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>>Google Rep: San Francisco near base design branding firm that he established in 1999.
He has also the chief creative officer at Jawbone, you can see the jawbone up on his
wrist. He has collaborated with renowned partners such as Herman Miller, we are sitting in his
sail chairs. [Laughter]
This isn't a product placement advertising forum, but we try to celebrate who we bring
in. Jawbone, GE, Puma, Prada and many others. Yves Bahar believes that design should be
a force for positive social and environmental change. He is well known for his humanitarian
work on projects such as "One Laptop Per Child", and "See Better To Learn Better." For each
of these he was honored with the INDEX award, making him the only designer to have received
the award twice. Bahar's works are included in the permanent
collections of museums worldwide including the MoMA, the SFMoMA here in SF, the Centre
Pompidou and the Art Institute of Chicago. Bahar's a frequent speaker on design, sustainability
and business topics. He has given talks at TED, The World Economic Forum in Davos, the
Clinton Global Initiative and now the Googleplex. Please welcome Yves to the Googleplex.
[Applause] >>Yves: thank you for the nice welcome.
>>Google Rep: I try to keep it a little bit short. So let's kick this off. How and why
did you become a designer? >>Yves: Yeah, let's start with easy question.
[Laughter] So I first became a designer because I wanted
to be a writer, I wanted to write stories. I was a teenager, I was 12 or 13 years old
and in Switzerland there wasn't really a school for design. You know my parents weren't in
design either. So I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to tell stories. And my high-school
teacher kind of discouraged me from that which kind of, I slowly became aware that it was
possible to tell stories through the mind. And so it became my new passion and the thing
I dedicated myself to probably from the age of 15 or so. And slowly got my 10,000 hours
by the time I was 20. >> Google Rep: Yeah Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000
hours. >>Yves: Yep, and you know it's been all I
do and what I do since then. So when it comes to telling stories, I brought
you a few slides cause you gave me a nice list of questions which I think a lot of you
participated in coming up with. But you know like when you get to work on the type of project
we work on, telling stories and perpetuating stories has become what I feel. Not just,
I can do it, but a lot of designers can do. And this is probably one of the nicest stories
and one of the nicest things that ever happened in my career. Which is Uruguay, having a stamp
to support and to speak of the $100 laptop. >>Google Rep: Totally
>>Yves: Which every single child in Uruguay between the age of 6 and 18 years old actually
has one. Every child in public school has one of the laptops.
I have a whole sheet of these stamps. >>Google Rep: Yeah, the presentation isn't
just stamps though. >>Yves: Plus my father. So when I said my
parents are not in design, and my father was essentially, he's a philatelist. And that
was his sort of childhood passion, so stamp collecting and being an expert at stamps was
his thing. So after 25 years of practice and design, I kind of got around to having a stamp.
>>Google Rep: Perfect. So who's influenced you? I mean you know if we think about some
of the, there was a recent exhibit of Dieter Rams at SF MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). And
I went there and I was like wow Johnny I've obviously receive such inspiration from this.
You know is there an equally profound influence on Yves Bahar?
>>Yves: You know, in many ways I feel, and this is where I have another little visual.
Unfortunately they all look a little wider, like they gained a little weight over lunch.
[Laughter] There's a distortion on the screen. So of
course there's designers, 20th century designers that have had a big influence on me. Whether
it's Shoal Bass or Charles Eames or George Nelson. And I'm also a big admirer of people
who have built companies who have built businesses out of processes that they've discovered and
that they've kind of owned through design. You know somebody like Issey Miyake for example
which I was very lucky to do a couple of projects with.
But it's less of a stylistic influence on my part. You know I'm not really style driven.
To me design, architecture or graphic design isn't about just imprinting sort of style
and repeating it over time, it's really about finding the context in which a design is gonna
be, and doing something unique or magical or important in this particular area.
But I'm generally influenced by makers. I would say people who make things whether they're
designers or entrepreneurs is kind of what gets me out of bed in the morning. And these
guys were incredible makers of their times. Whether it was again graphics or furniture.
And in many ways have influenced not just American design, but the whole world of design
sense. And I think in many ways they were also the best thinkers of their time. You
know, Charles Eames didn't really follow a style. You know for a few years, initially
he really created with the LC2 chairs, you know this amazing way to bend plywood and
then to kind of have a similar style an plexiglass, or fiberglass sorry. But then he also went
to aluminum with the aluminum group chairs right. And so you can't really speak of repetitive
style or signature across his work, but you can speak of somebody fascinating, fascinated
by making, innovating and creating something appropriate both from a socioeconomic set
point at its times. But also sort of on the cusp of material and technology innovations.
So those are, those are strong influences in general in my career.
You know I'm a big fan of Dieter Rams as well. But it's less because of his style and more
because of the way he was able to deeply influence Brown, you know the company. You know from
a design point of view and help the company build itself through design and through brand.
>>Google Rep: So in 1999 you started Fuseproject. Kind of what was your vision in starting Fuseproject
and is it still true today, kind of what you hoped or seen it wanted to be when you start
a Fuseproject? >>Yves: Yeah in 99 I started Fuseproject.
It was the high before the bubble burst, the .com bubble. I started it because I felt like
a lot of people were speaking about integration, how different design fields were gonna come
together. How interaction design, user interface, industrial design, packaging brand were gonna
merge or should merge. But nobody in my opinion back then was practicing it. And so I became
kind of obsessed almost about practicing a form of design which actually I had seen practiced
in Eames office, I mean not personally seen but I had spoken, my first job was one with
a person who had worked in the Eames office. And so I was fascinated with this notion of
a multidisciplinary place where we would literally fuse all these different types of design disciplines
on our projects. Of course when I started it was just me and
a computer so I the multidisciplinary designer, but we built the team now to 250 really diverse
group. And the name Fuseproject comes out of this idea
>>Google Rep: Of fusing together things. .>>Yves: Exactly.
>>Google Rep: Yeah. So you mentioned Charles Eames, they had a very unique shop down in
LA. Kind of how he described Fuseproject as a culture or as a company?
>>Yves: so what I believe in is you know for a while design got broken down into these
tiny little specialties. Design got in a way almost obfuscated and became very much relegated
in the sort of corporate food chain to providing a service. A graphic design service. You know
brand or an app software or advertising or strategy. These became you know broken down.
And what was the most important factor in the 80s and 90s was really marketing or advertising
in the way that you build the ethos or that you build the way a company is known in the
world. And then you build a brand. And so what we believe is more of a 360°
process where everything influences the other elements. Always from a design point of view,
but if you're building a user experience, or the name of a company or the way it's going
to present itself visually or a product. We do all these things at the same time, sort
of in parallel rather than sequentially at what was traditionally done in the 80s and
90s. Which means that the team, the way the team works and the culture is very much about
that as well. So we all share desks, there is no divisions, there's no departments in
a sense. There are practices, you know people come from certain practice and they are good
at something but everybody has a voice in how we build businesses and how we help companies
sort of build themselves by design. And the same goes for seniority, there isn't
really a hierarchy of practices or a hierarchy of seniority in the team. So we tend to work
around very collaboratively around big tables. We'll set up labs, as many labs as we can
that essentially study, research and develop solutions to a certain problem. And what you'll
see is tons of materials, you know sketches, drawings, diagrams, thoughts being uploaded
on walls and constantly sort of picking up and put back up, taken down and put back up.
So is not an ivory tower type of process at all.
>>Google Rep: It's very hands-on. >>Yves: It's very hands-on, very much about
making, very much about stress testing ideas with design and building that as a multidisciplinary
team. >>Google Rep: So it's interesting right, at
Google, if you look at a project we have a PM, we have engineers, designers, they're
all distinct roles. It sounds like it's in stark contrast to a project, a Fuseproject
where things are much more organic and probably less controlled or less structured.
>>Yves: Yeah, I don't know how structured things are here. Maybe we should ask the audience
how they feel. >>Google Rep: Yeah maybe we can bring this
up later on. >>Yves: But yeah, I would say that the idea
is to get sort of maximum amount of participation. That said, our teams probably don't look that
different from yours. I mean we have outside engineering firms, outside developers, outside
specialties that come in and complement whatever we're doing at the moment. And people do come
from a place of knowledge and specialty maybe initially. But they very quickly become sort
of T-shaped people you know in the sense that they have deep knowledge of a certain area
but they become really, really good at understanding the whole process and being able to participate,
plug-in in the whole process. And because we're addressing, we're constantly
addressing new problems were not really working on old problems. We're really always addressing
new challenges or new types of companies or new types of opportunities. Those skills are
fundamental for that. >>Google Rep: So the approach they used on
the last project isn't necessarily immediately applicable in your current project.
