The Jony Ive top five

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The New Year Honours list included some well-known names like Ronnie Corbett and Lorraine Kelly, but one somewhat surprising addition was a major British tech designer.

Sir Jonathan Ive has been one of the key driving forces behind Apple's success over the past 15 years and was rightly named a Knight Commander of the British Empire last week.

Here are five reasons why it's easy to love Jony Ive…

1. He's British

It's sad that there are so few British tech superstars. We don't have a Mark Zuckerburg or a Bill Gates.

Ive isn't just a consummate professional though. He's also one of the coolest men in the industry.

That's not to say there isn't plenty of talent coming out of the UK and Ive is proof of that. His knighthood is also proof that you can gain recognition through sheer talent rather than simply being more visible than others.

Ive rarely speaks to the media, nor does he feature in Apple's major launches. Instead, with British reserve, he has built his redoubtable reputation on pure design talent alone and it was only right his skills were rewarded in the UK.

He is perhaps one of our finest exports in recent times.

2. He's cool

Ive isn't just a consummate professional though. He's also one of the coolest men in the industry.

Rather than don the unappealing shirt and t-shirt ensemble synonymous with tech industry big-shots, or the Jobsian turtleneck, Ive opts for the trendy, laid-back look. Just check out the G-Star t-shirt he rocks in his official Apple photo.

Add to that his designer stubble, humble nature, apparent insouciance yet evident focus and you have one of the coolest men in tech.

His style can be found in Apple designs too. He moved the desktop away from the beige boxes of yore, creating sleek, beautiful machines.

Along the way he's been helped by a team of hand-picked designers, who maintain their mystique by keeping the clique closed to all, even other Apple employees. Not only do they reportedly receive starting salaries of $200,000 and work in a super-secret, futuristic lab, they get to create their designs whilst listening to music supplied by one of Ive's celebrity friends, DJ Jon Digweed.

Now, tell us you don't want to be part of Ive's crew?

3. He's the iMan

Talking of beautiful machines, Ive really started to make it big when he designed the first iMac in 1998, with its translucent colours and attempt at minimalism.

The next major step for the iMac was to switch to the lamp-like model, with the protruding, flower-like monitor.

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