Three years after Jony Ive left Apple, the new Industrial Design Chief is also leaving the company. Evans Hankey has been working at the company for years, and a report now says she’s told her employees that she’s leaving Apple six months from now.
The report comes from Bloomberg. Hankey was named as VP Industrial Design Chief in 2019 to replace Jony Ive, Apple’s design chief for two decades.
According to Mark Gurman, the announcement was made in Cupertino this week, although Evans Hankey told the team she would stick for a bit more at the company. Apple shared a statement about her departure:
“Apple’s design team brings together expert creatives from around the world and across many disciplines to imagine products that are undeniably Apple,” a spokesman said in a statement. “The senior design team has strong leaders with decades of experience. Evans plans to stay on as we work through the transition, and we’d like to thank her for her leadership and contributions.”
As noted by Gurman, this will be the first time that Apple will be without a “de facto design chief” since Steve Jobs retook control of the company in the late 1990s.
Hankey leaves the company as Apple has been reported to be entering new markets in the near future with its Mixed Reality and Augmented Reality headsets. In addition to that, the company is expected to enter the car business sometime in this decade.
Bloomberg says that Alan Dye, Apple’s head of design for software and user interfaces, will keep at the company. Dye was also promoted when Ive left Apple in 2019.
Last but not least, Gary Butcher, a former top designer within Dye’s division is returning to the company. Currently, he’s VP of design at Airbnb.
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