Land Rover BORN Awards Global Final 8th Edition

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DISCOVERY

NEVER STOP DISCOVERING

The great thing about mud? It scares most people off, leaving life’s adventurers free to explore the fields, forests, nooks and crannies of the world. Our Terrain Response 2 System* automatically adjusts to multiple surface conditions, taking you to new places in the great outdoors. The only question is whose turn is it to wash the dog? landrover.com

*Optional. Official NEDC Equivalent (NEDCeq) Fuel Consumption for the Land Rover Discovery range in mpg (l/100km): Combined 28.8-37.7 (9.8-7.5).

CO2 Emissions 224-197g/km. The figures provided are NEDCeq calculated from official manufacturer’s WLTP tests in accordance with EU legislation.

For comparison purposes only. Real world figures may differ. CO2 and fuel economy figures may vary according to wheel fitment and optional extras fitted.

nothing — is born — out of — nowhere O

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE CHOPIN FOUNDER, CEO OF BORN Founder of the Land Rover Born Awards

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

ne of the wonders of our networked era is our seemingly limitless access to anything and everything: it’s all just a search and click away.

For the world of design, this has opened up boundless possibilities, expanding our reach more than ever before, bringing design literacy to the four corners of the globe - all the while nurturing the next generation of enthusiasts and innovators alike. This expanded milieu marks a major and thrilling milestone - but that very same thrill can also make us loose sight of the most important fact: nothing is borne out of nowhere. From the initial spark of that out-there idea to a vision realized down to precise detail, every great innovation begins in a specific place, at a specific time and with a specific creator.

That is precisely why we are spotlighting the creators’ journey in this latest issue of the Land Rover BORN Awards Magazine. We begin by profiling this year’s distinguished winners and global finalists, the most diverse and wide-ranging cohort to date. Come along as we take you up-close-andpersonal for an insider’s view into their processes, their aspirations, their challenges and their relentless drive to create. One thing becomes immediately clear: great design doesn’t just materialize on a shelf; it is crafted, refined and perfected through years of dedication that culminates in the perfect synthesis of functionality, beauty and integrity.

This aligning of elements is itself a type of smart interface, one that gives us a glimpse into a bigger philosophy at work - one that begins with, but is not bound by objects. It is what professor and thinker, Bruce Nussman, refers to as ‘creative intelligence.’ Much more than a discrete principle, this concept encapsulates the larger processes of how innovation comes about in the world, how it is realized and how we might best cherish and honor it. Amongst its top principles is cross-pollination, the unexpected meeting of disparate elements that pave the way for the new. As professor, Christopher Alexander, notes: “We are searching for some kind of harmony between two intangibles: a form which we have not yet designed and a context which we cannot properly describe.”

We take up this challenge by casting our widest net ever, spotlighting the creative ethos across diverging fields, as embodied by their most accomplished experts - from advertising to marketing to product design. These mavericks share one thing in common: a willingness to disregard norms as they forge new connections and visualize fresh possibilities. In them, we glimpse creative intelligence in action, augmenting our everyday realities in a myriad of ways. We invite you to take a closer look.

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We are the campaign, the new business, the conversation starter.

You’re the idea. And this is your place. @springplace

this is not — up for debate

in the pursuit of beauty

But what does it take to create something truly beautiful? Is it – as Newton’s apple would have us believe - the result of intuition and well-timed chance? Or is there a larger process at work: a set of principles that describe a more purposeful journey that resonates across disciplines?

IMAGES ARE EXAMPLES OF WHAT CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE LOOKS LIKE

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Take a stroll

BURBERRY — THE HERITAGE TRENCH

through London’s Design Museum on any given afternoon and you’ll be immediately awe struck by the breath and scope of the visions housed therein.

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rom urban planning to dress making, speculative architecture to typography, its halls attest to the relentless drive for perfection that distinguishes true innovators from the rest. It’s what we have celebrated as ‘peerless’ – breakthrough design that rewrites the rules while setting fresh standards for functionality and beauty.

But what does it take to create something truly beautiful? Is it – as Newton’s apple would have us believe - the result of intuition and well-timed chance? Or is there a larger process at work: a set of principles that describe a more purposeful journey that resonates across disciplines?

Can these provide us a glimpse of unity as they coalesce around the new?

Theorist, professor and curator, Bruce Nussman, definitely makes the case for this in his groundbreaking tome, Creative Intelligence: Harnessing The Power To Create, Connect & Inspire. Therein he sets forth a new model for how we can approach and harness innovation, not as a chance encounter but as a planned emergence ruled by a set of apprehensible principles. As he notes: “At its core, creativity is all about knowing what is meaningful to people.

Successful mining of meaningful knowledge reveals important patterns and shows you possible paths to the new.

Recognizing the important 'dots' and connecting them in different ways is what entrepreneurialism is about.”

Nussman describes five key principles that govern this process and terms them ‘competencies.’ Two of these are particularly resonant with BORN’s core mission: ‘knowledge mining’ and ‘framing.’ The first entails a sensitivity for what is meaningful to people, what constitutes their higher wants; while the second provides a structure for understanding the world, giving it coherence, or a unifying narrative.

LAND ROVER — DEFENDER

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LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

CHANEL — 2.55 HANDBAG

GÉRALD GENTA — AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK

RORY GALLAGHER — STRATOCASTER

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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In many ways, these also capture the foundational tenets of our platform as much more than a marketplace but a living, dynamic space for meaningful exchange. Our spirit underscores functionality, which means we only value those things that can be integrated into our lives to make it richer, more fulfilling. This can be anything from a state-ofthe-art pair of sunglasses made weightless by breakthrough materials to a luxury utility vehicle that revolutionizes how we experience movement in space. Just as important is the ability to frame these into a single cohesive story: the story of BORN and our creators. This allows us to present our users with something unique: something that begins with objects, but also transcends them. In short, it is a larger, all encompassing worldview, a philosophy of making where the beautiful and the functional go hand-in-hand.

Of course, this is just the beginning, because our mission has never been one-sided; it requires an exchange. And that exchange is sparked by desirability. All successful products (be they physical or digital) must generate an emotional response within an audience or user. This is a visceral sentiment that cannot quite be fully explained, but can be felt – it is that elusive something that what makes us click, interact or maybe even buy. This is a primal sentiment that supersedes functionality, but also enforces it, giving us the satisfaction when the product works, surprises us and helps make our life easier. Desirability plus functionality provide the pillars for a successful design experience; they are the prime impetus for our pursuits.

When all is said and done, this might be down to one core tenant: integrity. This is a wide-ranging term that can refer to the sustainability of an object (for instance, how its resources were gathered, how the people gathering those resources were treated). But it also speaks to the intent of its creator: what are the goals and aspiration it seeks to address? How can these be realized without any compromise so that what we have at our grasp is the purest iteration of an idea? Integrity is purity made tangible and that is no easy task or direct journey. But with all the twists and turns and unexpected detours this requires, we accrue the richness of experience, the wealth of knowledge and the nuance of perspective that grants us a truly unique vision.

And that in a nutshell is the essence of BORN. Article by Constantin Chopin with Franklin Melendez

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Make a better future happen today.

thefuturelaboratory.com

IG : thefuturelaboratory

TW : @TheFutureLab

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THE ORIGINS

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t the heart of the matter is people, and that’s where the concept of the BORN Conversations was conceived. JC Chopin, founder and CEO of BORN, came together to collaborate with Christophe Amenc and Thierry Malleret, co-founders of The Summit of Minds conference and former senior executives of Publicis and the World Economic Forum, the institution best known for its globally renowned Davos conference, to create a space for ideas to flourish.

