Apple’s longest-serving senior industrial designer is leaving the company, marking the near-complete turnover of a team once led by Jony Ive.
Bart Andre, who joined Apple in 1992 alongside Ive, told colleagues this month that he is retiring, according to people familiar with the matter. Andre was one of the last remaining designers from the Ive era and helped create the aesthetic for Apple products released over the past three decades — even prior to Steve Jobs returning to the helm in the late 1990s.
The designer was known as one of Ive’s top lieutenants and helped run the team after former chief Evans Hankey, Ive’s successor, departed last year. He’s also known as one of the biggest holders of Apple patents.