Airbnb Teams Up with Former Apple Chief Design Officer

Airbnb confirmed its partnership with Jony Ive, former Chief Design Officer, a year after Ive left Apple.

Airbnb announced through a blog post that they had hired Jon Ive, former Apple Chief Design Officer, to help with future products and services.

Jon Ive is a renowned name in Silicon Valley and has helped Apple design its best-selling products like the iPhone, the new variant launched this year, and the Apple Watch. Ive left Apple summer of 2019 to build LoveFrom, an independent design firm, with Apple as its client.

Ive helped design the Airbnb logo in 2014 and was also awarded as one of Time magazines’ Top 100 most influential people back in 2015.

According to Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, he and Ive have been good friends for a long time, and Ive has been guiding him and giving him advice.

“We share the same belief in the value and importance of creativity and design.”
CEO Brian Chesky

According to Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky, Ive will work as a design consultant and report directly to Chesky. The said blog post also stated what appears to be a multi-year relationship between Airbnb and Ive.

“Today, I’m thrilled to announce that Jony and his partners at LoveFrom will be engaging in a special collaboration with me and the Airbnb team. We have made the decision to work together through a multi-year relationship to design the next generation of Airbnb products and services… Jony will also help us continue to develop our internal design team, which he believes to be one of the world’s best. I know he is particularly excited about a relationship that will evolve to become a deep collaboration with our creative team.”
Brian Chesky

Together with LoveFrom, Ive will be helping Airbnb in the multi-year partnership in hiring new designers and developing Airbnb’s new products.

Aside from the partnership announced on Wednesday, Airbnb also reported that Alex Schleifer, Airbnb’s chief design officer, will be stepping down to a part-time position. Schleifer has worked as the firm’s CDO for six years.

According to CNBC, Airbnb has filed its IPO last August and is hoping to raise $3 billion. Airbnb’s listing is projected to be one of the biggest ones for this year.