Star Power
October 2006
When people think about innovation today, they’re usually not prepared for the out-of-the-box thinking of industrial designer Yves Béhar (b. 1967). A wunderkind of his generation, Béhar has built a following for his avant-garde designs and nontraditional problem solving. “There was nobody fusing the notion of branding and design,” says the designer, who seven years ago founded fuseproject, the San Francisco–based industrial design and branding firm that has developed
projects ranging from major sculptural installations to computers, apparel, lighting, footwear, car accessories and fragrance items. “We definitely saw ourselves as the challengers, not establishment, and we continually push the boundaries, progressing and bringing people along to the next big thing.”
A case in point is the launch of Leaf Light, designed for Herman Miller Inc., which allows the user to change the coloration from a bright efficient work light to a warm, romantic mood light. “This is what I call ‘technology with humanity,’” Béhar says of the product, which is a result of four years of experimentation with LED lights. “I wanted Leaf to be both futuristic and familiar, like a blade of grass that lights up at night. At the same time, a new technology demands a new expression and a new function: the ability to change the light from cold to warm, focusing on the experience of the light. The simplicity of the form enhances the experience. While you can touch the product, the emotion of light touches you.”
“In just a few years, Yves Béhar has established himself as one of the most inventive and innovative product designers in the United States,” says Paola Antonelli, curator of the department of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which this year accessioned the Leaf Light into its permanent collection. “His ability to understand the pragmatic concerns of big and market-minded enterprises and marry them with recent advancements in technology and understanding of human behavior, along with his natural talent, present us with the promise of more good design to come.”
The casually dressed, affable designer is very involved in fuseproject’s core ideas and design directions. However, he also is quick to admit that there is a team behind the process. “Some projects are guided more from a personal level and point of view, others are developed through collaborative brainstorms that include different skills and designers. The team contributes at many levels, including engineering design and 3-D programming, and graphic and branding design.”
Voyage, a colossal chandelier that hangs 17 feet overhead in JFK’s Terminal 4 in New York, exemplifies his emotional approach to sculptural design and the team effort involved: Twenty
people worked for more than five weeks to produce the 1.3-ton curved light sculpture. Airport lighting never looked more dramatic. The double-loop chandelier, co-sponsored by Swarovski and Bombay Sapphire and wrought in metalwork by the renowned Nagel-Hammers company, is covered with 60,000 crystals and 2,000 LED lights, and has a motion detector that responds to crowd movements. “It speaks of the way we travel around the world and come back to the same point, or the way travel should be—fluid, continuous and uninterrupted,” he explains. (An 8-foot version, seen at Miami’s Art Basel, is available at Moss in New York for $98,000 and 6 ½ foot version is available through Swarovski in London for $77,600.)
“What inspires me is the tension and melding of opposites,” says Béhar, who hails from a multicultural, cosmopolitan upbringing. (He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to a German mother and a Turkish father.) “My own cultural background between Swiss modernism and the poetic Ottoman tradition of Turkey is an inspiration. Having grown up in Switzerland, I have inherited a certain need to work outside the box while retaining a taste for simple icons. Childhood summers spent with my family in Istanbul exposed me to the complexity of mixed cultures—East and West—blending through architecture, forms and colors.”
Béhar studied industrial design in Europe and the United States, and he holds a B.S. of Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design, Montreux, Switzerland. “I took a very different road as a European designer by not going through Milan, but rather throwing myself in the technology of the Bay area,” says the designer, who prior to founding fuseproject held the position of design leader for frog design and Lunar Design in Palo Alto—positions that didn’t quite fit his philosophies. “I struggled trying to communicate deeper concepts to computer companies, who never truly allowed me to divert their focus from creating ‘dumb boxes’ with hard drives and boards inside,” says the designer who is now free to create novel technology-driven products, like the wafer-thin 2003 Toshiba Red Transformer: It looks simple when closed, but upon opening, the screen of this sleek, multifunctional laptop slides over the keyboard to become a personal entertainment center or a flat monitor for presentations and client meetings. “Eventually I opted to use technology to create magical experiences, some of which are just coming to fruition,” he says, referencing the nonprofit “One Laptop per Child,” which will begin shipping computers to schoolchildren in developing countries by March 2007. “The project is progressing toward a seven-million unit production by early 2007,” he says of this initiative driven by noted computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte who selected fuseproject as the design team.
Béhar’s most visible commercial success is his redesigned Footprint for Birkenstock, which dramatically rejuvenated the shoemaker’s line. Multifaceted brands, such as Danese, Target, Hewlett-Packard and Johnson & Johnson also have turned to fuseproject for reinvention. Béhar’s MINI_motion collection, for example, includes stylish driving accessories, such as apparel, wristwatches, driving shoes and even tents, positioned them as a brand sold outside of car dealerships, ideally in boutiques and design shops.
