Design Wars: Meta Hires Apple Veteran Alan Dye to Lead New Reality Labs Creative Studio

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company has recruited Alan Dye, a veteran design executive who spent nearly two decades at Apple, to lead a newly established Creative Studio within Meta Reality Labs. Dye previously served as Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design and was a pivotal figure behind interfaces for the Apple Watch, iPhone X, and the Vision Pro headset.

Meta is assembling a team defined by craftsmanship, creative vision, and systems thinking to elevate its design capabilities and produce iconic products that bridge hardware and software, with the Creative Studio spearheaded by Dye. According to Zuckerberg, the studio will fuse design, fashion, and technology, while treating intelligence as a new design material.

Alongside Dye, former Apple design lead Billy Sorrentino will also join, and they will work with Joshua To, Pete Bristol and Jason Rubin on metaverse design, as Meta eyes AI‑driven devices such as smart glasses. This follows Meta’s earlier hiring of Ruoming Pang, another former Apple designer.