JC, Thierry and Christophe recognised the unique resource that is represented by Born’s clients, partners and those the Land Rover BORN Awards celebrate. The Awards, in particular, had huge potential as a form of summit at which leaders in the design world had not only the chance to be recognised but also the precious opportunity to exchange ideas with one another. Every year for the past seven years, participants in the Land Rover BORN Awards would tell JC how much they appreciated the opportunity to come and learn, network, and contribute. Meeting creators from other industries tangential to their own had given them a fresh perspective, and had energised them to go out and innovate.

It was clear that a means of harnessing and maximizing this potential for interchange was needed—and so the Born Conversations were born.

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UNIQUE COMBINATION OF PEOPLE

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he unique combination of people is the very crux of why the BORN Conversations are different to any other conference. The Land Rover BORN Awards nominees and winners, as well as clients and partners, represent a formidable cross-section of the design world.

A ready supply of brilliant minds from the Awards represent the fields of Technology & Innovation, Home & Design, Fashion & Accessories, Sport & Leisure, Beauty & Cosmetics, Architecture, and Social Impact. Take, for example, the 2016 BORN Awards – in a single room was assembled Gerry McGovern, chief design officer of Land Rover; Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Hublot and TAG Heuer; multimedia artist and social activist Annina Roescheisen; bike designer Cristiano De Rosa; and many more – a combination of diverse creative and business minds just waiting for that spark to set preconceptions ablaze and change the world.

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LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

The american author and aviatrix Anne Morrow Lindbergh once wrote “good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.”

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f one is a leading artist, designer or businessperson (or, indeed, a combination of all three), then it can be easy to reach a certain level and then hit a plateau at which the next step may not be entirely clear. Questions of how to balance creativity with business acumen abound. It is at this critical juncture that BORN Conversations will be so valuable. This year, the meeting of minds will take place in Alesund, Norway—a blueprint, fluid and experimental, before a refined, streamlined BORN Conversations summit will be launched in London next year.

Workshops, discussions and panels can help with the balancing act. Compelling stories will provide a new perspective on issues of creativity and business. New friends will offer advice on the next steps for participant creators’ businesses or brands.

The greatest art has been produced when cultures have collided, merged and exchanged, and the greatest economic advances heralded by the discovery of new worlds, new resources, new trade. Silk Road trade and the conquests of Alexander the Great brought the aesthetic cultures of Greece and India together to give us the hybrid style of Gandharan art with its sublime Buddhas who look like Greek gods in delicate plaster. It was in China that Japan’s kanji script originated; in Arabic and Byzantine libraries that knowledge from the ancient world was saved until its rediscovery in Italy in the Renaissance; on village greens and common land in England that cricket, now beloved of a billion people on the Indian subcontinent, was invented. The cross-pollination and spread of ideas is central to progress. JC’s vision for the BORN Conversations is to curate the “the Davos of Creativity”.

The future of Born, and indeed the wider design world, lies in this pull for creators, this desire for contributive exchange and collaboration with other creators who are not competitors.

Rarely, if ever, has this potential for flourishing creativity been so rich. The best the design world has to offer will converge to exhibit, celebrate and exchange. And, just to make sure adherents to Mrs Morrow Lindbergh’s advice aren’t disappointed, there will be coffee too.

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“How,” asks Richard Agnew, “has this once specialist 4x4 brand from the West Midlands become a global superbrand that rock stars, royalty, Hollywood A-listers, leading businesspeople of the world want to be seen in? How and why has that happened?”

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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But what does it take to create something truly beautiful? Is it – as Newton’s apple would have us believe - the result of intuition and well-timed chance? Or is there a larger process at work: a set of principles that describe a more purposeful journey that resonates across disparate disciplines?

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ow,” asks Richard Agnew, “has this once specialist 4x4 brand from the West Midlands become a global superbrand that rock stars, royalty, Hollywood A-listers, leading businesspeople of the world want to be seen in?

How and why has that happened?”

Agnew, Brand Communications Director of Land Rover, lives and breathes the brand, having spent the last 22 years of his career at the British carmaker. Yet this question is still one that he admits to asking himself every day. In conversation with JC Chopin, founder and CEO of Born, at Born’s East London headquarters, Agnew discussed British heritage, Land Rover’s unique place in the worlds of design and industry, and what makes for the brand’s peerless DNA. Chopin begins by suggesting that the rest of the world has a very particular view of the UK, and its design and industry pedigree. “We have a view,” he notes, “as French people—and maybe Americans, who I meet a lot, and Italians—that England is the only country which has kept its capacity to go for bold ideas, for crazy ideas.”

And yet there is a caveat. Despite the creative industries bringing in an estimated £92bn per year to the British economy, Agnew thinks the sector is undervalued, and not invested in as much as it should be. “The amount of revenue for the ‘UK plc’, let’s call it, that comes out of the creative industries, is huge. It’s second to none.” He names Norman Foster, Thomas Heatherwick, Richard Rogers and Jony Ive as Brits leading the field in the creative industries.

“Whether it’s the De Millau Viaduct, or the coolest buildings going up in Shanghai and Manhattan, a lot of those have come from British creative know-how.”

Agnew suggests that there needs to be a combination of creativity fused with industrial nous to achieve truly peerless design. While STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering and maths—are flourishing, similar focus has to be brought to bear on educating young people in the arts.

“British car designers are at the head of many of the big automotive brands around the world,” he says. “Nothing fills me with more pride than being in LA and seeing, a Bentley, a Rolls-Royce, an Aston Martin, a Jaguar, a Range Rover.

“I can guarantee you, Jony Ive knows exactly how his phones work, from a technology point of view, because he needs to know that to be able to design them. I know that Gerry McGovern knows the insides and outsides of how a structure can be built with strength. I know he understands about the aerodynamics, I know he understands how to design for the people inside the car.”

Harnessing this fusion, this cross-pollination of skills, has been key to Land Rover’s success in all but cornering the luxury car market at a particular price point. Add to that the unique, nearly 50-year British heritage of the brand, and there’s a potent combination that consumers recognise and value. “British design fused with British quality really does transcend global boundaries. I think it’s that unique combination of the engineering integrity with creative flair. Whether you’re in Shanghai, whether you’re in Colorado, whether you’re in Milan, Paris, or London, that combination will talk to your emotional side and your rational side.”

Three major ingredients make Land Rover peerless, Agnew suggests: authenticity, quality, and desirability. On the first point, he notes that “in our world, authenticity is key.” Perhaps counterintuitively, the unique values that underpin the brand are what make it appeal universally: Land Rover is Land Rover everywhere. On the second, quality, he says, “We aim to be the best SUV. And we’ve always aimed to be the best SUV.” If you put your family in a Range Rover and send them off on a long journey, you know they will arrive safely. And the third and final point is self-explanatory: everyone wants a Range Rover.

Agnew quotes a point Gerry McGovern makes comparing a Range Rover to a Rolex Submariner: most people don’t need a watch that lets them dive to hundreds of metres on a daily basis, but the knowledge that they could is an assurance of quality. The consumer knows that the watch won’t break in the rain. In the 1970s, the Swiss watch industry was beleaguered by cheaper quartz watches made in Japan and East Asia. On the verge of collapse, the savvy Swiss manufactures couched their new models in quality and heritage with which the upstart brands could not compete. Watches became status symbols as much as— if not more than—practical tools, and the manufactures survived.

