Q&A With Legendary Designer Yves Behar (inputmag.com) 42
Yves Behar doesn't really need any introduction. The world-renowned Swiss designer is a frequent creative artist in the gadget realm. He's designed iconic devices like the OLPC, Jawbone Jambox, Herman Miller SAYL chair, and many more. From an interview, where he also talks about his smart lock company August: Input: What is your favorite gadget right now that's not the new August smart lock?
Yves: My funnest, latest gadget is my electric bicycle. It's kind of changed the way I think about mobility and getting around. I think that both scooters and electric bicycles really make you not hesitate to go somewhere. Instead of going in a car, you just are outside and you can go on a hike, you can go pick up something, and so those are my two latest acquisitions and fun things to use.
Input: What is the one piece of tech you're most excited for? Whether that's autonomous cars or like anything that's far-flung?
Yves: I live in San Francisco so solving city-level transportation is the most interesting opportunity. It's an opportunity to reshape the landscape of a city. To take back streets, to put more people, more housing, more density in cities, which I think is very important both from a human standpoint and environmental standpoint. So I'm really excited about both individual cars and public transportation being autonomous, being on-demand, and clearing the street of all that parking and all those cars.
Input: As a designer, what is your favorite material to work with? What material really challenges you or you love working with?
Yves: Over the span of my career, I'm not one of these designers who is known for making everything in white or black or having a singular material.
Input: Haha, mmm, that guy [Jony Ive] is no longer at that company [Apple].
Yves: [Laughs] What I've always been interested in is sustainability and I think, today, with what we see with plastics and packaging, and the environment -- we really need to move towards bioplastics. Materials that will not only be recycled, but that will be beneficial for the Earth when they decompose. So whether you're doing packaging or doing products, I think we need to move towards that and there aren't enough new materials. There's research being done, but at scale, currently, what we really need is some environmentally sound material that can be used and reused, and can help us move away from the sort of environmental disasters that we're experiencing.
Yves: My funnest, latest gadget is my electric bicycle. It's kind of changed the way I think about mobility and getting around. I think that both scooters and electric bicycles really make you not hesitate to go somewhere. Instead of going in a car, you just are outside and you can go on a hike, you can go pick up something, and so those are my two latest acquisitions and fun things to use.
Input: What is the one piece of tech you're most excited for? Whether that's autonomous cars or like anything that's far-flung?
Yves: I live in San Francisco so solving city-level transportation is the most interesting opportunity. It's an opportunity to reshape the landscape of a city. To take back streets, to put more people, more housing, more density in cities, which I think is very important both from a human standpoint and environmental standpoint. So I'm really excited about both individual cars and public transportation being autonomous, being on-demand, and clearing the street of all that parking and all those cars.
Input: As a designer, what is your favorite material to work with? What material really challenges you or you love working with?
Yves: Over the span of my career, I'm not one of these designers who is known for making everything in white or black or having a singular material.
Input: Haha, mmm, that guy [Jony Ive] is no longer at that company [Apple].
Yves: [Laughs] What I've always been interested in is sustainability and I think, today, with what we see with plastics and packaging, and the environment -- we really need to move towards bioplastics. Materials that will not only be recycled, but that will be beneficial for the Earth when they decompose. So whether you're doing packaging or doing products, I think we need to move towards that and there aren't enough new materials. There's research being done, but at scale, currently, what we really need is some environmentally sound material that can be used and reused, and can help us move away from the sort of environmental disasters that we're experiencing.
It's he a commie? (Score:1)
Yes we do need an introduction (Score:5, Insightful)
His "Iconic" devices like OLPC, Jawbone Jambox, Herman Miller SAYL chair.
While not unpopular, I wouldn't say they are Iconic to a point where you would expect anyone on the street to say I know what they look like.
Perhaps he is more popular in Switzerland but in America, I expect more people will relate to a Jony Ives Apple products as more of the "Iconic" designs.
Re: (Score:2)
His "Iconic" devices like OLPC, Jawbone Jambox, Herman Miller SAYL chair.
I had to google search these to see what the looked like. I've seen things close to the Jambox and the chair, but I wouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd of products let alone know who designed them.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm familiar with OLPC it was a popular topic on this site at one point but yeah I still didn't know who he was, Jony Ive on the other hand I know who that is.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Yes we do need an introduction (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess different strokes for different folks, but I just don't get it with these people like him that keep preaching that we need more crowding together of people into tight urban areas, with no cars, less freedom to move about and stacked upon each other like so many sardines.
