Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia has confirmed to Dezeen that he has been appointed America’s first chief design officer by president Donald Trump.

Speaking to Dezeen in an exclusive interview, Gebbia confirmed that he was running the recently created National Design Studio.

In the position, Gebbia reports to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and works from an office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House.

Joe Gebbia is America’s first chief design officer

“Design is now in the highest level of the government ever – there’s nowhere higher that we can go, like, unless one day the president also happens to be a designer, which would be interesting,” he told Dezeen.

“The responsibility that we have is insanely high. The decisions that this team makes will cascade across and reach hundreds of millions of Americans.”

America’s first chief design officer

The creation of a National Design Studio was announced in an executive order by Trump in August as part of his America by Design innovative.

“I am announcing ‘America by Design,’ a national initiative to improve experiences for Americans, starting by breathing new life into the design of sites where people interface with their government,” said Trump in the order.

“It is time to update the government’s design language to be both usable and beautiful. This effort will be facilitated by a new National Design Studio and by a new chief design officer,” Trump continued.

At the time, it was widely rumoured that Gebbia would be named chief design officer, although this was not confirmed by either Gebbia or the White House.

Gebbia put together “a pitch for the role”

According to Gebbia, he pitched the idea of the position, which will focus on increasing the user experience of the government’s websites, to the White House.

“I ended up putting together a pitch for the role that I’m in today, and was able to put it in front of the right people,” he said.

“And I think credit to this administration, which cares very, very deeply about modernizing outdated processes.”

Gebbia co-founded home rental company Airbnb in 2008 with Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk. He is also the founder of Samara, which designs Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).

He originally trained as a designer and has previously designed a range of modular office furniture for US company Bernhardt Design.

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