Roger Fingas
Apple's chief design officer, Jonathan Ive, was one of nine "distinguished" people to receive an honorary doctorate on Wednesday from the University of Oxford.
Ive became a Doctor of Science during the university's annual Encaenia ceremony, according to the official Oxford website. Other notable figures receiving degrees included director Pedro Almodóvar, economics professor Paul Krugman, and composer Arvo Pärt.
Jony Ive has picked up numerous awards over the years, including several from British organizations like the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Academy of Engineering. At the latter group, he is also an Honorary Fellow.
For years Ive has been responsible for design work on many Apple product lines, ranging from iPods and iPhones through to Macs and the Apple Watch.
As chief design officer Ive has stepped back from some day-to-day involvement in design work, although he is still thought to be playing an important role in things like the company's electric car project. That initiative is effectively an open secret, even if no shipping vehicle is expected to arrive until at least 2019 or 2020.
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15 Comments
Oh, boy, now there's nothing in the way of Jonathan Ive's tendency to just make everything thinner.
Everyone gives Jony Ive a lot of crap, but I have to admit he does have nice designs for products and things are pretty well thought out. Sure, its not for everyone but you're never going to make everyone happy with a design of anything. Someone may like the new Honda Civic's design, and just and many others can think its ugly as sin. I think the products he's design are for the most part exceptional and far better than anything else on the market today. There's a reason why other companies copy design cues from Apple into their own products. Its not just coincidence.
When Jony does leave Apple, I'd like to see what Apple does with both its OS UI and its hardware designs (for better or worse).
Honorary degrees now from both Oxford and Cambridge (as well as a KBE). With his schooling at Chingford Foundation School and an undergraduate degree from Newcastle Polytechnic, it's time for Sir Johny to flick the birdie at those Oxbridge stilts!
Not too many lads went from Newcastle Poly and ended up with a PhD from Oxford :)