Before Departure, Apple’s Jony Ive Faded From View

In recent years, one of Apple’s most important executives, its design chief Jonathan Ive, has spent much of his time working from an unusual location 50 miles north of Apple’s Silicon Valley headquarters. 

Inside a brick carriage house sandwiched between the gilded mansions of San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood, not far from his own home, Mr. Ive has operated his own design studio. Apple employees frequently journeyed to the location to make presentations to the man most closely associated with the slick aesthetics of Apple products, according to three people with knowledge of the studio.

On Thursday, Mr. Ive put further distance between himself and Apple with the announcement that he will leave the company after nearly 30 years working there. Instead, Apple will become a primary client of a new independent design firm he has formed, called LoveFrom.