Arise, Sir Jony Ive: Apple’s design guru collects his Knighthood

Apple’s Jony Ive – arguably the second most important person at the company after Steve Jobs over the past 15 years or so, has been awarded the title of Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) in London today, giving him the right to be referred to as Sir Jonathan Ive.

The honor for Apple’s British-born SVP of Industrial Design was announced during the Queen’s New Year Honours List in January, and today it was made official in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, as reported by the BBC. It was the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, who awarded Ive his new title rather than the Queen herself. KBE is the second highest honor in Britain, bested only by GBE – a Knight or Dame Grand Cross.

Despite the award, and having classic designs like the iMac, iPod and iPhone under his belt, it doesn’t look like Ive is ready to shut down his CAD software for good just yet. As we reported earlier, Ive has given an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper to tie in with the award in which he was asked what product he would be best remembered for. “What we’re working on now feels like the most important and the best work we’ve done, and so it would be what we’re working on right now, which of course I can’t tell you about,” was the reply.

Here’s a video of the BBC’s TV coverage of today’s ceremony, uploaded to YouTube by 9to5mac: