Yves Béhar (; born 9 May 1967) is a Swiss-born American designer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and principal designer of

Fuseproject Fuseproject is an industrial design and branding firm. Founded in 1999 by designer Yves Béhar, the company works across an array of industries including beauty and fashion, furniture, and technology, and is based in San Francisco and New York Ci ...

, an

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

and

brand development In marketing, brand management refers to the process of controlling how a brand is perceived in the market (economics), market. Tangible elements of brand management include the look, price, and packaging of the product itself; intangible element ...

firm. Béhar is also the co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of August Smart Lock, a

smart lock A smart lock is an electromechanics, electromechanical Lock (security device), lock that is designed to perform locking and unlocking operations on a door when it receives a prompt via an electronic keypad, biometric sensor, access card, Bluetoot ...

company acquired by

Assa Abloy Assa Abloy AB is a Swedish Group whose offerings include products and services related to locks, doors, gates, and entrance automation. Related products and services include controlling access and confirming identities with keys, cards, tags, ...

in 2017; and co-founder of Canopy, a co-working space based in San Francisco. In 2011, the Conde Nast Innovation and Design Awards recognized Béhar as Designer of the Year. His clients have included

Herman Miller MillerKnoll, Inc., doing business as Herman Miller, is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings. Its best known designs include the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, Mirra chair, and t ...

Movado Movado is an American watch brand originally founded in 1881 in Switzerland. Movado means "movement" in Esperanto. The watches are known for their signature metallic dot at 12 o'clock and minimalist style; the company is best known for its Mu ...

, PUMA,

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company, referred to simply as Kodak (), is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in film photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorporated i ...

MINI The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation is an American data storage company headquartered in San Jose, California. Established in 1970, the company is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives (HDDs). History 1970s Western Digital ...

, See Better to Learn Better,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Tyrol. It was founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal Business, which primarily produces crystal glas ...

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

, SNOO'S Happiest Baby Smart Bassinet, Jimmyjane,

Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding ...

and Cobalt Robotics.

Early life, education, and early career

Béhar was born in 1967 in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

to a German mother, Christine Béhar, and a Sephardi Jewish father, Henry Béhar, whose ancestors were expelled from a ghetto in Venice and resettled in Turkey. He studied drawing and industrial design in both

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Béhar attended school in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the Art Center College of Design in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

. In 1991, he received a

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

from the

Art Center College of Design The ArtCenter College of Design is a private art college in Pasadena, California. It was incorporated in 1930 as a degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the visual arts and design. ...

. Prior to founding Fuseproject, Béhar was design leader at the Silicon Valley offices of

frog design frog (styled as ''"frog, part of Capgemini Invent"'') is a global creative and design consultancy founded in 1969 by industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger in Mutlangen, Germany, where it was initially named “esslinger design”. Soon after the ...

and Lunar Design, developing product identities for clients such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics. From 2005–2012, he was chair of the Industrial Design Program at

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

Fuseproject

In 1999, Béhar founded the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and New York-based industrial design and brand management firm Fuseproject. At Fuseproject, Béhar oversees product design for a variety of industrial sectors, including

fashion Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

lifestyle Lifestyle is the interests, opinions, behaviours, and behavioural orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term "style of life" () was introduced by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in his 1929 book, ''The Case of Miss R.'', w ...

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

and

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

. His clients include Herman Miller, PUMA, One Laptop per Child, Jawbone, Kodak, Mission Motors, See Better to Learn Better, General Electric, Swarovski, Samsung, Jimmyjane, and Prada. In 2010, Fuseproject was the top winner of the

Industrial Designers Society of America The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is a membership-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the practice and education of industrial design. The organization was formally established in 1965 by the collaborative merger of t ...

IDSA IDEA/Fast Company awards with 14 winning products.

Design ventures and work

Béhar is a sustainability advocate who argues that a designer's role is to create products that are both commercially viable and contribute to social good. Béhar is a member of the Founder's Circle of the ''Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute,'' a non-profit organization founded in 2010 in order to educate and empower manufacturers of consumer products to focus on environmental impact and social fairness.

