Architect-turned-tech entrepreneur Evan Sharp is leaving the company he co-founded after 11 years to join former Apple design chief Jony Ive’s secretive new design startup called LoveFrom.

Sharp worked with Ben Silverman to develop what eventually became Pinterest in 2011 after studying at Columbia’s GSAPP, from which he graduated in 2008. 

Sharp spoke with Archinect about his education and continued inclinations toward architecture as part of our Working out of the Box series in 2012:

“I do miss a lot of things about architecture: materials, the third dimension, the human scale of the work,” he said at the time, adding that he felt studying at the GSAPP helped him “learn how to approach design problems generally.”

“The value of iteration, and working very long hours on the same problem to find the right solution — having that diligence is something that architecture school teaches you. It also forces you to look at everything spatially,” Sharp told Archinect's Paul Petrunia. “Architecture school made me see the web in a similar way and to understand how people use different kinds of web space in different ways, and for different purposes, has helped me formulate decisions on how people will use Pinterest.” 

Sharp will have an undetermined role at the company but says he looks forward to the opportunities that the new position provides. 

“Jony’s putting together this team of some of the best talent in the world, in all these different disciplines, and I’m so hungry to learn how to build, how to be a better designer,” the 39-year-old told FastCompany. “I’m just really excited to be in an environment where I’m exposed to such different ways of understanding how to be excellent in what you do, and how to be curious and how to be uncompromising in what you’re building.”