Something similar seems to be the case with Land Rover. A rich tradition of excellence sets the brand apart from others—and, indeed, makes Land Rover the perfect partner for the Born Awards. Agnew agrees. “Bringing the Born Awards to London helps shine a spotlight on not only the creative industry of London and the UK, but also globally.”

With that settled, there’s only one thing left to establish: how did Land Rover become the chosen car of rock stars and royalty? Agnew pauses. “British design and engineering know how of course!” He laughs.

Interview with Richard Agnew

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LAND ROVER

P E E R L E S S D E S I G N S T U D IO

GERRY MCGOVERN — CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER — LAND ROVER

There are two framed photographs hanging on opposite walls in Gerry McGovern’s office that go some way to explaining the transformation the designer has brought to the Land Rover brand. On the far side is a black and white image of the Her Majesty the Queen standing in front of an old Defender, wearing a headscarf and holding a pair of binoculars. There’s something solidly – perhaps even stolidly – British and conservative about it. Meanwhile behind his desk is a shot of a new – and it has to be said rather sleek – Range Rover Sport, artfully parked outside the famous Kaufmann House, created by architect Richard Neutra in Palm Springs. By contrast it feels bright, contemporary, urban and perhaps most importantly, international.

“For me Land Rover has always had the ability to stretch and mean different things to different people.”

“I’ve been focussed over the last 12 years or so on taking the brand from being a specialist brand to a more universally appealing and design literate brand.

With the intent to make it more desirable but without losing its uniqueness.”

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cGovern has done this with a distinct design strategy, one of the key components of this strategy is Modernity, which he says was subliminally influenced whilst growing up in Coventry, which was undergoing huge reconstruction at the time after being blitzed in the Second World War. “From an early age I remember when I visited the city centre being a modern environment,” “It instilled in me an interest in looking forward, not back,” which is a useful trait to possess when you’re entrusted with a brand with as much heritage as Land Rover. McGovern is responsible for the design strategy that has transformed the image and the fortunes of the Land Rover brand and taken it from the off road specialist manufacturer to the purveyor of luxury vehicles desired all over the world.

This design strategy which started with the Range Rover Evoque has proven itself in the marketplace with

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

Land Rover sales growing exponentially. A decade ago, for instance, it sold 186,590 vehicles. That figure has now risen to over 400,000 and goes some way to explaining the level of investment that’s currently going on at the Gaydon Product Development Center, a short drive away from Leamington Spa. This year alone McGovern picked up the prestigious Designer of the Year at the Festival Automobile International in Paris, as well as the World Car Design of the Year for the new mid-size luxury SUV, the Range Rover Velar.

His own history with the brand dates back to 1996 when he created the Freelander. Subsequently he was headhunted by Lincoln-Mercury in California. After a period there he moved to the Ford Ingeni design studio in Soho London, before being head hunted back to Land Rover as director, advanced design in 2004; later his responsibility increased. You sense though the pieces really began to

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DR RALF SPETH (CEO Jaguar Land Rover) handing over the WCDOTY award to Gerry McGovern and the team at the Gaydon Design Studio.

MASSIMO FRASCELLA Director, Exterior Design Land Rover

AMY FRASCELLA Chief Designer Colour & Materials Land Rover

fall into place when the brand was bought by the Indian conglomerate Tata in 2008, with the Range Rover Evoque going into production two years later. “When I first came back here design reported to engineering,” he tells me. “My view is quite simple: you’re never going to get an optimum design position if the person that’s ultimately making the decision is an engineer. In order to succeed you’ve got to have equality at senior level and respect for each other’s disciplines.”

What I found in Mr Tata was a kindred spirit. He felt exactly as I did about design’s ability to be transformative. “Design leadership is everything. You might have the best designers in the world but if you haven’t got someone to go out there and interface with people in the rest of the business, then you’re never going to see the Design vision turned in to a reality.”

His point is only reinforced when I speak toMassimo Frascella, who previously worked with McGovern at Lincoln and Ford, then was hired by McGovern to head up exterior design at Land Rover. “Gerry has placed design at the core of our business giving us a huge advantage when interfacing with other disciplines. He has championed and articulated successfully the role that design must play in order for the business to succeed,” he says. That leadership is going to be crucial in the coming years because it’s safe to say the industry is going through unprecedented times. It’s moving away from combustion, autonomous vehicles are no longer the stuff of scifi movies, customers are demanding increased connectivity and car sharing schemes are beginning to gain a foothold in the market. Each, in different ways, has the potential to transform the way cars are designed and manufactured. As Frascella confirms: “We are witnessing the biggest revolution in the automotive industry. It’s something that’s going to affect us and the way we create our vehicles”.

“What we are doing is understanding the technology and what's coming.“ “People are very prescriptive of what they surround themselves with and a lot of that is to do with colour and materials.’ Her job, she tells me, is concerned with “re-defining the perception of luxury materials.”

2014 SKETCH OF WHAT BECAME

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“Design leadership is everything. You might have the best designers in the world but if you haven’t got someone to go out there and interface with people in the rest of the business, then you’re never going to see the Design vision turned in to a reality“ luxury products don’t need them. You don’t need a luxury watch or a luxury car, you desire them. It’s about creating an emotional connection with your consumer through the compelling nature of design.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean burdening the customer with choice or overloading them with new devices.

“Over-connectivity is an absolute irritant,” confirms McGovern. “And more worryingly, due to its mass, it can be a danger.”

It is an echo of Issigonis’ desire not to have a radio in the original Mini, so force drivers to concentrate on the road.

McGovern’s modernist approach to automotive design is unique in a discipline where design literacy is often compromised by committee decision making. But it’s fascinating to hear both McGovern and the Frascellas’ repeat the same mantra, albeit in slightly different ways.

So in an era where decision making is frequently dominated by big data and corporate decision making, under McGovern’s strong leadership, Land Rover appears to be bucking the trend and trusting the design organisation while promoting the compelling nature of desirability via design integrity. “Metrics are important,” he concludes, “but there comes a point where you have to take a leap of faith. You have to use some level of vision and there aren’t any metrics for that. One thing I’m absolutely sure of is that you never create anything that’s truly desirable by committee or pure data and you never will.”

“You don’t need a luxury watch or a luxury car, you desire them.

It’s about creating an emotional connection with your consumer through the compelling nature of design.”

However, the Company’s chief designer for colour and materials, Amy Frascella, is happy to drop a few hints.

As she points out, when people stop driving the vehicle -i.e. in autonomous mode, the interior of their cars will change profoundly. “They will become a true extension of your home and what do you do in your home? You lounge on the couch.

People are very prescriptive of what they surround themselves with and a lot of that is to do with colour and materials.” Her job, she tells me, is concerned with “re-defining the perception of luxury materials”. The reason for this is that she sees a change in the values of potential customers. “I do think there’s a movement of understanding the provenance in the things you buy, making sure your values are reflected in the products you engage with and the companies you support.” It is this kind of thinking which has lead the company to develop alternatives to leather and prompted it to work with the renowned Danish textiles company Kvadrat. “A lot of times people think that if you choose textiles you’re choosing an entry level car. But these textiles are on a par for quality and pricing with high grade leather,” she tells me.

Back in his office McGovern is much more focussed on the present. This is a designer that promotes the view that design must contribute to a positive business outcome.

“In the automotive world it’s always about the latest and the greatest,” he says. “The perception being that the next one has to be totally different. But why does it?” He uses the example of a Porsche 911, to explain how a car is capable of changing incrementally while still retaining an innate sense of design integrity. “The first thing to remember is that people who buy

The BORN Awards honour beautiful products, the minds that created them, and the ways in which they improve lives. We celebrate the dreamers who go one step further and become doers. We are the unparalleled global platform for artists, brands, retailers, and journalists to have an ongoing conversation about the design-led lifestyle.

Each “BORN Year” is a cycle of events that starts regionally and expands globally. The cycle commences with four nominees in six categories in six regions: United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, and International. The winners are selected in each category by a regional jury comprised of industry leaders in fields ranging from marketing to manufacturing to journalism to venture capital. These winners are celebrated in their respective regions at an evening designed to spark conversation, collaboration, and creativity. In addition to our six juried categories, The BORN Awards also partners with esteemed companies to give out Special and Sponsored Prizes.

Why the BORN Awards?

Founded eight years ago by Jean-Christophe Chopin, The BORN Awards honours work that strives to improve the quality of life through aesthetics and functionality. The BORN Awards is an annual series of online and offline events that celebrates creative achievements in design from around the world.

One of our core tenets is that great products can come from anywhere and anyone. The BORN Awards celebrate accomplished and emerging creators alike. At the start of each program cycle, which lasts from November until the following October, new and established designers submit their projects for evaluation in six categories.

For whom are the BORN Awards?

Eligibility for The BORN Awards is defined by existence—every idea must be fully realized and produced by the time of entry, no schematics or renderings. We applaud concepts, but we only honour execution. We look for products that inspire, that challenge, that have an emotional resonance.

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EDITION

When people hear the word, “awards,” they often think of a glitzy, one-night-only event in a crowded ballroom filled with formalwear, champagne, and overlong speeches. We dare to be different in every way imaginable (except for the champagne, of course).

Following these celebrations, all twenty-four winners are invited to exhibit their products at the BORN exhibition at Milan Design Week.

In addition to having their work exposed to retailers, brands, journalists, and tastemakers, the creators are invited to attend the “BORN Conversations,” an exclusive series of fireside chats held with renowned industry leaders about the intersection of creativity and business. Following Milan, our global jury selects a single design from each category which typifies a peerless achievement in the marriage of design and functionality. These honourees are invited to partake in the Global Exhibition held in London at the newly-opened Design Museum. Coinciding with the exhibition, The BORN Awards hosts the World Creativity Summit, a three-day conference which brings together 100 top professionals from the fields of design, business, finance and more. The cycle concludes with the opportunity for the Global Winners to partner on an exclusive product with BORN.com, an online community comprised of over 80,000 designers, brands, and retailers.

Taken all together, The BORN Awards is the premier platform for honouring best in design-led lifestyle. We believe the world is changed not just by someone with a great mind, but by a great mind who creates something great. Come collaborate with us.

LAND ROVER

Where are the BORN Awards?

THE

What are the BORN Awards?

GLOBAL FINAL NOMINEE LIST 7,132 Creators and Brands from 130 different countries

47 Regional Winners CORINNE VEZZONI

LOEWE FOUNDATION

ILIA POTEMINE for DCW

ALICIA KOPLOWITZ

CLARA DAGUIN

THOMAS HEATHERWICK

UK

FRANCE

SVO BIKES

MICHAEL ANASTASSIADES

DREEM

LE MONDE BERYL

FUSALP

BROMPTON

JEAN-MICHEL WILMOTTE

NOLII

FRANK BRUNO

BROOKS

NICOLAS HOUZÉ

JACQUES GARCIA

CINO ZUCCHI ARCHITETTI GIACOMO MOOR

AMERICA

ITALY

LEON SPEAKERS ATHLETIC PROPULSION LABS STUART PARR

NUOVA INDUSTRIA TORINESE

FAIR

NOAH GUITARS

RYAN LOVELACE

TECKELL

TASTEMADE

ENRICO BARTOLINI

MACHINIMA

RIVA YACHT

MVRDV

RAMÓN ESTEVE MAYICE STUDIO CAMPER

INTERNAITONAL

VÌEN ATELIER

PIAGGIO

SPAIN

BORN AWARDS

192 Nominees

LANZAVECCHIA + WAI SABYASACHI MUKHERJEE LILIUM AFRICANSTOCKPHOTO

CABIFY

BAPE

ECOALF

KNOLL

PUKAS

Cino Zucchi “When we look at traditional artefacts or buildings, we usually feel in their shape a sense of ease and adequacy to their role. They serve everyday use, but they also show the engagement of the craftsman to make a work capable to last in time. The perfection of traditional crafts was based on the progressive refinement of formal models transmitted over the generations; but the “Functionalist” revolution imposed a process where form is only the final output of a scientific-like “method” based on the analysis of data. Functionalism pushed the experimentation with new technologies and materials, but we understand now that our future environment just needs to be a wise integration of new and old, of nature and technique. Rather than expanding, cities can evolve into porous environments including nature in their ever-evolving bodies.

At a smaller scale, that is what we strived for and realized in the Lavazza Nuvola complex. An existing dismissed industrial precinct has been opened up to the surrounding city. A new green public park has become the centre of an urban regeneration made of existing buildings reformed to host new functions and modern ones marked by very innovative workspaces. These dialogue among each other in a new urban model which integrates the intensity of urban environments with the healing properties of natural ones.

In a design word marked by rules, procedures, certificates, a “peerless” design goal is for us the continuous revision of our “ways of doing” in the light of the new values which found this new millennium.”

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Italy

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN

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Michael Anastassiades “I have always been fascinated with the parallel that exists between Lighting and Jewelry. Starting from the simple fact of how each piece relates to the human scale: one is designed to be worn on the body whereas the other is made to decorate the space someone occupies.

I’m challenged in how the delicate nature of something small can be translated spatially and still manage to retain its preciousness in the way materials are presented. It is no coincidence that the word ‘pendant’ has a double meaning. Existing both as a piece of jewelry that hangs from a chain worn round the neck, and a light designed to hang from the ceiling.

Arrangements is a modular system of geometric light elements that could be combined in different ways, creating multiple compositions into individual chandeliers. Each unit simply attaches onto the previous one as if resting, balancing perfectly as part of a glowing chain.”

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United Kingdom

INTERIOR DESIGN

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Ryan and Adam Goldston “To us peerless design starts with intent. The intent on why you're creating something sets the tone for the entire product/project. If you are creating from a unique point of view and looking at a design to service a purpose that you are first and foremost extremely passionate about and not trying to create something that others have and/ or are already creating then you're looking at something from the right perspective.

Design is a universal language, not everyone has the same taste, but most can realize when something is designed from a unique point of view and to us that is what peerless design is. We always say as a company that APL is not competing with others, simply striving to push ourselves to create the best, timeless products. When we are creating products, experiences and content at APL, we always want to make sure that even if you don't know the brand, you can understand what we stand for and establish an emotional connection to what we are creating. We spend a lot of time creating emotional connections with people through design and that is really what we feel sets us apart. There is a reason for every design and technology that we introduce and simply put, we do not believe others are looking at it that way. If you can point to someone else and say they are doing exactly what we're doing, then it's not peerless. Our creations and designs speak for themselves, even if you don't know about APL, our products and content will make you feel a special type of way; that is peerless design.�

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America

LEISURE DESIGN

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Andrew Ritchie and Will Butler Adams “Designed in 1975, the Brompton Bike has become a staple on commutes all around the world, to be precise in 45 countries all around the world with 16,982,784 varieties available. Andrew Ritchie started designing the folding bike whilst sat in his flat overlooking the Brompton Oratory in South Kensington, London, going into production in 1981. The Brompton was designed to ensure freedom and independence in urban spaces and this concept lies at the heart of everything Brompton do to this day, with over 45,000 bikes made per year making Brompton the UK’s largest bike manufacturer.

