The British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) will on Thursday evening unveil its list of the most influential people in British culture. Leading the list is Apple’s chief design maven Jonathan Ive, who was picked by a panel of culture experts. Ive beat others including British comedian Ricky Gervais and children’s book author JK Rowling.
Ive, vice president of industrial design at Apple, has a long list of credits that include the design of the iPod original iMac, the iBook, the flat-panel iMac, the Power Mac G5 and other Apple creations. Along with the systems he’s designed, Ive himself has been the recipient of a number of awards, including being named the first Designer of the Year by Britain’s own Design Museum.
Ive’s efforts are of particular relevance to British consumers following the most recent holiday shopping season. iPods were the hot item among British consumers this past Christmas. The diminutive digital music players were in short supply for much of the buying season, but that didn’t stop consumers in the U.K. set new records for the number of iPods bought in Europe — the region was responsible for about 17 percent of global iPod sales for that quarter, or about 125,000 units.
Ive’s companions on the list of Top 50 Cultural Movers and Shakers include actors Ewan McGregor and Catherine Zeta-Jones, comedians Graham Norton and Peter Kay, movie directors Sir Ridley Scott and Sam Mendes, and fashion designers John Galliano, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen. The city of Glasgow, Scotland also made the list as the only geographical location which the panel of experts “consider has cultural pulling power.”
The panel of culture experts included Media Guardian editor Janine Gibson, designer Betty Jackson and Philip Dodd, director of the Institute of Contemporary Art.
The special airs this evening on BBC Three at 2100 GMT.