Meta Hires Apple Design Executive Alan Dye to Lead New Creative Studio

Meta is establishing a new creative studio in its Reality Labs division and has hired longtime Apple design executive Alan Dye to lead it.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO at Meta, announced these moves in a Wednesday (Dec. 3) post on Threads.

The new studio will “define the next generation of our products and services” and will include designers with “deep experience building iconic products that bridge hardware and software,” Zuckerberg said in another post.

Together with Dye, the creative studio will include Billy Sorentino, another design lead from Apple; Joshua To, who has led interface design across Reality Labs; Meta’s industrial design team; and its metaverse design and art teams, Zuckerberg said in a third post.

“We’re entering a new era where AI glasses and other devices will change how we connect with technology and each other,” Zuckerberg said in a fourth post. “The potential is enormous, but what matters most is making these experiences feel natural and truly centered around people. With this new studio, we’re focused on making every interaction thoughtful, intuitive and built to serve people.”

Dye joined Apple in 2006 and became the company’s Design Studio Lead in 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile.

During that time, Dye “shaped the evolution” of every major software platform for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, TV and Vision Pro, according to the profile.

“Introduced multiple generations of Apple’s design language, culminating in Liquid Glass, reshaping not only the aesthetics of Apple’s platforms but the fundamental patterns that billions of people use to navigate the digital world,” Dye’s profile said.

Liquid Glass, which was introduced in June, is Apple’s new translucent material for its devices paired with a software design that extends across the company’s devices, Apple said at the time in a press release.

Apple will replace Dye with its longtime designer Stephen Lemay, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

“Steve Lemay has played a key role in the design of every major Apple interface since 1999,” Apple CEO said in a statement provided to Bloomberg. “He has always set an extraordinarily high bar for excellence and embodies Apple’s culture of collaboration and creativity.”