[NewsPoster]

BBC TV show Blue Peter has awarded the show's gold badge to lead Apple designer Jonathan Ive. Although from a children's show, the gold badge is nevertheless rare, having only been given out to about 1,000 people since the show went on the air in 1958. Some past winners have included soccer star David Beckham and Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

Ive received the award during a Blue Peter gadget special to be shown this Saturday at 10AM local time on CBBC. The special features Ive reviewing designs sent in by children, and talking about things like seeing an earlier Blue Peter host remaking a detergent bottle into a paintbrush holder. Ive also presents the show with a solid aluminum version of its own badge, produced using Apple CNC equipment. Alongside former CEO Steve Jobs, Ive is generally credited with the look and feel of Apple's core products, including the iPhone, iPad, and Mac lineups. Following the departure of iOS head Scott Forstall last year, Ive is now also in charge of software interfaces. It's been speculated that Ive may pull Apple back from skeuomorphism, something that Forstall favored. Skeuomorphic interfaces replicate real-world items like notepads and Rolodexes, even though the metaphor isn't necessary in a purely digital environment.

[yticolev]

About 1 every three weeks awarded.

[mac_in_tosh]

yticolev - I had to check your math and you're right. LOL

By the way, does anyone know what Ive actually does, I mean on a day to day basis? Is he at all technical?

[chas_m]

Well I think the people at Apple know what he does ...

I mean, you're kidding, right? Do you not actually have any idea what a product designer does?

To be fair, Ive doesn't hand-craft every single design from his ivory tower all by himself. He leads a team of designers into creating, refining and prototyping industrial designs for Apple's hardware. He's recently been put in charge of developing the overall "look and feel" of software as well, which again will be a very collaborative process amongst his team, Apple executives and others.

Did that answer your question? If not, perhaps some more info on what product designers generally actually do can be found here: What Does an Industrial Designer Do?

So as you can see, the answer to your second question is "Yes, very."