This unique perspective has attracted recognition for Béhar and his designs. Recently, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco named him Chair of Industrial Design, and his numerous awards include the National Design Award for product design from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Despite the accolades, Béhar downplays his impending celebrity status. “Fundamentally, being a designer is a generous endeavor,” he says. “We embark on a long path of discovery, dig deep into our soul and creativity, feel and express the qualities of our backers and clients, be an advocate for the consumer and have a deep understanding of their needs. Without a sense of giving, this job can not be done well.”
 |
Leaf Light, 2006, aluminum |
A case in point is the launch of Leaf Light, designed for Herman Miller Inc., which allows the user to change the coloration from a bright efficient work light to a warm, romantic mood light. “This is what I call ‘technology with humanity,’” Béhar says of the product, which is a result of four years of experimentation with LED lights. “I wanted Leaf to be both futuristic and familiar, like a blade of grass that lights up at night. At the same time, a new technology demands a new expression and a new function: the ability to change the light from cold to warm, focusing on the experience of the light. The simplicity of the form enhances the experience. While you can touch the product, the emotion of light touches you.”
“In just a few years, Yves Béhar has established himself as one of the most inventive and innovative product designers in the United States,” says Paola Antonelli, curator of the department of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which this year accessioned the Leaf Light into its permanent collection. “His ability to understand the pragmatic concerns of big and market-minded enterprises and marry them with recent advancements in technology and understanding of human behavior, along with his natural talent, present us with the promise of more good design to come.”
The casually dressed, affable designer is very involved in fuseproject’s core ideas and design directions. However, he also is quick to admit that there is a team behind the process. “Some projects are guided more from a personal level and point of view, others are developed through collaborative brainstorms that include different skills and designers. The team contributes at many levels, including engineering design and 3-D programming, and graphic and branding design.”
Voyage, a colossal chandelier that hangs 17 feet overhead in JFK’s Terminal 4 in New York, exemplifies his emotional approach to sculptural design and the team effort involved: Twenty
 |
Voyage, 2005, Swarovski crystal, |
“What inspires me is the tension and melding of opposites,” says Béhar, who hails from a multicultural, cosmopolitan upbringing. (He was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, to a German mother and a Turkish father.) “My own cultural background between Swiss modernism and the poetic Ottoman tradition of Turkey is an inspiration. Having grown up in Switzerland, I have inherited a certain need to work outside the box while retaining a taste for simple icons. Childhood summers spent with my family in Istanbul exposed me to the complexity of mixed cultures—East and West—blending through architecture, forms and colors.”
Béhar studied industrial design in Europe and the United States, and he holds a B.S. of Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design, Montreux, Switzerland. “I took a very different road as a European designer by not going through Milan, but rather throwing myself in the technology of the Bay area,” says the designer, who prior to founding fuseproject held the position of design leader for frog design and Lunar Design in Palo Alto—positions that didn’t quite fit his philosophies. “I struggled trying to communicate deeper concepts to computer companies, who never truly allowed me to divert their focus from creating ‘dumb boxes’ with hard drives and boards inside,” says the designer who is now free to create novel technology-driven products, like the wafer-thin 2003 Toshiba Red Transformer: It looks simple when closed, but upon opening, the screen of this sleek, multifunctional laptop slides over the keyboard to become a personal entertainment center or a flat monitor for presentations and client meetings. “Eventually I opted to use technology to create magical experiences, some of which are just coming to fruition,” he says, referencing the nonprofit “One Laptop per Child,” which will begin shipping computers to schoolchildren in developing countries by March 2007. “The project is progressing toward a seven-million unit production by early 2007,” he says of this initiative driven by noted computer scientist Nicholas Negroponte who selected fuseproject as the design team.
Béhar’s most visible commercial success is his redesigned Footprint for Birkenstock, which dramatically rejuvenated the shoemaker’s line. Multifaceted brands, such as Danese, Target, Hewlett-Packard and Johnson & Johnson also have turned to fuseproject for reinvention. Béhar’s MINI_motion collection, for example, includes stylish driving accessories, such as apparel, wristwatches, driving shoes and even tents, positioned them as a brand sold outside of car dealerships, ideally in boutiques and design shops.
This unique perspective has attracted recognition for Béhar and his designs. Recently, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco named him Chair of Industrial Design, and his numerous awards include the National Design Award for product design from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Despite the accolades, Béhar downplays his impending celebrity status. “Fundamentally, being a designer is a generous endeavor,” he says. “We embark on a long path of discovery, dig deep into our soul and creativity, feel and express the qualities of our backers and clients, be an advocate for the consumer and have a deep understanding of their needs. Without a sense of giving, this job can not be done well.”
Polly Guérin, a former adjunct assistant professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, covers antiques and contemporary design for Art & Antiques.
For more information
►fuseproject
San Francisco
415.908.1492
www.fuseproject.com
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