Yves Béhar (born 1967) is a Swiss-born American

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, and educator. 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 Cit ...

, 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 advan ...

and

brand development In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is per ...

firm. Béhar is also co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

, a

smart lock A smart lock is an electromechanical 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, Bluetooth, or Wi-FI from a registered mobile devic ...

company acquired by

Assa Abloy Assa Abloy AB is a Swedish conglomerate 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, ...

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

Herman Miller Herman Miller, officially MillerKnoll, Inc., is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is al ...

Movado Movado is an American luxury watchmaker. It is best known for its Museum Watch. Movado means "movement" in Esperanto. The watches are known for their signature metallic dot at 12 o'clock and minimalist style. Movado traces its origins to La Ch ...

, 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 analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

MINI The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

, See Better to Learn Better,

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

Swarovski Swarovski (, ) is an Austrian producer of glass based in Wattens, Austria, and has existed as a family-owned business since its founding in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is split into three major industry areas: the Swarovski Crystal ...

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

, Happiest Baby, 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 t ...

and Cobalt Robotics.

Early life and career

Béhar was born in 1967 in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

to a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mother, Christine Behar and a

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

, Turkish father, Henry Behar. He studied drawing and industrial design in both

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Béhar attended school in Lausanne, Switzerland and at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1991, he received a

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

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 advan ...

from the

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred R. ...

. Prior to founding

, Yves 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.

Work

In 1999, Béhar founded the San Francisco and New York-based industrial design and brand management firm

. At Fuseproject, Béhar oversees product design for a variety of industrial sectors, including

fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...

lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

and

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...

. His clients include

, PUMA, One Laptop per Child,

Jawbone In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

, See Better to Learn Better,

Jimmyjane JIMMYJANE is a luxury intimate wellness brand that was founded in San Francisco, California, and produces high-end, design-oriented lifestyle and sexual accessories, including vibrators and sex toys. Ethan Imboden, the company's founder and creati ...

, and

. 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. He is the chief industrial designer of One Laptop per Child (OLPC's) XO laptop, signing on with the project in 2005 and has been with the team since March 2006. This collaboration has led to two additional laptop prototypes, the OLPC XOXO and OLPC XO-3. From 2005–2012, he was chair of the Industrial Design Program at

California College of the Arts 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 San ...

. Béhar's work has been featured in museums and exhibitions around the world, including at the Mudac, Design Miami, and in the permanent collection at MoMA, and SFMoMA, where Béhar is currently sitting on the Board of Trustees.

Design ventures

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 and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detec ...

company,

, 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. He is the chief industrial designer of One Laptop per Child (OLPC's) XO laptop, signing on with the project in 2005 and has been with the team since March 2006. This collaboration has led to two additional laptop prototypes, the OLPC XOXO and OLPC XO-3. In 2009, he collaborated with Ethan Imboden of

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

. In June 2012, Yves Behar and

Ouya The Ouya ( ), stylized as OUYA, is an 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 of Product Management to p ...

partnered to create an open, hackable game platform. The initiative launched on Kickstarter 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 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 $11m in funding ($7m in institutional funding and $4m in preorders), the product never shipped. 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 Harvey Neil Karp, FAAP (born 1951) is an American pediatrician, author, and child development specialist. He is best known for his book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" and its accompanying DVD, that use his "5 S's" approach to infant care. H ...

in October 2016, 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 now 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 on ...

Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and arc ...

, and the

Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It migh ...

. In 2017, Béhar made international news with his work with Fusebox on the

Juicero Juicero was an American company that designed and manufactured the Juicero Press, a fruit and vegetable juicer. The Juicero Press was a Wi-Fi connected juicer that used proprietary, single-serving packets of pre-chopped fruits and vegetables that ...

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

Works

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. He collaborates with clients to design and implement sustainable projects. As the chief industrial designer of One Laptop per Child (OLPC's) XO laptop, 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 ( es, República Oriental del 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 ...

purchased approximately 1,000,000 OLPC devices, and

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

has included an image of the OLPC XO notebook on their new currency. In 2008, Béhar redesigned the NYC 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 immune ...

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

and

teen pregnancy Teenage pregnancy, also known as adolescent pregnancy, is pregnancy in a female adolescent or young adult under the age of 20. This includes those who are Legal adult, legally considered adults in their country. The WHO defines adolescence as the ...

. 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, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

students. 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." Béhar is also the principal designer of the SPRING Accelerator programme created by the Nike Foundation,

Girl Effect Girl Effect is an independent non-profit organization, launched in September 2015 with the goal of ending poverty globally. History Girl Effect was created in 2004 by the Nike Foundation, in collaboration with the NoVo Foundation and United Nati ...

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bi ...

and

DFID , type = Department , logo = DfID.svg , logo_width = 180px , logo_caption = , picture = File:Admiralty Screen (411824276).jpg , picture_width = 180px , picture_caption = Department for International Development (London office) (far right ...

. 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.

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

Awards

* 2017 - Swiss Institute Honoree,

Swiss Institute Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art organization founded in 1986. SI is located at 38 St Marks Pl, the corner of Second Avenue and St Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of Manhatt ...

* 2015 - Design Visionary Award,

Design Miami Design Miami/ is an American design company that holds two annual flagship collectible design fairs in Miami, Florida and Basel, Switzerland. Design Miami/ also holds fairs in Paris and Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard M ...

* 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 Cit ...

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 CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

The Next List ''The Next List'' is a 30-minute weekend television program on CNN. It aired every Saturday afternoon at 2:30 pm ET/PT and was hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. CNN announced cancellation in September 2013. Each week, the show profiled inno ...

. * 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 a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

2007 Master of Design * 2004 -

National Design Award The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are funded and awarded by Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New Y ...

, category of Product Design from the

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile (New York City), Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the ...

Exhibitions

Solo museum exhibitions

*2004 - The

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, *2004 - The

Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts The Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts (French: ''Musée de design et d'arts appliqués contemporains'', MUDAC) is a museum in Lausanne, Switzerland. See also * List of cultural property of national significance in Switzerland: ...

(MUDAC) in

Group museum exhibitions

* 2012 - Béhar's work, ''Alef of Life'' was exhibited 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 historic ...

in San Francisco, as part of the exhibit "Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought: An Exhibition and The Dorothy Saxe Invitational".

References

Surfing the Next Wave
Vanity Fair.

Fast Company.

''

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online magazine, online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquar ...

External links

Fuseproject Official website
*
Yves Béhar page on Fuseproject website

Yves Béhar Twitter

* {{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 Art Center College of Design alumni People from San Francisco