Yves Béhar

The Design Miami/ Visionary Award was presented to Yves Béhar in 2015.

Designer Yves Béhar is acknowledged for his holistic design vision and for the substantial impact he has made through humanitarian projects such as the INDEX award–winning One Laptop Per Child and See Better to Learn Better. Widely recognized for his groundbreaking work in the industrial design sphere, Béhar has brought his integrated design approach to industry leaders such as Herman Miller, Jawbone, SodaStream and August, among others. But most significantly, this award celebrated Béhar’s work in the humanitarian sector.

One Laptop Per Child has provided over 3 million laptops to children in the developing world, while See Better to Learn Better distributes 500,000 pairs of prescription eyeglasses annually to schoolchildren in Mexico, so far benefiting more than 438 million students. Béhar’s latest and most ambitious venture, in collaboration with Nike Foundation, USAID, UKAID, and Girl Effect, is SPRING, a pioneering business accelerator based in East Africa that provides finance training, world-class mentors, and technical expertise to businesses that can improve the lives of adolescent girls.

At Design Miami/ 2015/ Béhar’s work was explored in a dedicated exhibition space. The designer additionally created a temporary gallery that offered a glimpse of his life outside the studio. ‘surf shack’ presented béhar’s range of wave-riding equipment alongside art work from his personal collection.