I mean sure, if you like that lifestyle, but it just isn't for everyone.
It seems that crime is higher in the densely packed areas...maybe people for the most part aren't supposed to live that densely, in that you really start to hate your neighbors after awhile when you can't get away from them periodically.
Efficiency is not the end all be all goal of life.
You need to balance that will quality of life, and for many...it is actually NOT having to share walls with your neighbors, and hear them fucking or arguing next door, and not having to turn your stereo down for fear of waking their kids at night, etc.
For many of us, we like to actually have a yard, to have friends over...to have a smoker, and a grill and an area for a crawfish boil and have friends over...to home brew( the real thing with all grain, 3 tier set ups)....etc.
Again, different strokes for different folks, but I just get tired of hearing folks like that keep preaching that this is the end goal and best way to have all humans live, and not considering that they way we live is often choice in what makes ones short time on this planet enjoyable.
Re: (Score:1)
For many of us, we like to actually have a yard, to have friends over...to have a smoker, and a grill and an area for a crawfish boil and have friends over...to home brew( the real thing with all grain, 3 tier set ups)....etc.
Cheers to that! I'd bring some steaks and a tri-tip for that grill.
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Thing is, you buy a nice house in a nice village with lovely green fields around you, sheep to admire, some woodland nearby.
Ten years later the city nearby has expanded its limits, your village has grown, you're now living in a city.
I did go somewhere else but suddenly I'm living in a city and the cunts optimising the city for city inhabitants sure as fuck aren't optimising it for me.
So yeah, people with "designer" in their name need to get a fucking clue and understand that not everybody wants their lifest
Re: Yes we do need an introduction (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Probably a big name in the Design Community. But not so much outside that niche.
If you are into Country Western, chances are you probably haven't heard of some of the ground breaking Rap musicians. With the exception of some of the guys who also show up in TV Shows or Movies.
Re: Yes we do need an introduction (Score:1)
Well, I live in Switzerland, and I don't think I've ever seen his name mentioned... The only thing I have heard of is the OLPC, nothing else rings a bell.
Re: (Score:1)
Who? (Score:5, Insightful)
Never heard of him
no bigger waste of time than organizing trash (Score:1)
no introduction needed? then why introduce him? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's funny how anytime someone says "So-and-so needs no introduction" they always proceed to introduce so-and-so.
Not important, but kind of a pet peeve of mine. Why bother to say this person doesn't need an introduction if you're going to introduce him?
Re: no introduction needed? then why introduce him (Score:1)
FALSE: Yves Behar doesn't really need introduction (Score:1)
Re: FALSE: Yves Behar doesn't really need introduc (Score:1)
No pics? (Score:3)
Bioplastic is just plastic (Score:3)
> we really need to move towards bioplastics
Bioplastics are plastic. After they are synthesized they share the same essential lifecycle, recyclabillity, etc. with basically any other hydrocarbon plastic. The biggest substantive difference is that most bioplastic resins are kind of shitty materials. They are too soft, too brittle, develop a poor surface texture, are hydrophillic, etc. Not that they shouldn't be developed -- the technology to produce, recycle, and consume hydrocarbons in a totally sustainable way needs to exist, but producing simple, shitty plastics from plants is just not in any way an environmentally friendly alternative at this point in time. If you can solve the lifecycle problem for bioplastic, you can solve it for all plastic. He does seem to be saying this in some ways, but I would think a designer at this level should have more explicit awareness of this.
Ugh (Score:4, Interesting)
1: My next guest needs no introduction, so let me introduce them!!!
2: I have no clue who this guy is. He needed that introduction.
3: Holy hell, that list of things is shameful. OLPC, the incredibly ambitious project that everyone knew was going to fail, that did fail? Some shitty Bluetooth speaker? Some overdesigned, overpriced, hideous "ergonomic" chair that's actually terrible for you? What else does he have? A personal line of florgenstunken at Ikea?
I don't want to attack this guy, exactly. He has his niche of artisinal crap for hipsters and fools, I guess.
