Bloomberg reports that Apple’s longest-running senior designer, Bart Andre, is retiring. As the story explains, Andre joined Apple in 1992 with Jonny Ive. His departure marks “the near-complete turnover” of Ive’s former design team.
Top comment by Graham Jones
I’m never usually concerned with someone leaving these companies, but there is now a pattern developing and it’s a bit worrying. It really depends whether they are actively still recruiting designers or not. I can completely imagine designers feeling that they’re being undermined by engineers, who have a different role at the company, when it was always everyone pulling in the same direction under the Jobs and Ive partnership. Williams seems to be the favourite to follow Cook, so it might be him building his own team and structure, but it is a concern. I’ve seen first hand what a company and its products become when the tail wags the dog, and when cohesion of effort breaks down and divisions open up. Cook is in charge still, and needs to look closer at the situation or it will become part of his legacy. My suspicions are that the design team felt Vision Pro wasn’t the right product to release, while Williams did. They were on a hiding to nothing without the leverage that Ive had at exec level. Only time will tell if it was too early or the right call.
Andre announced his plans to retire this month. His departure is a significant shakeup to Apple’s industrial design team, but only the latest in a series of changes and departures.
- Apple’s chief iPhone and Apple Watch designer leaving the company
- Another important Apple senior designer has left the company after nearly 20 years
- Veteran Apple exec behind iPhone’s multitouch screen, Touch ID, and more departing
Andre is described as being “one of Ive’s top lieutenants” and is credited with helping run Apple’s industrial design team after Evans Hankey departed in 2023. “He’s also known as one of the biggest holders of Apple patents,” Bloomberg reports.
Bart Andre, who joined Apple in 1992 alongside Ive, told colleagues this month that he is retiring, according to people familiar with the matter. Andre was one of the last remaining designers from the Ive era and helped create the aesthetic for Apple products released over the past three decades — even prior to Steve Jobs returning to the helm in the late 1990s.
As it stands right now, Apple’s industrial design team is led by chief operating officer Jeff Williams. “Having an operations person oversee a division dedicated to design and innovation has rankled some staff,” Bloomberg says, according to “people close to the situation.”
”Cost-cutting measures also have added to the unrest, they said. Under Ive, the team embarked on exploratory projects that didn’t necessarily have an immediate payoff – something that’s been reigned in.”
The full report is available at Bloomberg.
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