Design Miami 2015 Design Visionary Award

Inaugurated in 2014, Design Miami’s Design Visionary Award is a program that celebrates significant contributions made to the field of design. Designer Yves Béhar has been named the recipient of the 2015 Design Visionary Award presented by Panerai. He is being 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 celebrates 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 yearly to schoolchildren in Mexico, so far benefiting 438 million. 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, world-class mentors, and technical expertise to businesses that can improve the lives of adolescent girls.

Yves Béhar’s body of work will be exhibited in a specially designed booth at Design Miami/ from December 2-6.