Peter Russell-Clarke, an industrial designer and educator renowned for his design work at Apple has joined Vast, a California-based company specialising in space habitation technologies, as an advisor.
Over his nearly 20-year tenure at Apple, Russell-Clarke was instrumental in the design of iPhones, iPads, iMacs and Apple Watches, as well as the Apple Park headquarters and consumer stores. He has been named in more than 1,000 Apple patents, including many relating to the iMac, iPod Nano, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
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Prior to being approached by Apple in 2005 to join its small team of industrial designers under Jonathan Ive, Russell-Clarke founded and ran his own design studio, working clients including Nike and Swatch, as well as furniture, homeware and technology companies across Europe, Asia and the USA. He was also invited to be the global group design manager for Nokia, overseeing design teams in five countries.
‘I am excited to be involved with Vast on their incredibly ambitious endeavour,’ said Peter Russell-Clarke. ‘It’s a huge task, but from what I’ve seen, the experience, enthusiasm and dedication of the Vast team will no doubt lead to incredible things. The challenges are immense and the problems unique, but as a designer, using these constraints to find something completely new is enticing. I’m excited to create an environment to enable others to uncover new ideas in science, medicine, engineering and art – a platform for discovery at a new frontier.’
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Russell-Clarke will work with Vast to build out an industrial design team and provide insights across all aspects of industrial design at the company.
‘We are honoured to be working with Peter to embed industrial design into the core of our engineering design process, with the objective of enhancing our space station astronaut experience, safety and productivity,’ said Alex Hudson, Vasts’s CTO.
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Russell-Clarke stepped down from Apple earlier this year to pursue passion projects, including products and environments to improve the health of people and the planet. He also chairs the board of trustees for the Royal College of Art USA and is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, London.
‘Peter’s design contributions to Apple products, including the iPhone, Apple stores and Apple’s new HQ over the last 17 years speak for themselves,’ said Max Haot, Vast’s CEO. ‘We look forward to having the chance to bring this incredible experience to the design of our space station products.’