On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that former Apple design chief Jony Ive and his design firm LoveFrom will take over creative and design control at OpenAI. The deal makes Ive responsible for shaping the future look and feel of AI products at the chatbot creator, extending across all of the company's ventures, including ChatGPT.

Ive was Apple's chief design officer for nearly three decades, where he led the design of iconic products including the iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and Apple Watch, earning numerous industry awards and helping transform Apple into the world's most valuable company through his minimalist design philosophy.

"Thrilled to be partnering with jony, imo the greatest designer in the world," tweeted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman while sharing a 9-minute promotional video touting the personal and professional relationship between Ive and Altman.

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• Jony Ive was known for delivering simple designs at Apple.
• Ive said in a fireside chat that his design mantra at his new agency, LoveFrom, could be different.
• His new chapter is shaping up to be his "ornament era."

Jony Ive is embracing his "ornament era."

The former chief design officer at Apple spent the better part of 27 years designing products that were defined by simplicity and minimalism: the iPod, iPhone, MacBook, and iPad all had the British-born designer's hand in them.

But he's taking a different approach now.

In a fireside chat with Stripe CEO Patrick Collison this week, Ive, who has been busy working on an independent design agency called LoveFrom since leaving Apple in 2019, said his more recent work could be seen as "Jony's ornament era."

"I think that's a lovely observation," Ive said in response to Collison, who described his work at Apple as "so stripped down" and "reduced to the essence."

Ive's ideas and work at Apple were often inspired by Dieter Rams, the German industrial designer who had a "less but better" approach that informed his work at consumer products businesses like Braun.

In the fireside chat, Ive said that his work at LoveFrom is informed by a diverse team of industrial, graphic, and sound designers, as well as architects, typographers, and musicians, as opposed to at Apple, where his team had "clear criteria for what we were doing."

Ive has shared few details about the projects LoveFrom was working on, with his design agency's website maintaining a barebones display that has shrouded the storied designer's future work in secrecy.

But a few public projects have indicated a shift in direction in his design, with Ive notably creating an ornament logo for the coronation of King Charles III, as well as work for Airbnb.

"If you're working for the king on his coronation identity, that of course, would demand a very different approach than the one we would have taken if we were designing instructional products for how to use an iMac," Ive said.