Mikey Campbell
Apple's industrial design group has lost another employee, as 8-year veteran Miklu Silvanto was recently hired away by Airbnb to contribute to a project launched by the home rental giant's Samara design studio.
Silvanto left Apple in April to lead the industrial and interaction design team at Backyard, an initiative tasked with investigating new and novel ways to design, build and share homes, reports Dezeen.
According to the minimalist Backyard website, the project seeks to "prototype new ways that homes can be built and shared, guided by an ambition to realize more humanistic, future-oriented, and waste-conscious design." The team includes industrial designers, interaction designers, architects, roboticists, mechanical and hardware engineers, material specialists and policy experts, Samara says.
"Samara has a huge ambition that will be very difficult to carry out, but it's exactly the kind of big, crazy gamble that these kinds of companies should be taking," Silvanto said in a statement to Dezeen. "The nature of the work and the creative approach we're taking make me optimistic for the future."
Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia hired Silvanto to the Backyard team. The initiative was launched in 2018 as an offshoot of Samara, Airbnb's three-year-old in-house design studio.
Silvanto, a 38-year-old graduate of the Royal College of Art, worked in Apple's ID group under CDO Jony Ive from 2011 to April of this year, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Apple, the designer co-founded design agency Aivan in 2007.
Silvanto is credited on a number of Apple design patents covering AirPods, Apple Watch, iPhone and a variety of accessories, among other key hardware.
Today's report comes on the heels of news that the small ID group is experiencing its most significant employee turnover in years. Last week, it was reported that three core members of the design team — Rico Zorkendorfer, Daniele De Iuliis and Julian Hnig — have departed or plan to depart the company in the near future, with their positions to be filled by young recruits.
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19 Comments
I’m worried about the Mac Pro now...
I'm not worried at all but instead rather pleased. Still waiting for Ive to go and somebody to replace him to not only kick start a reasonably priced, user-upgradable Mac Pro but also to bring a good keyboard and the SD card slot to the MacBook Pro.
There once was a time I had pretty much nothing at all negative to say about my beloved Apple. But designs in recent years put even more emphasis on form over function that ever before, so much so that practicality and durability has been thrown out the window. Apple's saving grace as far as the Mac is concerned is the iMac, which still has USB-A and the SD Card slot, in addition to USB-C and modern tech. The 15" MBP is big enough to accommodate all that, as is the forthcoming (or so we're told) 16" MBP. If the 16" turns out to be another part-bastardized 15" MBP with butterfly keyboard, it's only more proof that Apple has zero interest in its loyal Mac fans. And that, my friends, is why I am happy to see many more of the Apple design team go. They may be doing well as far as iOS devices are concerned (especially the iPad), but my eye is on the Mac.
When Apple introduced the iPhone roughly ten years ago they had a workforce of roundabout 30k. Today, they have grown to > 130k people.
First of all, while both being significantly larger than a Mom and Pop store, there is still a big difference running a company and in particular its culture between 30 and 130 k people. In other words, those “rebel groups” responsible for hissing pirate flags, or naming projects “butt-headed-astronomer”, or sounds “sosumi” largely disappear completely and is replaced by more streamlining and bureaucracy. With its pluses and minuses.
On a second note, if every person that would join or leave the company would be reported, there would be room for anything else. Face it: Apple is except for relatively few people having “normal” people coming and going, no magic skills involved and hence upon leaving no sign for doom whatsoever.
The house sharing house idea is exactly what the wife and I have been thinking about. In a couple of years we plan to build our retirement home, we have been talking about how to build the house in way which will allow us to share it and make some extra income and have space for our kids to come visit and have their own space. I'll have to look up this company.
No worry.Apple have deep bench for most teams. And it's good that on any team some are experienced and some fresh blood. Blend of established and new ideas can contribute to great products.