>>Yves: No. I mean there's certainly an approach, but the resolution is gonna be different.
There's certainly a way that we do things you know, I'm not sure if that's covered in
other questions, but we start with ideas. And then we build the products, companies,
expressions around those ideas. >>Google Rep: Well it's probably a perfect
segue because one of the questions that definitely came up when we kind of opened this up to
the community was kind of what are Yves Bahar's 10 principles right? You know Dieter Rams
has 10 principles that have become very widespread if you're into design. So what would be the
Yves Bahar equivalent right that kind of guide? Sorry.
>>Yves: I realize, I was like, I printed, because I couldn't remember my own 10 principles.
And besides I don't really have them. >>Google Rep: If you want to cheat, I actually
have them printed out. >>Yves: Oh, okay.
[Laughter] >>Google Rep: This wasn't scripted at all.
[Laughter[ >>Yves: I was looking, I left my own little
sheet with your questions and just a couple ideas I wanted to touch upon in the car. And
I got here and I was all macho thinking ah that's fine I'll figure it out. But those,
so a while back, this is something I said about three or four years ago so it may have
evolved quite a bit. But first of all my number one principle is,
design is how you treat your customer. The best definition I can think of for design,
and people always ask me, "So what is good design?" And most people when they ask you
this question, they always think about you know what kind of style or what should something
look like or feel like to be considered good design, to enter a museum or to win a competition
or to win many, many customers. And my answer here is not aesthetic, it's really about how
businesses practice what they do, what they sell or the services they offer should be
about how they treat their customers. And design can significantly enhance that. So
if you treat your customer well from an emotional standpoint, from an environmental standpoint,
from an ergonomic standpoint, from a health standpoint, you probably are doing good design.
The second one is for me design must be integrated throughout the organization. It isn't a sort
of nice add-on at the end of the process. It isn't something that, it isn't a surface
layer, it isn't veneer. Good design needs to live throughout the entire organization
to have an influence in the beginning and to have an influence at the end. And everywhere
in between. So the third one relates to that, design is
not a short-term fix, it's a long-term engagement. That's the way we work. There's lots of people
who will call you up and say, "Look we just need a logo", or "We just need a website",
and "You'll be done in three months." And that's not the way good design is done.
>>Google Rep: That's not a client you want? >>Yves: It's not the kind of client we want,
but it's you know the clients I want depend on mostly depend on what kind of quality I'm
gonna be able to create with them. And so it's not about short-term fixes, it's really
about thinking long-term you know how a company wants to build itself by design.
The fourth one is design must be driven from the top. This is a part of the discussion
we had at lunch, how you get people to stick to the initial intent of design. How do you
get sort of the initial vision to be implemented and executed throughout. And for that we need
supporters, and we need supporters often that come from the top of the company. This is
something that people need to believe in, top down, in order to be executed throughout
in the right way. I think number six is with design the solution
to the problem will be different every time. It isn't you know design isn't formulaic,
five-step or ten-step program. It has to be, both the process and the outcome has to be
custom made, custom thought. I find this fascinating today because there's so many different companies
coming into realization that design is important. Pharmaceutical companies, distribution, shipping,
logistics companies. I mean all kinds of unexpected people realize how much better design can
realize things for them. The process is fundamentally different. And we need to accept that I think.
I think the time of sort of consultants presenting you the five-step program. And by the time
we get to number five you'll have good design in place.
>>Google Rep: Ten times more revenue. >>Yves: Hmm?
>>Google Rep: Ten times more revenue. >>Yves: Yes.
>>Google Rep: ROI is high. >>Yves: Isn't gonna work. So design is really
about finding solutions that are gonna be unique and a process that's gonna deliver
those solutions, it's gonna be probably different every time.
And then finally, this is never ask customers what they want, ask them about their aspirations.
I think it is our job, the job of the designer to conceive of the future. I do think it's
important to listen to people, I think it's important to listen to people before you start
and after and during the process. But asking them what their future should be like is,
you know I don't think it's gonna work as well as designers who are sort of living and
breathing this process all the time. And who will also bring. I mean I've quoted this recently,
you know if you ask people when the Ford Model T was built, Mr. Ford said, "If you asked
people what they wanted back then, they would have said faster horses." And designers thought
of the car. >>Google Rep: So if you guys weren't paying
attention, it was seven. >>Yves: Seven yes.
>>Google Rep: So less but better right? Dieter Rams had ten principals, you have seven.
[Laughter] >>Yves: Yes. I don't mean to improve on Dieter
but. [Laughter]
>>Google Rep: All right I need the card back, it's scripted.
>>Yves: Oh yes. [Laughter]
>>Google Rep: What's the next question? Lets see. Alright, give us a sense of how you approach
design. So is there something uniquely Baharian? >>Yves: I've never heard that, Baharian.
>>Google Rep: Baharian Yes. [Laughter]
I coined it, trademarked it. I have a patent on it.
>>Yves: Usually we do that well. [Laughter]
So it isn't about style, and certainly we tend to base our work in ideas. And we tend
to really find some way to speak of something or a way to express something or the way to
make everyone kind of inspired or delighted by a certain product or a certain digital
or physical or the offering of a business. We try to find that key notion that is an
aspiration that may exist but hasn't been sort of fulfilled yet. And that becomes our
key notion, our key principle. And I can probably go back, it is a little bit abstract but I
can go back to probably almost every product we've done and say this was the key moment,
the key idea we tried to express. Through all these kind of executions, that we try
to express in the product. >>Google Rep: So what was the...
>>Yves: Let me see if I have something to illustrate that. I don't know but, yes, that's
for the next question. >>Google Rep: So what was the hardest lesson
you've had to learn in your career? I mean people obviously probably know about most
of your successes. But I think it's always interesting to just learn a little bit about
what difficulties you've faced and kinda what that taught you.
>>Yves: Well the whole point is that you wouldn't know about the numerous things that didn't
work. [Laughter]
They tend to remain; sadly, they tend to remain in someone's drawer. And that's the biggest
frustration as a designer I think is to see your product, and I'm sure you experience
this here as well. >>Google Rep: [whispers] Yeah.
>>Yves: Is to see your product kind of locked up in somebodies drawer. The other lesson
for me is that it's possible for us to move mountains as designers but the mountains have
to want to move. Which means simply that when you're brought in as a designer in a situation
where there isn't really a will to go someplace new or to experiment or to discover or to
get on a journey, it becomes very difficult to do. And I probably spent most of the 90's
here in Silicon Valley feeling pretty miserable about how people were looking at design. You
know back then it was, there was no clear ROI on design. Nobody, you know the first
question you would get from anybody in business is, "Really, I need to work with you guys?
My marketing guy says so or my wife." And they would be like, "C'mon between us, what's
the ROI on design. Tell me." Cause you know. >>Google Rep: It's like a dirty secret or
something. >>Yves: Yeah it's like we all know there is
none right? >>Google Rep: And that you're a con man.
>>Yves: So that was a pretty miserable time. And I think that the last 10-15 years have
been really really good for us. >>Google Rep: So help us understand what changed
that. The 90's and post the 2001 crash. >>Yves: Well I think we have Steve Jobs to
thank for our credibility, our newly found credibility in business. Without Apple and
without Steve Jobs, the ROI would be somewhat unclear. And with Steve Jobs and Apple, the
ROI is pretty clear. And of course others have done it. I mean
companies like Target and companies, numerous start-ups obviously. And it seems today that
we have a complete reversal of the attitude. It seems like people know pretty clearly that
design is gonna play a key role in any new type of venture or in the future of any mature
type of business. >>Google Rep: But is that achieved in a sustainable
way? Steve jobs has passed away. Apple will at one point cease to exist. What makes design
fundamentally important? Or is this change that you've seen in Silicon Valley here to
stay? >>Yves: I think the change that happened in
the 50's both in Europe and in the United States around design having a key role has
still impact today, you know 60, 70 years later. The work of the people I showed before
is celebrated all around the world. Still derives economic value. And certainly there
was a lot of cultural value both for this country and the rest of the world.
