Meta appoints former Apple Design Head to lead new design vision for Creative Studio

Meta has appointed Alan Dye, Apple’s former UI design head, as the new chief design officer. Dye will lead Meta’s Creative Studio, a new internal team within Reality Labs Division. The group will define its next-generation products, like smart glasses, VR/AR devices, and refine user experiences. Beyond design, Dye will lead efforts to enhance AI features in Meta’s smart devices.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a detailed outline on Threads of how the company will “treat intelligence as a new design material” with the Creative Studio. In the post, Zuckerberg talked about how the Studio will combine design, fashion, and technology and bring experiences that are more human-centric. Zuckerberg said, “We plan to elevate design within Meta, and pull together a talented group with a combination of craft, creative vision, systems thinking, and deep experience building iconic products that bridge hardware and software.” 

Furthermore, Meta has also hired Apple’s Billy Sorrentino, who was also part of the design team and played a crucial role in building the iOS 26 Liquid Glass design. In addition, the industrial design team led by Pete Bristol and the metaverse design team headed by Jason Rubin will also contribute to building Creative Studio.  

This showcases that Meta has been building a strong talent across teams, poaching leaders and researchers from competitor companies. In recent hiring, Meta hired researchers from OpenAI, and now it's hiring designers from Apple, to stay ahead of the competition, especially when AI has been at the centre of attraction in the tech industry.