Each bike is hand brazed by skilled craftsman at the London factory and each brazer is trained by Brompton for 18 months and has a signature which they stamp on the parts of the bike that they work on. Research and development is carried out in-house and testing is also carried out externally for independent testing.”

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United Kingdom

MOBILITY DESIGN

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Spain Javier Goyeneche “Peerless is unsurpassed creativity, design and aesthetic. It remains timeless while still retaining its functional properties and purpose.

Something unique that doesn’t exist because of how it’s achieved, what it does and the impact it has. Something that is also available and affordable for everybody. There shouldn’t be a price barrier. We live in a fast paced environment and there is an excess of products in the market. There is no time to retain so much information. It’s about not wasting natural resources in a careless way. It’s about what´s important and what matters in your daily life. It’s about making choices that will have an impact in your life and the future generations. Often there is a story behind, to be told and once discovered, an emotional link will endure. This is the experience that makes the difference. At Ecoalf it’s what we do and how we do it. Behind each product there is a story to be discovered… it’s about storydoing with a positive impact in the world. Ecoalf was born in 2009, the idea was to create a fashion brand that is truly sustainable. The concept arose from our frustration with the excessive use of the world´s natural resources and the amount of waste produced by industrialized countries. Our goal is to create a new lifestyle brand that integrates breakthrough technology to create clothing, footwear and accessories made entirely from recycled and sustainable materials with the same quality, design and technical properties as the best non-recycled, non-sustainable products. Ecoalf’s devotion and commitment to our home, to our planet is peerless.” #BecausethereisnoplanetB

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TECHNOLOGY DESIGN

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France Alexandre Fauvet “Peerless design is naturally associated, in my opinion, with a strong and distinctive identity fashioned by a unique vision. At Fusalp, we believe that there is no performance without elegance. We aim at looking beyond our original Alpine mountains to imagine our future active and nomadic lives which will dictate the technical and functional skills of our forthcoming collections. But we remain taylors and designers above all, inspired by our culture and a strong heritage.

This blend without compromise between fashion design and tech takes roots in our history since 1952. It is the DNA and the reason to live of Fusalp which ambition is to create and offer products with strong functionality.

Peerless design is a state of mind which paves the way to innovation.

Our secret is simple: we never look at what the other industry players are doing. We just follow our convictions and get inspired by rule breakers in very different fields.

At Fusalp, we constantly push our teams to adopt an "out-of-the-box" attitude in order to produce disruptive, creative and value-added ideas. In that respect, we believe that innovation results from a very unique peerless-driven approach. Peerless design stands up and often creates interest and desire. But it has to make sens and shouldn't be disconnected from the brand's purpose to last.”

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SPORT DESIGN

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BOMBAS GENS ART CENTER SPAIN Ramรณn Esteve

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ISP LAMP FRANCE Ilia Potemine

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AURA INSIDE FRANCE Clara Daguin

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LILIUM JET INTERNATIONAL Daniel Wiegand, Sebastian Born,

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LAP STEEL GUITAR ITALY Noah Guitars & Max Pontrelli

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DREEM FRANCE Hugo Mercier

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90° MINUTO ITALY Teckell

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LOEWE FOUNDATION SPAIN Sheila Loewe

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FAIR AMERICA Scott Painter

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RUNNER UP

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The New Era Of Wellness JOIN THE COMMUNITY ON OLFINITY.COM

THINK WITH

If we are to believe the news,

our social feeds and the congressional testimonies, artificial intelligence, automation, and programmatic ads represent an existential threat to society.

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n some ways, this can be true. It seems the systems of the world have reached levels of fractal complexity where it is impossible to predict the second and third order consequences. Who would have thought that a platform invented to look at attractive classmates in school would have played a role in Russian interference in U.S. democracy?

As machines get smarter and more logical, it will undoubtedly disrupt commodity work, like data entry or even the discovery of documents that law firms conduct. This trend also has a considerable role in commerce and the way people buy. In our day-to-day, we’re playing back algorithmic preferences based on our past behaviors to predict what we might want to do in the future. Or what we might want to buy.

But, as an independent creative agency working in Shanghai, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, we feel there is an impending backlash to all of this.

We see a creative world on the horizon where we reject the overly rational, the clinically precise, and the well reasoned math and delight in imperfection. We see a world where there is a competitive advantage and emotional fulfillment from thinking with the heart instead of thinking

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If algorithms ran Patagonia, it wouldn't have said: “Don’t buy this jacket.” An outdoor brand in the business of selling things, telling its customers to buy used, or not buy at all.

YOUR HEART

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In a world of mechanical precision, bots and hyperefficiency, maybe this idea of subtle, hand touched perfection starts to look compelling — and intensely satisfying.

We see a world where there is a competitive advantage and emotional fulfillment from thinking with the heart instead of thinking with the head.

We see a creative world on the horizon where we reject the overly rational, the clinically precise, and the well reasoned math and delight in imperfection.

When the world begins to think with its heart, we truly embrace what it means to be imperfect humans with hot blood running through our veins.

with the head. And this trend will continue to grow in resonance even as society gains in technological complexity. As we have seen countless times, culture reacts to saturation.

Things snap back into focus. The world re-aligns on its axis.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

This trend is everywhere around us if we look closely.

In a world full of mass-produced clothing from H and M and Zara, optimized and perfected regarding production, the next wave of the luxurious could be built on and rooted in, the imperfections and subtle flaws that accompany the warm human touch. What the Japanese call Wabi Sabi — a worldview centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection — has adopted a consumer lens in which the patina of human imperfection can be the highest value-add.

In his book, The Inevitable, Kevin Kelly states, “humans can weave cotton cloth with great effort, but automated looms make perfect cloth, by the mile, for a few cents. The only reason to buy handmade cloth today is because you want the imperfections humans introduce.”

Some brands, such as Visvim, are harbingers of this trend. According to Complex, “every fabric Visvim uses is developed exclusively for the brand by mills [designer Hiroki Nakamura] personally selects. Though the use of natural dyes, vegetable-tanned leather, and handcrafted details are incredibly time-consuming, this approach is very much in line with his vision of old-meets-new.”

It isn’t happening in just clothing. The resurgent Japanese craft of Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold. It brings the seam front and center like a scar and treats the breakage and repair as part of the overall history and spirit of an object.

It finds beauty in the imperfection. In a world of mechanical precision, bots and hyper-efficiency, maybe this idea of subtle, hand touched perfection starts to look compelling — and intensely satisfying.

Think about this idea of imperfection and thinking with the heart. It applies to luxury; it applies to craft. It even applies to the mass market and some of the most powerful brands in the world. Ironically, a Linkedin algorithm served up this cut and pasted insight: If computers ran Alibaba, it wouldn't have hired Jack Ma. Jack Ma had a fragmented background that wouldn't make made sense on its surface to someone. But his drive and persistence are what made him so successful. If the US outdoor brand REI were run by AI, it wouldn't have closed its stores during Black Friday. REI closed its stores on the biggest shopping day of the year, encouraging their customers to opt outside and spend time, not in a fluorescent-lit big box store. If machines ran Nike, it would not have run the Kaepernick advertisement. Conventional wisdom would tell a brand not to insert itself into politics or hot-button social issues. If algorithms ran Patagonia, it wouldn't have said: “Don’t buy this jacket.” An outdoor brand in the business of selling things, telling its customers to buy used, or not buy at all.