So I do think that historically the value of design has been established by companies
like Herman Miller and you know maybe Knoll as well obviously. And that's still something
that obviously you guys live with. >>Google Rep: Yeah. And so how does working
with a Herman Miller compare to working with maybe a more purely technology firm? You know
like a furniture, a very physical object versus the more digital kind of Silicon Valley based
products. >>Yves: You know I'm one of the people who
say it's not different at all. For me the process which you can see online, the process
we use to develop the sail chair here is the same kind of process we're using to develop
a digital product or a very technologically advanced product. It's a lot of thinking about
the user. It's a lot about thinking about new technologies or new ways of doing things
or what are new you know socio-economic kind of factors in place that will influence the
work that is done now? And it's a lot about sketching and trying and falling and trying
again and making mock-ups and building and rebuilding and testing and breaking. I mean
the process of design as being iterative, as kind of pushing the boundaries and stretching
the notion of what's possible, all of that is very much the same.
>>Google Rep: And what about the role of actual technology in the design process. What do
you guys use, what do you guys rely on? And how important is it in you know improving
the design process? >>Yves: So the role of technology is in many
ways central and in many ways it is not. Ideas aren't technology generated. Drawing sketches,
quick iterative things tend to be done by hand. We draw, I mean for this chair here
which you are seeing in more of an advertising shot for it, we generated about 70 functioning
prototypes just within our studio. Probably 100+ with the partnership with Herman Miller.
We generated thousands of drawings. Just like for a user flow or a user interface or, you
would generate lots and lots of different iterations. All centered for one idea. Our
process is never about splattering the world of possibilities on the wall and showing a
client oh these are the 20 different ways this can be done. What we do instead is we
pick one thing that we think would be really extraordinary, really amazing to deliver.
Really sort of puts you over the top right. And we go really really deep into that and
keep trying to reach this magical place. But technology has a role when it comes to
building other types of prototypes. Digital prototypes, physical engineering prototypes.
When it comes to testing. When it comes to sort of getting feedback. When it comes to
doing research. Technology has an important role there. But I don't see it, I really see
it as a tool, I don't see it as the reason why you would do anything.
Google Rep: And so in that process where you're coming up with thousands of drawings or hundreds
of prototypes right, where do you guys go or where does Yves go for inspiration? Like
what inspires you, like what are you doing in your daily life? What are the most important
drivers of like the thoughts in there? >>Yves: So I'm not somebody who's gonna go
and look at, just tell you that oh nature inspires everything that we do. I'm much more
sort of a product of our, the numerous, the thousands of different inputs, the cultural
inputs. Everyday life inputs that we get in our lives. That said my life is almost split.
I have a city life that's very intense, an office life that's very intense. I tend to
work with clients all over the world, in urban centers. And so culture is a very important
role in what we do, travel technology. You know there is sort of the intensity of work
and urban centers is important. But then I also have a whole part of my life
which I spend in nature physically. I surf, I spend time in a little village up North,
you know, the coast. And this is where the neurons are still firing and everything processes.
But the environment is sort of cleaned up for inspiration and ideas to come. I mean
I'm not someone who, to me everything is mixed. I mean it not like I go to this little place
and this is where I get all my ideas. I think for most of us inspiration happens all the
time, continuously. And our jobs allow us to do that right? I mean were not sort of
expected to be just doing one thing today, were expected to be, to have multiple roles,
to have multiple ways to input into the process. And I think that helps in some ways.
>>Google Rep: So this seems tied to your concept of holistic making a little bit maybe then.
Can you, I think some people might be familiar with her, but can you help, perhaps explain
this a little bit more, this kind of concept I think you're trying to bring to the conscious?
>>Yves: Yeah, you know holistic making for me is the opportunity designers have today
to take that 360° view and to really again not be used as just the problem solver for
one problem which is a graphic problem or a user interface or a user experience problem
or a physical product problem. What is being seen is somebody who can create cohesiveness
across a lot of these different places. And I think it's widely understood today that
consumer experiences cannot have disconnected points. They have to be, what we are doing
now is we're really sort of serving entire brand ecosystems in a way that doesn't have
these points of disconnects. Because those get noticed immediately. Those get, those
points get pointed out immediately. And as designers we can now look at things
like, I mean this is a very physical thing but it's kind of a cute project. We can look,
you know we're giving these sort of problems which is, oh why don't you rethink the chandelier?
