Apple design bloke Ive finally honoured properly - with Blue Peter badge

The Apple products he designs have high-cost premium components, but Jony Ive fondly remembers making a paintbrush holder out of an old detergent bottle after watching a Blue Peter episode during his childhood in Essex.

Sir Jony told Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood in a show to be aired this Saturday that he "remembered vividly" making a "fantastic paintbrush holder" by slicing off the top of the bottle, inverting it and sticking it inside.

The young Ive was entranced by the way that the inverted lid held the brushes in place and ALSO stopped water coming out if you knocked it over.

"I remember that really clearly" he says on the show.

"I like the way that there were products that you thought were no longer useful but then reusing them. It was fantastic," Ive said of the Blue Peter DIY sessions that famously include sticking together old boxes and toilet rolls.

Ive also approved of a British tot's design pitch for a school bag/pencil case/lunchbox all in one: little Sarah demoed her product idea for a bag that came with a GPS enabled wrist navigator that could trace the location of the bag at any time.

Ive praised the bag's water bottle and quick release pencil case straps but steered clear of referring to the GPS tracking watch [too close to Apple's own watch plans perhaps…? Watch this space.] Only about 1,000 gold Blue Peter badges have been presented; those lucky few include the Queen and Harry Potter millionaire JK Rowling, and fellow Chingford dweller David Beckham who went to the same primary school as Ive.

Sir Jony seemed genuinely pleased to get a gold Blue Peter badge - the highest accolade in the Blue Peter badge rankings. He presented Blue Peter with a CNC-milled aluminium plaque of the Blue Peter crest.

Increasingly the creative force behind Apple, after the ouster of software VP Scott Forstall, Ive has spread his power base into software and UI design as well as hardware. Sadly it seems as though the Blue Peter episode will not delve into Apple politics or the extent of his growing influence.

The full gadget-themed show will be shown Saturday. ®