Apple hires NY Times Magazine design director Arem Duplessis

Apple has hired New York Times Magazine’s design director Arem Duplessis. Does that name ring a bell? He’s the mind behind some of New York Times Magazine’s rather stunning covers over the last 10 years, and he’ll lend his talents to Apple’s internal marketing team as a creative director.

Details are scant: In a brief chat with MediaBistro, Duplessis doesn’t mention what he’ll be doing at Apple, stating only that after 10 years “it’s time for a new chapter and a new challenge.” That said, such a high profile design acquisition likely won’t go unnoticed in the coming months.

This new hire comes on the heels of the departure of Scott Trattner, an Apple advertising executive who left the Cupertino-based tech company to join Facebook as its Executive Creative Director. This rearranging of artistic deck chairs won’t bring us the next iPhone any faster, but it will fuel the engine that controls Apple’s marketing message and creates the stellar and (occasionally not so stellar) ads that coerce us to buy shiny new hardware.