And then you go well, what people love about chandeliers for centuries is all this sparkling
little lights and the reflections and the sort of rainbow colors that happened when
the light hits it. And then in a holistic way you're like okay so that's the experience
I think people are looking for. Not this ancient physical thing that has like thousands of
crystals and you know 20 or 30 lights or candles in the past on it. And we built this thing
out of, not all the reflections and all the magic and with one crystal and one specially
tuned LED light. And so holistically we looked at the effect, we looked at the sustainability
in our proposition. We looked at the attainability, making it affordable rather than very expensive.
So this has a bond that makes this a product that can be retailed for $100, right. So we
can look at all these different elements including the packaging and say this is a holistic experience.
Or it's looking at physical products like what I'm wearing here. Or the first LED light
here. But also the way you touch it and the way it feels under hand pressure and looking
at that first touch interface, this is a touch interface before everything became touch,
you know before the iPhone. Google Rep: what year was this?
Yves: That was 2006. Yes. >>Google Rep: So just before the.
>>:Yves: It's hard to imagine. >>Google Rep: Yeah, I know.
[Laughter] >>Google Rep: Kids nowadays grow up with TV
screens that are broken right? >>Yves: So this you know you would just touch
the surface there was no button to turn it on and off. You just, you could change the
intensity of the light or the coloration of the life. And to me that's sort of, you know
all of this is sort of holistic making. Including thinking about the social ramifications of
what is that we do. In many ways, businesses can't really afford to not look at sustainability
or the social impact that they have as part of the product, as part of what it is that
they make. >>Google Rep: One laptop per trial basis.
>>Yves: This is in Peru and they have 1 million laptops in Peru. So we do a lot of nonprofit
work. We do a lot of, just like Google of course. We do a lot of projects that try to
bring the intelligence of designs back to the widest possible audience.
>>Google Rep: And how do you justify the ROI of those products?
>>Yves: That's a good question. We don't really; I think there's an ROI in how you feel when
you get up in the morning. >>Google Rep: So the emotions, yeah.
[Laughter] >>Yves: I think there is. That said, I mean
I don't want to, these are other things that we do. Or you know, like looking at sustainability
as this incredible opportunity to make the entire experience better, not to make something
recyclable or reusable or using less energy. But actually looking at the engagement at
the end and making that even better. So we can think about all these things holistically.
But this is a program that I'm particularly excited about and proud of because in many
ways this is a nonprofit program for the government of Mexico at a nonprofit in Mexico that distributes
eyeglasses to children. They can pick the top and bottom colors so they become really
involved into their own glasses. There's a big stigma everywhere in the world, but in
South America against wearing glasses. And so this makes them more personal and makes
them wear them. But as designers we can figure out how these
things are built, how they're robust, how they cost five dollars to make including the
custom-made lenses. But then so you do something like this which is nonprofit and then working
under these extreme constraints makes you look at the entire value chain and the entire
logistics system in a new way. >>Google Rep: Down to the actual object?
>>Yves: Down to the actual object, but also the distribution, how they're picked. And
then what you realize is I did something for this nonprofit but there is a whole business
model here. So we're building a for-profit version of this sort of starting from the
nonprofit and going to the for-profit version of this which will finance the nonprofit,
but also create sustainable business. We just now launched actually a bus that's
in the East Bay that's distributing eyeglasses, these very eyeglasses.
>>Google Rep: The same ones that are going to Mexico?
>>Yves: Yeah the same ones to kids up here. So we're already moving some of the aspects
of the nonprofit out here. >>Google Rep: And the "One Laptop per Child"
is a similar story right? It was meant for Africa but it's been used all over, right?
>>Yves: Yeah I mean in a way the $100 laptop kind of made this idea that a smaller lighter
computer is something that was desirable which we had heard from certain people in industry
that it wasn't. >>Google Rep: MacBook Air.
>>Yves: And so in a way it kind of, and Google is a huge supporter of the $100 laptop. So
in a way it kind of initiated maybe a different look at the space. But it's most prominent
now, the $100 laptop is most prominent in South America..
>>Google Rep: Wow. Which is totally different from its original, I mean the original mission
was Africa. >>Yves: Well it was global. But the first
large task and the first large distributions were in...
>>Google Rep: Sub-Saharan Africa >>Yves: Yeah.
