In 2004, he beat J.K. Rowling into second place in a BBC poll to decide on Britain’s most influential cultural figure. Q magazine recently named him the second most influential person in music, while readers of the design bible Creative Review voted him their most admired person this year (as they did last year, and the year before). “What he’s done is bring design into people’s homes, and into people’s offices,” says designer Paul Smith, while U2’s Bono has hailed him as a genius, declaring, “If he had a fan club, I’d be in it.”

Despite these accolades, you may well never have heard of Jonathan Ive. In fact, even his biggest fans know little about him. We know he’s from Chigwell in Essex, that he dresses in black T-shirt and trainers, and that his official job title is senior vice-President in charge of industrial design at Apple computers. If you met him, you’d find a down-to-earth, likeable man with a passion for music, and a habit of talking with his hands. What his unassuming manner wouldn’t lead you to guess is that he is also the most influential product designer in the world.

In the past 15 years, Ive and his team have changed the way we think about computers, and they have completely changed the way we consume music with the iPod, a digital music player that Bono hailed as “the most interesting art object since the electric guitar”. They have introduced so many new ideas, materials and techniques that you’re bound to own something influenced by them, even if you’ve never owned a computer.

Ive is sitting in a meeting room at Apple’s sleek, white headquarters in Cupertino, California, looking at The Sun and laughing. Apparently the Queen has purchased an iPod, and the tabloid has pastiched Apple’s own ad campaign by showing dancing silhouettes of various royals. “This is so funny!” he says. “I can’t wait to show the guys.”

He’s referring to the small, close-knit design team he assembled when he came to Apple in 1992, many of whom are British, all of whom he counts among his closest friends. He’s not allowed to name them, nor am I allowed to see the studio where they work. This is frustrating for me, but even more so for him – he can never talk about what he’s working on, no matter how excited he is by it. “Our ideas are our equity,” he says. “When it’s right and we’ve produced them in volume, then we’ll tell everybody about them.”

The son of a silversmith, as a child Ive was fascinated by how things worked. He knew he wanted to work in design and thought he might like to create cars, until he visited a course and found the students a rather geeky bunch who made “vroom vroom” noises while they drew. He opted instead for industrial design because it seemed to offer more variety, and at college in Gateshead it became clear he was rather good at it.

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