Palm hires in yet more Apple talent as battle intensifies

Yet more intensity in the spat between Apple and Palm, with the latter company recruiting yet another Apple-experienced staffer, Jeff Zwerner.

Zwerner joins Palm as its Senior Vice President of Brand Design. The new exec has worked with Apple for two short sessions, once between 95-96 as Senior Art Director and again between 2001-2003, when he was Apple’s Creative Director for Packaging.

Additional experience includes stints at numerous big brands, including Coca-Cola, Disney, The Gap, HP and Nike.

He joins a growing coterie of Apple’s exes, not least Palm’s current CEO, Jon Rubinstein as the smaller company attempts to unseat the dominance of the iPhone with its Palm Pre.

The man seems to have some strong talents. In 2007, Zwerner was nominated for a National Design Award by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He’s also received numerous national and international awards from the Type Directors Club, AIGA, American Center for Design, Graphis, Communication Arts, Print, Red Dot, International Forum Design Hanover and How, among others.

He takes his place at the company as battle between Apple and Palm seems firmly joined, with the latter complaining the former company’s move to block iTunes synching on its Palm Pre device to be in violation of the terms and conditions of use of the USB standard.