Jawbone (2003–2017)

Béhar was the Chief Creative Officer of the

wearable technology Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches, fitness trackers, and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the s ...

company, Jawbone, from 2003 until 2017. In 2010, Béhar redesigned the Jawbone branding, packaging, communications and products. Behar designed the JAMBOX and BIG JAMBOX, a family of bluetooth compact audio speakers and also the UP: Jawbone's app-powered health and wellness wristband. Béhar collaborated with Ceft and Company New York for the Jawbone headset visuals. As of 2017, Jawbone was being liquidated and the money was being used for a new health start-up called Jawbone Health.

One Laptop per Child (2005)

He is the chief industrial designer of One Laptop per Child (OLPC's) XO laptop, signing on with the project in 2005. This collaboration has led to two additional laptop prototypes, the OLPC XOXO and OLPC XO-3. Béhar designed a series of low-cost, low-power laptops for distribution to low-income schoolchildren. The impact of OLPC on developing countries was so great that

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

purchased approximately 1,000,000 OLPC devices, and

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

has included an image of the OLPC XO notebook on their new currency.

Jimmyjane (2009)

In 2009, he collaborated with Ethan Imboden of Jimmyjane on a line of waterproof rechargeable vibrators. He partnered with Peel, a company that created an app and hardware to turn mobile devices into universal television remotes. Other investment and partner companies include Mint Cleaner, and Herman Miller.

Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor (2010–2011)

Béhar designed eyeglasses for the "Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor" (in English "See Better to Learn Better") program. "Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor" has provided free pairs of custom-designed eyeglasses to students throughout Mexico since 2010. In May 2011, Béhar partnered with Tipping Point, a San Francisco-based philanthropic organization, who made a pledge to the "See Well to Learn" program, which aims to distribute free pairs of glasses to

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

students.

SPRING Accelerator (2015)

Béhar is also the principal designer of the SPRING Accelerator programme created by the Nike Foundation, Girl Effect,

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

and

DFID The Department for International Development (DFID) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid ...

. The programme takes 18 entrepreneurs annually whose businesses provide products or services that directly impact the lives of adolescent girls living in poverty worldwide. The first cohort launched in June 2015, with entrepreneurs from Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda. Yves Béhar and fuseproject provide hands-on design support for the businesses, including brand identity, product design, interactive design, and service/business modeling – working directly with adolescent girls in order to maximize impact and scalability.

Other design work

In 2008, Béhar redesigned the

NYC Condom The NYC Condom is a male condom offered by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's NYC Condom Availability Program (NYCAP). The program distributes free safer sex products (including male condoms, Female condom, internal condom ...

logo and packaging, as well as NYC Condom vending machines for the New York City Department of Health as a part of an initiative to reduce

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

and

teen pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Worldwide, pregnancy complications are the leading cause of death for women and girls 15 to 19 years old. The definition of teenage pregnancy i ...

. In June 2012, Béhar and

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an Android (operating system), Android-based microconsole developed by Ouya Inc. Julie Uhrman founded the project in 2012, bringing in designer Yves Béhar to collaborate on its design and Muffi Ghadiali as VP ...

partnered to create an open, hackable game platform. The initiative launched on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

and raised over $8.5 million with over 63,000 backers. In 2012, SodaStream International teamed with Béhar to introduce Source, a new home soda machine designed with a special emphasis on sustainability. In October 2015, Béhar and

announced a design collaboration, beginning with the Movado Edge; this is the first design partnership for the brand since the launch of their original Museum Dial watch in 1947. Béhar launched the world's first smart bassinet with Harvey Karp in October 2016, the Snoo Bassinet, utilizing robotic technology to simulate the 5 S technique detailed in Happiest Baby on the Block. In 2017, Behar introduced The Frame, a collaboration with

; The Frame is a smart TV that, instead of going black when turned off, displays a piece of artwork from a world-renowned artist. The Frame has an extended art collection with works from the

Van Gogh Museum The Van Gogh Museum () is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened o ...

, Andy Warhol Museum, and the

Prado The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

. In 2017, Béhar designed a model of security robots for use in workspaces which was launched by Cobalt Robotics.

