LOGGING OFF

Apple Axes $100M Consulting Contract With Ex-Design Chief Jony Ive

Apple’s former chief design officer left the company in 2019, but said that he looked forward to acting as a consultant to the company “for many years to come.”

Apple and its former chief design officer Jony Ive have reportedly parted ways for good, ending a consulting agreement that Ive at one point promised would last “long into the future,” according to The New York Times. In 2019, Ive departed Apple, whose brand identity he helped shape over 27 years with his revolutionary aesthetics. But on his way out the door, Ive signed a multiyear deal worth more than $100 million to make Apple his primary client at his new venture, design firm LoveFrom. The contract was recently up for extension, but “the parties” decided not to renew it, the Times said, citing two people close to the matter. Under the terms of the deal, Ive was prevented from “taking on work that Apple found competitive,” according to the newspaper. This clause has stifled Ive, who reportedly wants to operate without the need for Apple’s say-so. Executives at Apple, in turn, have been irked by the size of Ive’s paycheck for his work with the tech company—especially given that a number of their own designers have jumped ship to LoveFrom in recent years.