>>Google Rep: So, what is Yves dream project? I mean you've had the chance to work on chairs;
you've had the chance to work on glasses. You've had the chance to work on quantified
self wristbands. What is your dream project in many ways?
>>Yves: So my advice to all designers is not to have a dream project. Because if you have
a dream project and you're not gonna consider everything that you worked on as a potential
dream project. And I can promise you, I can assure you that in the first couple of meetings
that I had with Puma and they're like, "We want you to rethink our shoebox", and it's
like oh, can I work on the shoes? [Laughter]
Until I realized wow no, the shoebox is gonna have a much bigger impact. The shoebox is
80 million shoes that get shipped around by this one brand and the consequences rather
than a small kind of hipster line of shoes that gets into a few kind of cool stores.
I realize the impact of the shoebox is actually so much bigger, so much more important, so
much more long-lasting. And so I turned the shoebox into, what many people would now consider
a dream project. Because you have this big impact, because it's global.
>>Google Rep: That chart you were showing before.
>>Yves: Yeah. This one. And so many of the projects that have come through to us, I'm
just somebody who gets really excited about the really big potential of it. I tend to
see beyond maybe even the frame and the limits that clients have brought us these projects
within those frames and limits. And I think I've turned a few and the team at Fuseproject
has turned a few things into potential dream project. But I can guarantee you that's not
what they seem to be at the onset. And so I think that's the best..
>>Google Rep: Dream project. >>Yves: Yeah, that's the best one to live
in a way. >>Google Rep: Yeah, without a dream project.
>>Yves: Cause if you're constantly thinking about if I worked on a car, or if I worked
on a train, then I would really make it. Then I would live the designer dream. You can spend
a career waiting for that. >>Google Rep: So let's get a little more abstract
then. What is the biggest challenge that you think design needs to solve in the coming
years, decades right? What are you most excited about in terms of maybe a space.
>>Yves: Well I think the things that design is gonna solve are a few simple notions. I
mean every business is gonna become sustainable one way or the other. There's absolutely no
way the current infrastructure is gonna remain as is. So at every stage when you're rethinking
the way things are done, the way things are built, the way things are shipped, the way
things are consumed, sustainability is gonna have a very important role in that. And that
means that designers have this amazing opportunity to participate in things like the puma shoebox
which is a logistics and distribution... >>Google Rep: Manufacturer.
>>Yves: Manufacturing type of problem. But also a consumer, an engagement type of design
opportunity. And so I think everything is gonna have to be rethought in this way. and
when you have to remake every factory or when you have to reconceive the way everything
is made designers I gonna have an incredible role to play in that.
I also think that technology is the other huge opportunity because technology has still
numerous barriers. And in many ways making it attainable in the sense of easy, approachable
sort of magical, not disruptive. I mean just looking at the idiosyncrasies of the ways
that we use technology today. There's some huge improvements that are gonna go on. And
they're gonna in my opinion be design driven. >> Google Rep: Great, so I've asked all the
questions that I have. I think there's a number of Googlers here that would love to have a
time or a chance that's the question. So I opened it up to the audience. Looks like there's
one back there. >> Male #1: [Inaudible]
>>Yves: Yeah, so the question is what is the proportion of time that I spend or maybe my
team spends coming up with ideas versus implementing them? You know sort of crafting the sort of
final bits of those products or those experiences. You know it's to me, if we don't spend the
time to be there all the way through, til the final implementation, til the final refinement.
If we're not there at the end sort of doing quality control to make sure that the big
idea, the big design, the visual, the experience we've created isn't exactly as conceived at
the end, were gonna ship products that are gonna be mediocre. Or that are not gonna achieve
their full potential. So we actually spent a lot of time at the
very onset. You know what's the name of the company, what's the big story here? Making
the product again digital and physical. And testing it and using it and living with it.
All the way through the end so that when it comes out the design criteria, the things
you get excited about in the beginning. The pillars that you created for this brand of
product are still there. So for me it's completely critical that as designers we stay engaged
all the way through. And it's not just like passing the baton to a developer or to an
engineering group for to a manufacturer. You really have to be there all the way. That
just means just engaging over a long period of time and being fully supported in that
engagement obviously with whoever you work with.
