Veteran designer Christopher Stringer leaves Apple after 21 years

One of Apple's most prominent industrial designers, Christopher Stringer, is said to be leaving after spending 21 years with the company.

Whether Stringer is retiring or heading to another firm wasn't mentioned in a Monday report by The Information. Departures from the Apple design team are said to be rare however, as inside the company, the group allegedly has a reputation for corporate loyalty.

While at Apple, Stringer had a hand in designing a wide variety of iconic products, including the original iPhone and iPad. Indeed, in the course of an Apple court battle with Samsung over iPhone patents, Stringer took to the stand, presenting dozens of pictures of prototypes and physical models.

Apple's design staff has changed considerably since 2015, when its most famous designer — Jonathan Ive — was promoted to chief design officer, putting him in a more hands-off role. Richard Howarth stepped in to fill Ive's old position, while Alan Dye became head of user interface design.

A year ago, another veteran designer, Danny Coster, left Apple to join action camera maker GoPro. Coster had been with Apple for about 23 years, even working with Ive on the original iMac.

21 Comments

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jbdragon 10 Years · 2312 comments

About 7 years ago

I think what was a dumb move was leaving Apple to go to GoPro. A market that really have no place to go.

🎁

rogifan_new 9 Years · 4297 comments

About 7 years ago

sog35 said:

Good News IMO.

The current design team has been stale and the designs lack luster.

Look at the iPhone7. Lackluster. Massive bezels. Ugh.

The Watch is a decent design. But nothing that says elite and classy. IMO the non-symetrical design of the digital crown is ugly. Should be 4 or 2 symetrical buttons instead.

The Airpods are not what you would call beautiful design. iPad has been unchanged for 3 years. AppleTV is ugh, and the remote is HORRIBLE. Apple Pencil is nice but charging it in the iPad lightning jack? Or charging the Magic Mouse on its back?

Seriously WTF. Design the last 3 years has been terrible to say the least.

IMO, the only nice design was the Macbook and Macbook Pro.

Regardless its pretty obvious Apple needs to new blood in the design team that is hungry and willing to take risks.

This is such bullshit. The iPhone 7 didn't retain bezels because Jony Ive's design team is out of ideas. There's a fuck ton of engineering that goes into a decision like that, especially with something like the home button which you don't just throw away because the tech press decided smaller bezels are the in thing. The Magic Mouse isn't supposed to be plugged in while using it. A 2 hour charge lasts over a month. Charge the thing while you're asleep and don't worry about it. And in the time it takes to make a cup of coffee you can have it charged for a whole day. A complete non-issue imo. Same with the Apple Pencil. It comes with a charging adapter. Charging it via the iPad is for when you need a quick top off and as an iPad Pro and Pencil owner I love that I can just stick it in the lightening port when I need a quick charge.

🎁

williamh 13 Years · 1048 comments

About 7 years ago

jbdragon said:

I think what was a dumb move was leaving Apple to go to GoPro. A market that really have no place to go.

If Jobs were still here and cared, he might've said "do you want to sell porn cameras or do you want to change the world?"

🎄

StrangeDays 8 Years · 12987 comments

About 7 years ago

sog35 said:

Good News IMO.

The current design team has been stale and the designs lack luster.

Look at the iPhone7. Lackluster. Massive bezels. Ugh.

The Watch is a decent design. But nothing that says elite and classy. IMO the non-symetrical design of the digital crown is ugly. Should be 4 or 2 symetrical buttons instead.

The Airpods are not what you would call beautiful design. iPad has been unchanged for 3 years. AppleTV is ugh, and the remote is HORRIBLE. Apple Pencil is nice but charging it in the iPad lightning jack? Or charging the Magic Mouse on its back?

Seriously WTF. Design the last 3 years has been terrible to say the least.

IMO, the only nice design was the Macbook and Macbook Pro.

Regardless its pretty obvious Apple needs to new blood in the design team that is hungry and willing to take risks.

Don't quit your day job.