Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, May 20, 2021: Yves Béhar, a Swiss product designer, entrepreneur and an educator (#1288)

Yves Béhar (1967) is a Swiss designer, entrepreneur and an educator. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an industrial design and brand development firm. Béhar is also co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of August, a smart lock company recently acquired by Assa Abloy, and he is co-founder of Canopy, a new co-working space based in San Francisco.

Béhar's design work emphasizes the integration of commercial products with sustainability and social good. In 2011, the Conde Nast Innovation and Design Awards recognized him as Designer of the Year.His clients have included Herman Miller, Movado, PUMA, Kodak, MINI, Western Digital, See Better to Learn Better, General Electric, Swarovski, Samsung, Happiest Baby, Jimmyjane, Prada and Cobalt Robotics.

Béhar was born in Lausanne, Switzerland to a German mother, Christine Behar and a Sephardic Jewish and Turkish father, Henry Behar.

He studied drawing and industrial design in both Europe and the United States. 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 in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design.

Prior to founding Fuseproject, Yves was design leader at the Silicon Valley offices of frog design and Lunar Design, developing product identities for clients such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Silicon Graphics.

In 1999, Béhar founded the San Francisco 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, lifestyle, sports and technology.

From 2005–2012, he was chair of the Industrial Design Program at California College of the Arts.

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.

In 2010, Béhar redesigned the Jawbone branding, packaging, communications and products. Behar designed the JAMBOX and BIG JAMBOX, a family of completely wireless, bluetooth compact audio speakers and also the UP, Jawbone's app-powered health and wellness wristband.

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.

In June 2012, Yves Behar and Ouya 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 2015, Béhar and Movado 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 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 Samsung; The Frame is a smart TV that, instead of going black when turned off, it 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, Andy Warhol Museum, and the Prado.

In 2017, Béhar made international news with his work with Fusebox on the Juicero 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 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 purchased approximately 1,000,000 OLPC devices, and Rwanda 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/AIDS and teen pregnancy.

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 students.[39]

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

© 2021. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Yves Béhar or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Yves Béhar

Yves Béhar studio

Mission Motors 2010

Herman Miller Sayl Stool 2011

Herman Miller public office landscape 2013

Cobalt 2016

Kodak- Super 8 Camera 2016

Ori Living – Robotic Furniture 2016

ElliQ Home companion robot, 2017

Happiest Baby SNOO 2017

Seismic Powered Suit for aging population 2017

Western Digital PASSPORTS 2017

Hive View home security camera at CES 2018

Samsung The Frame (tv) 2018

L’Oréal My Skin Track UV 2019

World's first 3D-printed community for Latin America 2019

Forme Life personal strength studio 2020

MADE-TO-ORDER Designed for sustainability and adaptability
LivingHome is a next-gen prefab house with an adjustable layout
and smart home technology 2020