In the 21st century, minimalist form and maximized function won’t make a design great. Great object design takes sustainability and the environmental impact of products into account. Yves Behar is one of the most prevalent industrial designers as of late; it isn’t uncommon to find one of his designs in many retailers in America. His designs serve all social classes, with practicality as the focus of each product.

Behar’s package design for Puma, the Clever Little Bag, is made from polyester and cardboard. Compared to traditional packaging, the Bag lowers manufacturing consumption by over 60 percent annually. The Clever Little Bag boosts Puma’s brand image as an environmentally aware footwear company with innovations in package design.

The XO Laptop by Behar for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization is a solution for low-cost educational devices to be used all over the world. These laptops were not designed to be heavy, ugly or dangerous, but to easily distinguish the user group for the product. These devices are packed with features and comforts such as game controls, a microphone, camera and peripheral connections. In addition, he designed a low-cost XO Android tablet.

Behar’s Public Office Landscape for Herman Miller was created for collaboration and interaction within an office space. The open furniture design is used to inspire dialogue, but giving privacy when needed. The furniture was born from exploring casual settings within the normal workspace and the desire to merge the two. As part of Herman Miller’s collection, the Public Office Landscape is built with environmentally friendly products, and is GREENGUARD Gold certified.

Yves Behar’s continuous quest for innovation and humanistic approaches to product design makes him a leader in industrial design. His belief that a product should not only solve the problem, but also be playful and minimalistic, helps to separate him from other great industrial designers of today and the past.

From Behar’s interview with Inhabitat:

“Environmental and social sustainability are an essential tool I use to design products that are relevant in our lives…it is what makes design ideas smarter and more beautiful in the minds of people today.”

Information and images courtesy of (C)The Verge