Apple has hired Sebastiaan de With, the cofounder of Lux—the studio behind acclaimed iPhone photo and video apps Halide and Kino—bringing an influential independent designer into its core design organization. De With announced the move in a post on X, calling it a return to work on his “favorite products.”
The designer previously spent years at Apple contributing to services like iCloud and Find My, and before cofounding Lux with former Apple engineer Ben Sandofsky, he consulted for brands including Sony, T-Mobile, and Mozilla. His work on Halide turned a niche, manual camera app into one of the App Store’s most recognizable photography tools, praised for its intuitive controls and professional-grade features.
Why This Hire Matters For iPhone Imaging
Apple’s camera strategy straddles two worlds: powerful computational photography for mainstream users and increasingly sophisticated tools for advanced creators. The company’s recent additions—such as ProRAW, ProRes video, and Log capture on Pro models—show a steady move toward pro workflows while trying to keep the core Camera experience simple.
De With’s portfolio is a masterclass in making complex controls approachable. Halide popularized thoughtful interactions like swipe-based exposure, manual focus with peaking, zebra stripes for exposure warnings, waveform and histogram overlays, and fast access to RAW workflows. Those are the kinds of details that can make pro features feel less intimidating without sacrificing capability, an approach that aligns with Apple’s design ethos.
While Apple rarely telegraphs roadmaps, talent moves often foreshadow product direction. A designer who built a top-charting, paid photo app from scratch is well positioned to influence how iOS balances computational smarts with creative control—across Camera, Photos, and even system-wide image pipelines.
What Happens To Halide And Lux After The Hire
Lux is continuing independent development. In a Reddit post, Sandofsky said Halide remains in active production at the studio, which released a public preview of Halide Mark III focused on “Looks,” a feature aimed at recreating classic film aesthetics. The move taps a broader industry trend: creators want the immediacy of computational photography alongside faithful, filmic color and contrast that feel less algorithmically generic.
Halide’s new Looks direction complements Apple’s own Photographic Styles while pushing deeper into curated color science. Coupled with Kino’s focus on video capture, Lux is effectively building taste-driven imaging on top of Apple’s camera stack—useful feedback territory for a platform owner and a reason this hire has outsized relevance for iPhone imaging.
Inside Apple’s Shifting Design Org And Leadership
The hire arrives amid notable changes across Apple design. Bloomberg reported that hardware chief John Ternus took oversight of both hardware and software design, signaling tighter coordination between physical products and interfaces. Apple’s longtime head of user interface design, Alan Dye, departed for Meta, opening space for new leaders and outside perspectives.
At the same time, the Liquid Glass visual language introduced with iOS 26 drew mixed reactions in parts of the design community, an uncommon response for Apple’s UI refreshes. Bringing in a practitioner with a track record of shipping beloved, paid-first creative tools suggests Apple is leaning into applied, hands-on design expertise to refine how advanced functionality shows up in everyday use.
There’s precedent for Apple tapping indie excellence: the Workflow team ultimately became Shortcuts, and the Dark Sky acquisition helped reshape Apple Weather. While this is a hire rather than an acquisition, it follows the same pattern—folding proven product instincts into the platform.
What To Watch Next For iPhone Camera And Design
Keep an eye on changes to the Camera app’s control hierarchy, how RAW and video formats are surfaced, and whether filmic profiles or style systems become more prominent. Also watch for developer-facing imaging APIs and documentation that narrow the gap between first-party and pro third-party tools—an area where Lux has long set the bar.
Apple’s design process is deeply collaborative, so any single hire won’t rewrite iOS on its own. But if future releases make pro features feel less buried, if exposure and focus tools gain clearer affordances, and if the Photos pipeline gets more creator-friendly guardrails without sacrificing speed, Sebastiaan de With’s influence will be hiding in plain sight—right behind the shutter button.