Personal life

Béhar has four children; Sky (born 2007) from a prior relationship and Sylver (born 2010), Soleyl (born 2014), and Saylor (born 2016) with Sabrina Buell. His children all have the letter Y in their name to honor his father, Henry. Béhar married Sabrina Buell in September 2017 at

Burning Man Burning Man is a week-long large-scale desert event focused on "community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance" held annually in the Western United States. The event's name comes from its ceremony on the penultimate night of the event: the ...

, at the wooden Aluna structure designed by Colombian architect Juan David Marulanda.

Unsuccessful Products

In June 2014, Béhar partnered with Mark One to announce Vessyl, a proposed intelligent drinking glass designed to help users make better decisions about their health and overall consumption. After taking in more than US$11m in funding ($7m in institutional funding, and $4m in preorders), the product never shipped. In 2017, Béhar made international news with his work with Fusebox on the

Juicero Juicero Inc. () was an American company that designed, manufactured and sold the Juicero Press, a fruit and vegetable juicer. The Juicero Press featured Wi-Fi connectivity and used proprietary, single-serving packets of pre-chopped fruits and ve ...

juicer. It was known for limited functionality and high price, designed with known limitations for the user putting Fuseproject's design reputation on the line. Shortly after the criticism, the company closed.

Awards and honors

Additionally, Béhar is the only designer to have received two Index: Awards, with an additional nomination for his design of Puma's "Clever Little Bag." * 2017 – Swiss Institute Honoree, Swiss Institute * 2015 – Design Visionary Award, Design Miami * 2014 – Béhar's company

fuseproject Fuseproject is an industrial design and branding firm. Founded in 1999 by designer Yves Béhar, the company works across an array of industries including beauty and fashion, furniture, and technology, and is based in San Francisco and New York Ci ...

listed among World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Design by Fast Company, * 2012 -Béhar was featured on a February 26, 2012 episode of

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

's The Next List. * 2011– INDEX award for the OLPC

XO laptop The OLPC XO (formerly known as $100 Laptop, Children's Machine, 2B1) is a low cost laptop computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to " ...

and the Verbien See Better to Learn Better, a collaboration with Augen Optics, eyeglass program * 2011– Conde Nast Innovation and Design Awards, 2011: Yves Béhar – Designer of the Year, PUMA Clever Little Bag – Sustainability. * 2011 – Treehugger's Best of Green Architecture and Design Awards – Herman Miller SAYL and GE WattStation * 2010 – IDEA Awards 2010: ranked #1 winner with 14 awards in Fast Company * 2008 – Design Museum London "Design of the Year" award for One Laptop per Child (Brit Insurance 2008 Design Award) * 2007 – Béhar listed among ''TIME'''s "Top 25 Visionaries" * 2007 –

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is an American business magazine published monthly in print and online, focusing on technology, business, and design. It releases six print issues annually. History ''Fast Company'' was founded in November 1995 by Alan Webb ...

2007 Master of Design * 2004 –

National Design Award The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are various awards funded and bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards when applicable. Any supplement ...

, category of Product Design from the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facil ...

Exhibitions and museum collections

Solo exhibitions

*2004 – The

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

, *2004 – The Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (MUDAC) in

Group exhibitions

* 2012 – Béhar's work, ''Alef of Life'' was a touring exhibition at the

Contemporary Jewish Museum The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the histori ...

in San Francisco, as part of the exhibit "Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought: An Exhibition and The Dorothy Saxe Invitational". Béhar's work has work in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and SFMoMA. Béhar is on the board of trustees for SFMoMA.

References

External links

Fuseproject Official website
*
Yves Béhar page on Fuseproject website

* * ttp://www.vanityfair.com/business/2014/02/yves-behar-design-silicon-valley.html Surfing the Next Wave Vanity Fair.
All About Yves
Fast Company.

''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. It is published in both print and Online magazine, online editions by Condé Nast. The magazine has been in public ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Behar, Yves 1967 births Living people People from Lausanne Swiss industrial designers Swiss emigrants to the United States Swiss people of German descent Swiss people of Turkish-Jewish descent ArtCenter College of Design alumni Businesspeople from San Francisco American industrial designers California College of the Arts faculty