Fans of the clean, inviting look of the iPhone, iPad and other blockbuster Apple products are legion*, and that includes Queen Elizabeth II.

    The British monarch has awarded a knighthood to Jonathan Paul Ive, a British citizen and head of Apple Inc.’s design team since the mid-’90s.

    Ive received an Order of the British Empire for services to design and enterprise.

    Ive is credited with helping the late Steve Jobs bring the consumer-electronics company back from the brink of financial ruin in the late 1990s with his whimsical* design for the iMac computer, which originally came in bright colors at a time when bland shades dominated* the PC world.

    He later helped transform Apple into the envy of Silicon Valley with the designs for the iPod, the iPhone and, most recently, the iPad. (SD-Agencies)