Béhar is a sustainability advocate who argues that a designer's role is to create products that are both commercially viable and contribute to social good. 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.
Jawbone (2003–2017) Béhar was the Chief Creative Officer of the
wearable technology company,
Jawbone, from 2003 until 2017. In 2010, Béhar redesigned the Jawbone branding, packaging, communications and products. Béhar collaborated with Ceft and Company New York for the Jawbone headset visuals. As of 2017, Jawbone was being liquidated and the money was being used for a new health start-up called Jawbone Health. 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.
Jimmyjane (2009) In 2009, he collaborated with Ethan Imboden of
Jimmyjane on a line of waterproof rechargeable vibrators. 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.
Ver Bien para Aprender Mejor (2010–2011) 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.
SPRING Accelerator (2015) 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.
Other design work 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. In June 2012, Béhar 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 October 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 October 2016, the Snoo Bassinet, 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, displays a piece of artwork from a world-renowned artist. The Frame has an extended art collection with works from the
Van Gogh Museum,
Andy Warhol Museum, and the
Prado. In 2017, Béhar designed a model of security robots for use in workspaces which was launched by
Cobalt Robotics. == Personal life ==