Quite a contrarian. When the world begins to think with its heart, we truly embrace what it means to be imperfect humans with hot blood running through our veins. And it will bring about more meaningful creation in art, design, and business. And a world that is much more interesting to experience with all of our senses.

Article by Colin Nagy

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designing the invisible ——

In the world of science,

DNA is something that stores biological information - it’s the blueprint that defines us as individuals.

For brands, DNA is defined by their origin story, the beliefs by which they conduct business, well as the brand’s long-term goals.

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In recent years, cross-brand collaborations have become one of the defining features of design and innovation

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ike Antoine Arnault, CEO of Berluti, remarked at the New York Times Luxury Summit earlier this year, “A luxury brand gains a global competitive edge by successfully demonstrating it is more unique than others. That its DNA is stronger, clearer, more individual, more authentic.”1 It has become increasingly important for consumers, especially millennials, to support brands whose DNA aligns with their personal values. One brand that has made authenticity a cornerstone of their DNA is Stella McCartney. “If we have a relationship with this generation it’s because we haven’t actively gone out and targeted them. We don’t fake it, we don’t pay people. The design process is so heartfelt at Stella McCartney. I don’t have to try too hard, I think people believe when its honest and know when its not.”2 Beyond the purchase of a product or service, consumers are increasingly looking to brands for authentic storytelling and experiences that amplify their personal values.

Over the past decade, technological innovation has blurred the lines that had previously separated the worlds of design, manufacturing, marketing, and retail. For example, with the emergence of Augmented Reality, consumers no longer need to visit a physical store to experience a new product. AR experiences not only make it possible to see virtual products in your actual environment, it also gives brands an opportunity to engage their audience in unprecedented levels of of personalized storytelling, and even let consumers participate in the narrative.

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gram projection in which the models appeared in a poetic setting inspired by the collection's prints.”3 In recent years, cross-brand collaborations have become one of the defining features of design and innovation. After all, what could be more innovative than hybridization between two distinguished brand DNAs? Remix culture has its origins in hip hop, and its influence is clearly evident in the work of the new generation of designers. In 2017, BMW and yacht-builder Nautor Swan teamed up to create a one-off car model, the BMW Individual M760Li to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of BMW Individual, the bespoke arm of the German car maker. “Inspired by Swan's classic sailing yachts with the Finnish builder even producing certain elements, including the car's teak boot floor panel, teak trims, entry sills and floor mats - by hand at its workshop in western Finland to ensure the M760Li has a true sense of yachting flair.”4 New technologies such as AR, experiential events and cross-collaborations are just a few of the opportunities available to cultivate lasting relationships between creators, retailers and consumers. Brand DNA is always evolving.

And BORN is here to help you explore these exciting new possibilities and write the next chapter in your brand story.

Article by Brendan Wypich

Over the past decade, technological innovation has blurred the lines that had previously separated the worlds of design, manufacturing, marketing, and retail.

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s 1988 Slam Dunk Contest win, Nike partnered with Snapchat and R/GA to create a social commerce experience in Augmented Reality. Using a custom Snapchat lens, a virtual model of Jordan was “imposed onto a geofenced court in Downtown LA, where the audience could bear witness to his Free Throw Line Dunk in MJ’s full 6.6”, frozen a full five feet from the ground.... A tap of the screen, and the viewers could cop the latest drop of the Air Jordan III – a variation of the very same sneaker that Jordan wore in ’88, which was delivered to their home address within two hours.” Experiential events offer brands an opportunity to immerse their audience in their brand narrative. In 2017, Dior treated its guests to an ephemeral transmedia experience that combined fine art and digital media to share a piece of the brand’s rich history. “Greeted by a video work projected on the building’s façade, guests were invited to take part in a genuine Dior experience, an immersive journey into the world of the House, between past and future, with blue as the common thread. Twelve outfits by Monsieur Dior from the archives show the appeal this color of the kings of France had for him, from the navy wool Passe-Partout suit from the first collection, that of the New Look in 1947, to 1957's Billet Doux, an afternoon dress in blue silk damask with rose motifs. A specially dedicated room contained an installation by the artist Liu Jianhua based around the Lady Dior bag. Next, the visitor discovered Maria Grazia Chiuri's collection unveiled as a holo-

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To me, they’re not merely vessels that transport us from one point to another.

They’re statements. Hobbies. Refuges. Physical bookmarks for the chapters of our lives.

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ften, they’re our literal avatars to the outside world, reflecting our personality in ways we don’t readily consider or acknowledge.

With a deep admiration for the role cars have achieved in our culture and lives, I’ve dedicated myself to trying to solve what I consider the one long-standing blemish on the automotive experience: how we buy and own them.

Year after year, cars get consistently better—sometimes mind-blowingly so. And yet, for decades, the act of purchasing one has remained stubbornly unchanged. In fact, the advent of leasing more than 50 years ago represents the last tangible innovation in how we acquire cars—a reality that would almost certainly mean “game over” in any other industry.

To be sure, time has brought a crop of new entry points in the process—apps, websites, digital marketplaces.

But virtually all of them send you right back into the same antiquated process as before, where the customer is forced to take on significant personal debt for a vehicle that will lose almost all its value as they drive it.

That this scenario existed used to keep me up at night—until a couple years ago when I realized technology had finally come far enough to enable the creation of something better.

So, recruiting some of the most intelligent and creative people I knew, I founded Fair—a revolutionary app that finally lets people get and pay for a car the same way they conduct countless other transactions: entirely on their phone and with absolutely no long-term commitment or debt. They scan their license to shop thousands of cars, sign for the one they want with their finger, and keep it for as long as they want. It’s essentially Amazon for cars, without all the boxes to recycle.

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Year after year, cars get consistently better—sometimes mind-blowingly so. And yet, for decades, the act of purchasing one has remained stubbornly unchanged.

I’ve always been fascinated by cars.

Scott Painter - Fair CEO

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Of course, creating a process this simple is exceedingly complex. In fact it required inventing a totally new formula for the automotie experience

In providing these powerful consumer capabilities, Fair has finally brought an all-digital, end-to-end transaction to the auto space—the same way it’s become standard in other industries. We’ve eliminated physical paperwork with digital documents that are kept right in the app. We’ve replaced multi-year contracts with an open-ended agreement that lets a customer return their car with just five days’ notice. And we’ve enabled customers to bypass the burden of an auto loan by letting them pay for their Fair car with a simple upfront fee and all-in monthly payments for as long as they want to drive it—including routine maintenance, a warranty, roadside assistance, even optional insurance if needed.

Of course, creating a process this simple is exceedingly complex. In fact, it required inventing a totally new formula for the automotive experience. Letting customers turn in their cars whenever they want, for example, means we actually buy any car ordered on the app by a Fair customer— who then gets exclusive access to it for as long as they want.

While this technique unlocks powerful levels of freedom for the customer, it has only become a viable business model in the last few years, with predictive analytics enabling us for the first time to know with remarkable precision what the cars we buy will be worth now and at every point in the future. This allows us to build a predictably profitable platform while still providing affordability and flexibility for our customers.

