Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive is leaving the company to start his own firm — which will sell services to Apple, the company announced Thursday.

“Jony is a singular figure in the design world and his role in Apple’s revival cannot be overstated, from 1998’s groundbreaking iMac to the iPhone and the unprecedented ambition of Apple Park, where recently he has been putting so much of his energy and care,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday in a news release.

“Apple will continue to benefit from Jony’s talents by working directly with him on exclusive projects, and through the ongoing work of the brilliant and passionate design team he has built.”

To run the Cupertino iPhone giant’s design team after Ive leaves later this year, Evans Hankey, vice-president of industrial design, and Alan Dye, vice president of human interface design, will report to chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who led development of the Apple Watch, the company said.

“After nearly 30 years and countless projects, I am most proud of the lasting work we have done to create a design team, process and culture at Apple that is without peer,” Ive said in the release.

“The team will certainly thrive under the excellent leadership of Evans, Alan and Jeff, who have been among my closest collaborators. I have the utmost confidence in my designer colleagues at Apple, who remain my closest friends, and I look forward to working with them for many years to come.”

Ives, originally from northeast London and knighted at Buckingham Palace in 2012, has led Apple’s design team since the mid-1990s. He was considered a confidante of the late Steve Jobs, and was promoted to the chief design officer position in 2015.

His new company will be called LoveFrom, and Apple will be its first client, the Financial Times reported. LoveFrom will launch fully next year, and be based in California for the time being, according to the Financial Times. Ive said that in his new company, he would continue working on wearable technologies and health care, along with “personal passions,” the Financial Times reported.