But then:
I live in San Francisco so solving city-level transportation is the most interesting opportunity. It's an opportunity to reshape the landscape of a city. To take back streets, to put more people, more housing, more density in cities, which I think is very important both from a human standpoint and environmental standpoint. So I'm really excited about both individual cars and public transportation being autonomous, being on-demand, and clearing the street of all that parking and all those cars.
Yeah. He needs to be called out aggressively.
The solution is to get people OUT of the overcrowded cities, not cram more in by restricting cars and the ability to move about while shoehorning in expensive, freedom-killing things that don't work (self driving cars, "ride sharing" bullshit, trains, etc.) in the US.
The US is not Yurop.
The Locksmith Lawyer/Lock Lab test... (Score:2)
With all these smart locks coming onto market, it would be nice if these companies would design them as security devices from the ground up, and not yet another IoT "toy."
1: The key override shouldn't be an el cheapo five pin lock that any yahoo can bump. At the minimum, something like Best Locks with tight tolerances, and security pins, or even better, an Abloy PROTEC or Evva MKS variant. Something that makes the mechanical side not the weakest link.
2: The lock should have some way of applying power fr
Re: (Score:1)
Even the ones with cameras are a joke, a BB gun or paint gun will render the camera useless, especially if I go in through another route.
Or given the security consideration that goes into smart devices it shouldn't be too hard to disable remo
so (Score:3)
Doesn't need an introduction? (Score:1)
There are very few people in the world who meet that criteria.
Many people have heard of Amazon, but have no idea who Jeff Bezos is. For a long time, I didn't know Elon Musk had anything to do with Tesla (I don't care about those stupid cars), but I had heard of his space-related stuff.
Everyone needs an introduction. That's why royal courts had special announcers for the arrival of even kings and queens.
Density should not be the ideal future (Score:3)
"I live in San Francisco so solving city-level transportation is the most interesting opportunity. It's an opportunity to reshape the landscape of a city. To take back streets, to put more people, more housing, more density in cities, which I think is very important both from a human standpoint and environmental standpoint."
Why is it that everyone thinks the optimal solution to the world's environmental problems is to increase population density? People are outraged when animals are given sizable, environmentally similar dwellings at zoos, but they want humans to spend all their time in a 6x6 cube and a 10x10 dwelling. I realize that people are pretty darned adaptable, but this is not how we evolved.
The more practical solution would seem to be having less people. If every pair were to have just one child the population of the globe would plummet in just a few generations. Many of the problems we now face would be eliminated. The thing is, nobody wants to address this because our entire economic model is built on increased consumption and having enough young people around to take care of the old. Why not try to address the shortcomings of that model rather than continually grow the human population while caging it in little boxes?
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Why is it that everyone thinks the optimal solution to the world's environmental problems is to increase population density?
Because pollution per human is lower in higher-density cities. Largely do to efficiencies of scale, followed by the optimization that scale enables.
but they want humans to spend all their time in a 6x6 cube and a 10x10 dwelling.
That would be the point of the "take back the streets" part - reduce roads and car usage in order to increase parks and other common spaces.
The more practical solution would seem to be having less people.
Are you volunteering to start the population reduction?
If every pair were to have just one child the population of the globe would plummet in just a few generations
This is a human rights disaster, as well as utterly unenforceable.
Also, we have a much less boot-on-neck method of reducing the population: education and healthcare. E
Re: (Score:2)
Whoa now - who said that I was advocating for some form of government enforcement of one child per couple? Like you, I advocate for education. People do change their behaviors via this model. As for volunteering for contributing to the reduction in population, I already have. I have one child and I have had a vasectomy.
Huh? (Score:1)
Yves Behar doesn't really need any introduction
>> I'm afraid he or she does
OLPC, Jawbone Jambox, Herman Miller SAYL chair
>> while you're at it you can tell me what those things are. is that the failed windup laptop?
Never heard of him before... (Score:1)
It is official. I m old. ;(
Honestly, none of those have good design. (Score:2)
Who? and the urban sardine box. (Score:2)
As the majority of comments here have stated, I too had no knowledge of this dude, and only vague hints that I had heard the names of the Jambox and Herman Miller chair, nor do I care.
On the subject of urban density, things could go too far. Haven't we seen that in too many dystopian future movies, like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element? For a glimpse at reality, check out these links about the Kowloon Walled City:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/a... [atlasobscura.com]
https://www.atlasobscura.com/p... [atlasobscura.com]