To approach this innovative concept in an intelligent way, we also decided to focus our business model exclusively on pre-owned cars. Not only does this reflect the “reduce and reuse” ethos of the modern consumers we’re after, but it allows us to pass on significant savings by avoiding the significant premium of buying a brand-new car—something all of our parents told us never to do.

All of us at Fair are invigorated by the innovations and growth we’ve unlocked over the past year, including our expansion into more than a dozen markets and imminent plans for many more. And while seeing a truly special car still gives me the same thrill it did as a kid, having the opportunity to solve a significant and long-standing problem in an industry I love is even better.

Article by Scott Painter with Tom Mullen

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R E B E L

The digital revolution

has brought us a lot of creative tools, to create and share content through the internet.

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We created tools and processes to make it incredibly easy to create a product – in our case, shoes. We give customers all the professional resources to design their own custom shoes and launch a shoe line from scratch.

We take care of production, and make all products in our amazing labs in Italy, through our artisan network, delivering the best quality materials, and the best quality of the craft. By eliminating the need to understand the principles of the supply chain and e-commerce, to know a reputable network of producers, and to spend six-figure start-up amounts, we allow creative people to design and sell their own shoes with little risk but plenty of profits and rewards. We started our adventure by giving artists shoes with which to create installations. Then we went to fashion students and asked them to create shoe designs and their own personal brands. Now our offer is wide open to anyone who has a creative sparkle. They can come to AliveShoes and create and sell their products – in minutes, hours. It’s that easy. Shoes are indeed our main core, but we also aim to further expand our supply chain in the future, and we offer our community of creators the opportunity to design multiple kinds of top-quality design objects and fashion products; think special clothing, bags, fashion accessories, jewellery, sunglasses, leather objects, and more. It is a huge experiment; a world-scale experiment, considering we have people from more than 50 countries. We see AliveShoes as a way to move more and more people towards becoming actual creators, and in doing so, deepening their connections with the world and with reality around them.

Imagine a world where you could develop and launch your products at a very rapid pace. What world is that? Isn’t it more energetic and fun? Isn’t it more in line with our ability, as humans, to create and control our own reality?

Technology, in this field of creativity, should and must have the aim of giving people the power to create and augment their vision and connection with the real world.

That, in fact, is a major part of our work at AliveShoes.

Article by Luca Botticelli with Thomas Barrie

We created tools and processes to make it incredibly easy to create a product — in our case, shoes. We give customers all the professional resources to design their own custom shoes and launch a shoe line from scratch

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reat stuff – very creative indeed, and fun. But as said, this is all about digital stuff to create digital content. Is creativity just digital? If you look at the world today, you might think that the answer was yes. All these tools were conceived in Silicon Valley: the Instagrams, the Youtubes. They are all from there. So it is understandable that this is the perception. Silicon Valley invented the digital world, they created digital creative tools. Very straightforward.Coming from Italy, where all you study and see until you are 20 is art, craftsmanship, products, architecture, fashion (also known as: real reality), my perspective was quite different. It is quite normal for an Italian to feel the connection between us, humans, and the world, the real world. You can mould the world, you can shape it based on the ideas you have in your head. You make stuff in the real world. It’s easy. All the little towns have plenty of crafters here in Italy. It is full of art everywhere. It is normal to us. This point of view has shaped my concept of creative intelligence. Creative intelligence, for me, is the ability to shape the world around us. The real world, not the digital (even if creating in the digital world might be a great exercise). Fashion, among all these “real” arts, is a great way to create, because you can see what you create on other people. It is real, it is moving, it is 3D. You can see it, you can feel it, you can touch it. I feel that fashion in the last decades has been restricted to design studios, big brands’ rooms. And that’s very bad, because that kind of creative fluidity should be open to everybody. Just as everybody can paint, everybody should be able to create fashion. Our proposition at AliveShoes is that every artist and creative needs a medium to bring their stories and ideas to life. If shoes are their canvas of choices, we’d love to help with that. Fashion is indeed an amazing medium of expression, and we are excited to offer talented creators the ability to make use of their creative intelligence and create and share their new, beautiful products with the world using AliveShoes.

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As other industries struggle, video games can be a new home for creators who dream of designing their own world

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pecific moments are burned into my memory: from the digital Tarzan call of Pitfall Harry on the Atari 2600, to the oft-replicated Mario sprite from Super Mario Bros., through the first time I experienced breathtaking real-world environments with Myst. At the time I was playing for the challenge involved in the gameplay, but the strongest memories are triggered by the artistic sights and sounds of the game.

Here’s an experiment: next time you’re around a group of people who grew up in the 80’s, sing the first few notes of the Level 1-1 music from Super Mario Bros. I guarantee after you’re finished singing BAH-DA BAH-BAH-DA-BAH BUM you will hear a chorus of voices completing the song.

It’s not just a video game song, it’s a pop song.

Early art in video games was an art of limitations. The Atari 2600 game cartridges had a maximum capacity of 32 kilobytes. For reference, the average .mp3 file of your favo-

your-self

in the late-80's and early-90's, my med consumption habits heavily leaned towards the home console and PC gaming revolutions.

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Growing up

rite song is 3.5 megabytes, or 109 times the size of an entire game. Creating memorable sights, sounds, and stories with a tiny capacity challenged the designers to work with extreme limitations.

As computing power and memory grew, game developers could play in a larger sandbox. From sprites to polygons to the Unity engine, now games can be as complex as the designers’ imaginations and, of course, budgets will allow. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim wasn’t just a game. It was a living, breathing universe with literature, mythology, bards singing songs, characters with long-term life goals, and detailed landscapes where as a gamer, you may find a hidden waterfall that feels like it was made just for you.

But with the advancement in technology came a backlash from the creative community that longed for the video game styles from yesteryear. The rise in independent games allowed smaller studios to experiment with new artforms, from the 1930’s animation style of Cuphead to the Super Nintendo role-playing game inspiration found in Undertale to the black-and-white artform of Limbo, which is more akin to German Expressionism or film noir than other side-scrolling adventure games.

We are now entering a new era in video game art: the art of immersion. Virtual reality, though far from ubiquitous, has allowed gamers to transport their full field of vision to another interactive world. Their on-screen avatars are no longer their entry point into a game. The gamer gets to become the main character in a more literal sense. To convince the gamer that the environment is ‘real’, the art needs to match. Diagetic sound must be personalized. If you move closer to a radio, the music has to be louder. If you turn your head to the left, the music should be louder in your right ear. Shadows have to move appropriately with light sources as you move through the space. Characters need to acknowledge you properly where you’re standing.

But most importantly, the new universe needs to earn the gamers attention. Is the story, visuals, music, and game mechanics impressive enough to fully immerse a viewer to the point where they forget they are wearing headset?

Aside from VR games, MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) have found new depths of immersion for gamers. Not only are you able to play within a new universe, you get to control your own narrative. You can be a loner or surrounded by friends. You can get married. You can go for an aimless walk. You can sit in a chair and meditate. In other words, you can live on your own terms. That’s a far cry from the structured paths of Pac-man a mere 38 years prior. Gaming is here to stay. In 2016 the global music industry was worth $16 Billion. The global movie box office was $38.6 billion. When combining mobile, console, and PC games, the markets were at approximately $104 billion. And the sheer amount of art for each game is massive. Each character, house, mountain, and blade of grass needs to be considered. A poor design choice can throw a gamer out of their immersive experience.

