Yves Behar

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Yves Béhar

Born 1967
Lausanne,  Switzerland
Occupation Industrial Designer

Yves Béhar is an industrial designer and founder of fuseproject, the San Francisco-based design and branding firm he established in 1999. He is considered a leading figure in industrial design.[who?]

Contents

[edit] Early life

He was born to an East German mother and a Jewish-Turkish father in Lausanne, Switzerland.

[edit] Education

Béhar studied industrial design in Europe and the U.S., and holds a B.S. of Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design, California.

Currently, he chairs the Industrial Design Department at California College of the Arts [1] [2].

[edit] Career

Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

Béhar started his career with frogdesign as design leader and Lunar Design in Silicon Valley, developing products for clients such as Apple Inc., Hewlett Packard, and Silicon Graphics.

Upon founding fuseproject, Behar says his goals are threefold. Firstly, he wants to be a futurist, optimistic about the possibilities of new technology. Secondly, he's a humanist, in that his designs seek to put the human experience first. And, finally, he's a committed naturalist, promoting sustainable ways of living and consuming. That fusion, of technology with humanity, of brand and story, of all aspects of design, from product to advertising to online to point of purchase to user experience, is his central message. He states, "We have one foot in the consumer's space and one foot in our client's space, so we can act as the bridge, or the glue." [3]

Béhar’s designs and creative positioning are at work in diverse areas as fashion, lifestyle, sports and technology, for clients such as Birkenstock, BMW's MINI, haasprojekt, Herman Miller, HBF, Hewlett Packard, Hussein Chalayan, Microsoft, Nike, OLPC, Philou, PUIG and Toshiba.

In 2005, a massive chandelier sculpted by Behar for Swarovski was installed at JFK airport. The piece is a loose tangle of organic curves with 55,000 crystals, and includes a motion detector triggering 2,000 blue light-emitting diodes that react to the movement of passengers [4].

He is the chief industrial designer of OLPC's XO laptop, signing on with the project in 2005 [3] and has been with the team since March of 2006 [5].

He designed and holds a stake in the highly acclaimed Bluetooth headset, Jawbone, which he calls a facial accessory [6].

He designed a set-top box for French broadcaster Canal Plus. "Le cube", in black and white. [7].

[edit] Recognitions

The OLPC XO laptop
  • Solo museum exhibitions:
    • The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2004
    • The Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains (MUDAC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, 2004
  • Brit Insurance 2008 Design Award for One Laptop Per Child
  • D&AD Silver design award, 2003
  • ID Magazine Annual Design Competition, 2002/3/4/5/6
  • IDEA, Business Week Gold, Silver and Bronze Excellence Award (17), 2001/2/3/4/5
  • INDEX award for the OLPC XO laptop
  • National Design Award from the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
  • Red Dot Design Award (4), 2004-5
  • Time Magazine Best Invention, 2001

[edit] Quotations

  • After winning the INDEX award for the OLPC laptop: "Great design is a way to tell people that you value them."
  • On his parents: "One is functional and modernist and the other, expressive and poetic. I always try to marry the two in my projects."
  • On his San Francisco home: "I think I can think here."
  • On the future of design: "I believe design's purpose is not only to show us the future, but to bring us the future."
  • On advertising: "Advertising is the price you pay for being unoriginal."

[edit] See also

Industrial Design portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ CCA Names Yves Béhar Chair of Industrial Design Program - California College of the Arts
  2. ^ Yves Béhar - Industrial Design Faculty - California College of the Arts
  3. ^ a b All About Yves - Fuseproject - One LapTop per Child - Masters of a Design : Fast Company
  4. ^ Swarovski crystal sculpture installed at JFK
  5. ^ One Laptop per Child (OLPC), Progress: Discover the origins of OLPC
  6. ^ Yves Béhar - The Style & Design 100 - TIME
  7. ^ Le Cube

[edit] Further reading

  • Yves Behar+Fuseproject Commerce/Concept By Yves Behar [1]
  • Yves Behar: Fuseproject (Design Focus) by Gingko Press [2]
  • Yves Behar Fuseproject: Design Series 2 (Sfmoma Design Series, 2) by Joseph Rosa (Author), Yves Behar (Author)[3]

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yves_Behar"
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