Google has just made a creative choice for its new head of Glass, picking one-time Mattel design lead and noted jewelery artist Ivy Ross. That signals a big shift away from Glass’ geeky developer base while it transitions to a full-fledged consumer product. She would fill the position previously held by Babak Parviz as Google’s Glass lead and work underGoogle X for Astro Teller and co-founder Sergei Brin. On the Google Glass G+ page, Ross said that she’s spent her career “at the intersection of design and marketing” and that she’ll be looking to answer some of the “audacious questions” around Glass. Though she didn’t say so, some of those will no doubt revolve around privacy and other contentious issues with the upcoming product.
Prior to working at Google, Ross worked as head designer for Mattel, Disney, Swatch, Coach, Calvin Klein and Art.com, her last job. She was also the eyewear design lead at optical outfit Bausch and Lomb in the ’90s, and her woven titanium jewellery designs are in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection (her TedX talk on design and creativity is below). Ross’ creative and retail background should help on the design and marketing front, andmany think Glass badly needs design help. In addition, she’s already asking some interesting questions about the product’s potential like whether it can make us more sociable, not less. It remains to be seen, however, if her background has prepared her to solve the more difficult problems around Glass — like how to prevent the anger of people who think their privacy is being violated.
