The winner of the Design Museum's first Designer of the Year prize was Jonathan Ive senior vice-president of design at Apple in California. By combining what he describes as “fanatical care beyond the obvious stuff” with relentless experiments into tools, materials and production processes, he and the Apple design team have designed and developed a succession of iconic products including the iMac, iBook, Cube, Powerbook G4 and iPod MP3 player. For more information on his work at Apple, go to the Design at the Design Museum section of this site.

1967
Born in London, where he spends his childhood.

1985
Studies design and art at Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University).

1989
Becomes a partner at Tangerine, a London-based design consultancy where he works on a wide range of products from power tools to wash basins.

1992
Moves to San Francisco to join the Apple design team.

1998
Appointed vice-president of industrial design at Apple.
Launch of the original iMac, which sells 2 million units in its first year.

1999
Introduction of the Apple iBook, the 22” Cinema Display, PowerMac G4 Tower and iSub.

2000
Launch of the Apple G4 Cube.

2001
Apple introduces the Titanium PowerBook G4 and the iPod portable MP3 player.

2002
Launch of the new sunflower-inspired iMac with 15” and 17” floating screens. Introduction of the eMac, a version of the iMac specially developed for use in the education sector.

2003
Apple launches the 12” PowerBook and the 17” PowerBook, which at 1” thick and 6.8 lbs is the world’s slimmest and lightest 17” notebook computer.
Wins the Design Museum's first Designer of the Year prize.

2004
Launch of the multi-coloured iPod mini and ultra-slim iMac G5.

2005
Appointed senior vice-president of design at Apple. Launch of the Mac Mini.

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