From a Ferrari electric car to a million-dollar Leica, Jony Ive’s work outside Apple spans cars, charity auction pieces and early career designs.
Jony Ive’s design career stretches well beyond the Apple products that made his name. His non-Apple work ranges from a Ferrari electric car interior to a Leica camera that sold for $1.8 million, alongside early designs for a pen and an unusually specialized comb.
Ive, a British-American industrial designer, helped shape the iPhone, iPad and iMac. Before his Apple career, he worked on household products including toilets and sinks. His wider portfolio shows a designer moving between mass-market technology, one-off auction pieces and practical objects with very specific jobs.
Ferrari’s electric debut brings design trade-offs
LoveFrom, Ive’s design firm, worked on the interior of the Ferrari Luce, the Italian automaker’s first electric production car. Its dashboard drew sharp reactions: some observers likened it to an oversized Apple Watch mounted on a towel hanger, while motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson compared it to a fridge.
The reception came as Ferrari adjusted its 2030 target for fully electric vehicles, reducing the planned share of its lineup from 40% to 20%. The Luce’s reception may be mixed, but its exterior has a drag coefficient of 0.254 Cd, making it the most aerodynamic Ferrari road car to date. The five-door electric sedan pairs physical buttons, knobs and analog instruments with an articulating touchscreen.
Ferrari sold all the Luce cars scheduled for 2026 production, with 500 bookings recorded in the two months after its unveiling. That early demand suggests the design debate hasn’t kept buyers away, though it says little yet about how the car will fare on the road.
The company has seen mixed reactions before. Its debut SUV, the Purosangue, also drew criticism from some enthusiasts before selling well.
A Leica and other designs for (RED)
Ive’s most expensive design may be less familiar than the Luce. He and frequent collaborator Marc Newson created a one-off, all-white Leica Digital Rangefinder for the 2013 (RED) Auction. It sold for $1.8 million, and the auction raised $26 million for a global fund supporting work against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa.
The camera reworked the recognizable look of Leica M-series models, which date to 1954. Instead of the usual black body and textured grip, Ive’s version used a white aluminum chassis with a flat top and rounded edges.
Ive and Newson returned for the 2018 (RED) Auction with a ring carved from a single block of lab-grown diamond. Laser beams and water jets produced the roughly 2,000 to 3,000 facets in its intricate surface. An anonymous bidder paid $256,250. At the earlier auction, a table made from 183 aluminum pieces and designed by the pair also sold for $1.8 million.
A pen and a comb from Ive’s early career
Before Apple, Ive worked at Barry Weaver Design, where he designed the Sharbo TX-2 for Japanese manufacturer Zebra. The combination ballpoint pen and mechanical pencil used a shell with a Sony Walkman-inspired look, quite different from the restrained style associated with his later Apple work.
The Sharbo TX-2 was discontinued, but examples sometimes appear on eBay for around $1,000. Its rotating, multi-function design may invite fidgeting; the pen was commissioned in the 1980s, well before fidget toys became popular in the 2010s.
Another early design solved a more specialized problem: helping people create a flattop haircut. Scottish hairstylist Brian Drumm commissioned London-based firm Tangerine to update his Flattopper. Ive’s Brian Drumm Flatliner retained a spirit level to guide the cut, while adding curves and softer edges. The design received an iF Design award in 1995.
These projects offer a different view of Ive’s range. His work outside Apple includes both high-profile objects judged on appearance and tools built around a specific task—proof that his design career was never limited to screens.
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