>>Male #2: So on that topic, my question is actually about platforms and what role design
takes in actually establishing or building or creating platforms that other people build
upon. And what role, I mean can you have like the iPhone, [inaudible] Android or better
microphones. When other people ultimately have to build on thing that you've created.
Is there sort of a hand off, how far do go down the path of making things fairly restrictive
in terms of the things that people built or even like the old PC, like the apps that people
would build there. How do you communicate I guess the things you were trying to achieve
and help them actually extend the value of what you are creating as opposed to diminish
that value? >>Yves: I think it's essential to create products
and experiences that fit within the current ethos which is people want to be able to modify,
change, own this sort of just in time mentality that we are all experiencing today. I'm taking
a picture and I'm posting it immediately, I wasn't doing that, I wouldn't take the picture
anymore. I mean it used to be that I would wait a week for that picture to be developed
and handed back to me. So in many ways I think the platforms have
to sort of tap into what simply is the current way everybody lives which is instance. You
know and at the same time you want to be able to have some things there that ensure level
of quality or level of even potentially design. But I think it's an interesting mix between
providing a well-designed platform that is sort of solid and exciting and that people
really want and at the same time leaving enough there for other people to own and to build
on top of. So I think that's definitely very different from designing products that never
change. That, or that are very restrictive in a sense.
>>Google Rep: Pass it to, down there. >>Male #3: Hi. So you said your number one
design principle is to think about the user experience and not really asked aesthetics.
In your mind, what's an example of a really ugly but well-designed product?
[Laughter] >>Yves: I don't know, I mean I don't know
if the paperclip is ugly, I don't think it's ugly. I don't know that that product would
be ugly on purpose unless sort of there was a reason for it to be ugly. Do you have something
in mind? >>Male #3: No, no. I was just wondering, I'm
trying to understand the principle. >>Yves: I mean in many ways I think for something
to be beautiful is a function as well. It isn't just, you know I don't see the two elements
as separate. So I think you probably have some very useful things that are very ugly.
I mean I'm sure I see them every day. But that doesn't mean that, that doesn't make
them sort of the perfect product or the end all and be all of what this thing could be
or do for you. >>Male #4: So you talked about the role that
industrial design comes in 90s style more and more. Also taking on strategy, understanding
how to transform organizations to be successful. Given that though, what is the differentiating
role of the traditional industrial design aspect of form giving, of speaking through
form. Is that still relevant as a differentiator? I mean we are now competing against strategy
firms, against firms that don't have the design aspect but maybe covering a lot of other aspects
that organizations are looking for. >>Yves: I think that there were certainly
in the 90s a whole tendency to go towards management consulting. And I think there are
all kinds of interesting reasons to do that, but they're not the ones that are we're shaping
our firm around. We believe in making. I believe in organizational change by making, by example.
I do believe that when projects, anywhere in any business kind of sort of acquire a
level of success by having been done differently or by proving that the company can do things
differently or achieve things differently is a much better way to do management change
or education than just trying to have a few brainstorms with top management.
And so I think what you need to find though is you need to find companies that will open
up the door for this to happen. That will say okay well we'll give a chance with something
different to happen and prove that there is a new approach that we are not familiar with
that could be successful. And we find more and more of those companies now. We're not
really competing because we don't deliver a strategy product, or we don't deliver, we
don't even deliver a product product per se only. You know what we do is we build brands
and we build businesses. And in that sense... >>Male #4: But you're taking a recognizable
Fuseproject identity that kind of weaves through a lot of the physicalness of the product,
like anywhere from perfume bottles, to some of the watches, to some of the things where
there's some unique aspect I would say is still there that maybe. Like consciously people
feel attracted to. >>Yves: Yeah I mean we definitely want people
to be attracted to what we do. And so being attractive, or being successful for our products
is a key element, and I could certainly say that that's intentional, that's something
we look for. We don't really, unless there is a role of more of a laboratory type of
project or an experimental type project the goal is certainly for things to reach as many
people as possible and make whatever idea or business or experience understood and adopted
and loved. >>Google Rep: Alright, well I think we're
out of time. If you still have a question you should come up and ask Yves but let's
all thank him for coming in. [Applause]
>>Yves: Thank you. >>Google Rep: Thank you.
>>Yves: Thanks very much. >>Google Rep: That was awesome.