The man behind the award-winning look and design of the HTC One and its recent successor the M8 has taken a new advisory role within HTC.

According to CNET, Senior Vice President of Design Scott Croyle will start to work on other projects both in and outside of the company.

"HTC remains at the forefront of smartphone innovation," a company spokesman told CNET in an email. "Scott Croyle will be focusing on special projects and dedicated on next generation developments."

The spokesman added that Croyle's new position would allow him to "keep growing beyond HTC."

Croyle was instrumental in the design of the new HTC One M8 and its predecessor the HTC One, which was awarded Mobile World Congress' "Smartphone of the Year" in February.

He spoke with CNET just last month in anticipation of the M8's world reveal, of which he boasted that the newest phone's look and metallic design was made to be better than the M7, which was already praised for its sleek figure. As a chief architect for the device, he was one of the advocates for the phone to have a metal encasing, according to CNET.

HTC got Drew Bamford, who reported to Croyle while working on the phones' Sense feature, to take over as the design VP. He will also be heading up the new Creative Labs group at HTC that runs all software and services while reporting to HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou.

"Drew Bamford is an experienced and talented leader at HTC with solid track records in leading and building our user experience team," the spokesman told CNET.

Croyle was the owner and operator of One & Co., a San Francisco-based design studio, when HTC purchased the company. After the merger, he was made design chief and has also acted as a face for the company by speaking at numerous events about the design of several HTC products.

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