Apple's Sir Jony Ive gets top CBBC accolade, gives a peek into Apple's design facilities

Head Apple designer Sir Jony Ive has received yet another award, with a presenter from Children's BBC show Blue Peter stopping by to hand him the show's highest honor. In the process, the show gave viewers a rare peek behind the scenes of Apple's design and fabrication process.

Interviewed by presenter Barney Harwood, Ive — a lifelong Blue Peter fan — recalled fond memories of the show, including how it demonstrated ways to breathe new life into objects that would otherwise be thrown away. Harwood went on to show Ive hand-drawn designs from assorted children, as well as thank-you videos from kids on iPad minis.

When Harwood handed him the show's gold Blue Peter badge, a visibly affected Ive said the honor was "absolutely incredible."

Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television program, on the air for 55 years and more than 4,700 episodes. The show introduced the Blue Peter badge in 1963, and since then has given out about 1,000 of them. Sir Jonathan joins other noted badge recipients including David Beckham, JK Rowling, Tom Daley, Damian Hirst, and The Queen.

Ive then took Harwood to receive his own surprise: a reproduction of the Blue Peter badge, carved from a single piece of aluminum. At the time, a CNC machine was in the process of carving out the design, which Ive said would take about 10 hours to finish. In the tradition of the show, though, Ive presented Harwood with a version they had crafted previously.

As Apple's Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Ive has been the lead designer behind the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, and iPad mini. Ive has received multiple awards and honors over the course of his career, being featured in exhibitions, receiving knighthood from the British crown, and getting virtual carte blanche in his dealings at Apple. He is currently said to be working to refine the interfaces of both iOS and OS X.

The Blue Peter gadget special featuring Sir Jonathan Ive will air on CBBC, Saturday February 16 at 10am.