. Nobody will say, however, that new blood is a bad thing. "

The three members of the industrial design team are leaving the company at a time when iPhone sales have slowed and services are becoming more important than ever for Apple. Apple has announced a host of new services, including Apple News +, Apple Arcade, Apple Card and Apple TV +.

Only a few members of the industrial design team have left in the last decade, but more frequent departures have occurred in recent years. Danny Coster left in 2016 to join GoPro and Christopher Stringer in 2017 and has launched an audio startup currently in stealth mode.

According to one of the designers who left the team, Zorkendorfer, there are "incredible new designers" at Apple. "What we have been able to do in the last few decades will continue," he said. The Wall Street Journal.