The entirety of Apple's senior design team came on stage last night to collect two prestigious prizes at London's Design & Art Direction (D&AD) awards, having been flown over from California specifically for the ceremony. The unusual move — according to The Evening Standard, the team has never previously been present to collect an award, despite winning many — has been seen as a sign of design head Jonathan Ive's increasingly free-ranging influence at the company.

Apple was awarded the prizes for best design studio and most awarded brand at the ceremony, a celebration of the awards' 50th anniversary, with Ive reportedly receiving a standing ovation when accepting the latter. The accolades follow news that the British designer has agreed to work on a special edition Leica camera for a charity auction, another unprecedented move.

According to Walter Isaacson, the official biographer of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the legendary founder left Ive with "more operational power" than anyone else at Apple upon his death last year, including current CEO Tim Cook. "There's no one who can tell him what to do," said Jobs. "That's the way I set it up."