In a nutshell: Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief who led the design on numerous flagship products, including the iPhone and iPad, will be taking his talents to Ferrari, the Italian luxury car manufacturer has announced.
Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson created their own design firm, LoveFrom, back in 2019. Ferrari, along with its parent company Exor, announced a multi-year partnership with the company.
For Exor, which holds stakes in football team Juventus and Stellantis – home to several automobile brands including Chrysler and Jeep – LoveFrom will be involved in "a range of creative projects" in the "business of luxury." As for their deal with Ferrari, specifics of the alliance were not revealed, but the pair will be involved with the supercar maker's first electric car due for release in 2025, according to FT.
"The first expression of this new partnership will bring together Ferrari's legendary performance and excellence with LoveFrom's unrivalled experience and creativity that has defined extraordinary world changing products," Ferrari said.
Ive will also be joining Exor's Partners Council to "share ideas and explore potential business opportunities." Ferrari's parent company has been talking to both the former Apple chief design officer and Newson since LoveFrom's inception a few years ago regarding "opportunities to combine their world-renowned creativity with ours."
"As Ferrari owners and collectors, we could not be more excited about collaborating with this extraordinary company and in particular with the design team expertly led by Flavio Manzoni," Ive and Newson said in a joint statement. "We see some uniquely exciting opportunities working together which we believe will yield important and valuable work."
Those opportunities will no doubt be an exciting and fruitful prospect for Ive's design firm; in 2021, Exor recorded revenues of more than $136 billion across multiple industries. LoveFrom itself was keeping a fairly low profile before the announcement with Ferrari – its only other collaboration was with Airbnb. The company hired four former designers who worked with Ive at Apple, so it's definitely not lacking in talent.
It's a major coup for Exor as the emergence of electric-powered vehicles continues due to the strong foothold it has established in recent years. Many manufacturers now offer electric cars, and Ferrari will have a considerable headstart with the services of Ive and Newson in particular.
Ive, who was involved with the 2021 iMac, was instrumental in the success of Apple; he designed some of the world's most popular consumer electronics, including the iPhone, iPad, iMac and MacBook. And don't forget Ive's role in the wearable tech industry – he was behind the development of the Apple Watch, which he collaborated on with Newson, who himself is no slouch either; he's worked on a range of products, including Nike sneakers and first class lounges for airliner Qantas.