As other industries struggle, video games can be a new home for creators who dream of designing their own world. Continuing to involve true artisans in the video game industry will ensure visual, aural, and experiential iconography will be passed on to future generations.

Article by Phil Ranta LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

One of the main advantages of Sintesi is how the delivery of a product is sensationalised: once the product is chosen, the gripper picks it up and delivers it to the hands of the shopper who can wach the whole process

CREATIVE ROBOTICS

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Is retail dying? Not at all. A

certain type of retail will most probably disappear in a short time due to the commoditisation of a vast number of products, but for those retailers who can count on good design and brand engagement, we will definitely witness a renaissance of retail.

C

ommercial spaces are transforming themselves: they are switching from displayers of products to providers of experiences. Customer experience will be the first concern for brands when designing their retail strategy.

Experience is exactly what consumers, especially Millennials and Generation Z, are looking for when approaching every aspect of their life, from leisure time to family shopping, to luxury goods and services hunting. The rise of theme restaurants, boutique hotels, pop-up stores among other new formats is the proof that the hyper connected

customers not only want to purchase, but are also keen to touch, try, feel, taste and smell. And if a customer wants something more on an experiential level, for instance a 100ft climbing wall to try some new gear he is considering to buy at the moment, the retailer should be prepared.

In this era, time is the ultimate luxury and so is design.

Consumers want to spend the little time they have in a space that enriches them at a deeper level than the satisfaction they will gain from purchasing an item. They want to talk about an experience to their followers on social media. 

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This is the reainventory replacement and marketing decisions. Retailers son why who have installed these type of robots, also report a better level of safety for the products and a decreased shrinkage. stores are One of the main advantages of Sintesi is how the delivery of a product is sensationalised: once the product is being rechosen, the gripper picks it up and delivers it to the hands of the shopper who can watch the whole process. The designed product is highlighted, and its importance is enhanced by the choosing and picking procedure. The result is enriched to allow further by the customisation possibilities that include all colours and patterns, delivery points along the perimeter more of the store or in central stations and bespoke delivery systems such as lifters and automatic windows. Robotics is spaces for not the only strategy towards the shop-as-media revolution that we are beginning to witness, but it is a very effective human intool to give the shoppers what they are willing to receive: an unforgettable experience that is worth their precious teraction. time, a deep connection with a product or brand that they are deeply/genuinely (because deep is repeated in the sentence) interested in. If design is the ultimate luxury, it is mandatory to offer an abundance of it to shoppers. In-store technology providers should then be counted among the preferred partners of serious retailers.

Article by Pier Francesco Verlato

This the reason why stores are being redesigned to allow more spaces for human interaction, for design and creativity, for brand and product communication. In these new retail spaces, technology plays a tremendous role in enhancing the experience of the “omnichannel” consumer.

From touchscreens, to fast check-out systems, to robots, everything is conceived to convert the shop-walker into a customer whenever ready, in the smoothest possible way.

Crown Robotics’ Sintesi is a robot designed by Alberto Meda that suits many different environments, from jewellery stores to perfumeries, from fashion accessories to electronics. The high level of personalisation, both from a design and a dimensional point of view, allows its installation almost in every retail space. Depending on the objective, Sintesi can be the main attraction within the shop, or play a subtler role. Its robotic gripper is built on a chassis and moves along shelves according to the instructions received by either an operator or the public themselves. Customers can use touch screens in the store to collect what they want whether it is a watch, a nutritional supplement or the latest earbuds. They can see the gripper moving along the shelves to pick up their products. The employee can be at their side to provide for more information about the product, facilitate the cross-selling process or not be involved at all.

The vertically shelved merchandise saves a great amount of floor space that can be filled with touch screens, installations and other focus points. Furthermore, Sintesi tracks shopping data and trends, becoming a real-time tool for

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Philippe Rousselin

POWER OF THE NEW

founded DIVA Group 35 years ago to bring Italian interior design pedigree to the ultra-modern homes of Los Angeles.

Now, after almost four decades operating at the pinnacle of the industry, DIVA maintains showrooms in West Hollywood, Seattle and Miami.

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JC CHOPIN: Hi Philippe. I wanted to begin by asking

you a question relating to your experience in interior design, and that is: how do you feel the interior design world has changed over the 35 years you have been working in it?

If anything, it has become more advisory. Even in the last ten years, there has been a seismic shift in the market. The main difference is that clients want to be their own designer – they don’t want an outside designer to impose their own style on their home.

Ten years ago, I would say 30 per cent of clients wanted to pilot their own project; they tended to be from creative industries themselves, such as film, music, the arts. Now, 60 per cent of interior design projects are client-led. So they come to the showroom and the vendor has to be an advisor.

The clients are empowered, and they know what they want.

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN:

JC CHOPIN: What is the impact of the new on interior

design? New products, new collections and so on?

Firstly, new communication tools have had a big impact. The consumer is much more sensitive to trends, and comes to the showroom with that knowledge. However, not all digital initiatives are good ones – there is a lot of noise, and some brands don’t understand brand equity hugely well, harming their value in the way that they communicate. In that sense, a good element of our strategy is that not everyone understands how to do it. My clients travel a lot. As they travel, they visit hotels that have changed entirely over ten years. Years ago, they would see a “palace” – the Plaza Athenée in Paris or the Dorchester in London – and it would have old-fashioned, classic décor, but now they go to the Bulgari Hotel in London, they see contemporary stuff and they want it for their home. Clients visit boutique hotels and take cues.

There is a new high-end hotel opening around the world every month, somewhere in the world. This is the power of the new.

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN:

And how do you manage the notion of “new” in the store in particular? What do you do to keep things fresh and engaging?

JC CHOPIN:

How do you manage to build a creative understanding between Italy and LA? Famous brands with huge, rich heritage come into contact with a megapolis in your showroom.

JC CHOPIN:

JC CHOPIN: Do you still believe there is an importance

to the trade fair? Do you still go to any?

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN: I only go to one: Milan Design

Week. It is the most important in the world. All kinds of creative initiatives are presented there: in cars, fashion, music. I find inspiration there, and it help me visualize my market. If I see the cars my clients drive, I understand better how to decorate for them. I see where the trends are.

I don’t have the time for Fashion Week, for example, or for Autocar shows – so I get it all in Milan.

JC CHOPIN: You mention different creative industries

at Milan – in a wider sense, is there a growing dynamic of cross-pollination? Or is it still every man for himself in his respective creative category?

Interaction is stronger and stronger between interior design and fashion, celebrities, music, cars, everything. If I am a developer and people like my products, it’s good to collaborate. It suits the consumer, because they can discover different things in different creative industries that chime with their own tastes, and truly enjoy them.

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN:

It suits the consumer, because they can discover different things in different creative industries that chime with their own tastes, and truly enjoy them

Expectations are different between Americans and Europeans. Many Italian brands did not initially make an effort to adapt to their American clients: for example, they didn’t create specific collections for the American market. What they did do was make things bigger. Literally. Homes are bigger in LA than in most of Europe, because there is simply more space. This was a good move, because it made certain the brands’ furniture was useful and comfortable as well as decorative. But if clients want to lead their own projects, as I said before, brands have to adapt to that. With the contemporary architecture that is predominant in LA, for example, you need to put contemporary design inside it.

This is where I have a complicated job. I visit the brand and choose stock, based on what I think people will buy. In America, clients want a piece delivered as soon as they choose it, so selection is critical. In Europe, people would accept a waiting time of a month or even longer, but in the States they want it immediately. If you do not anticipate your inventory you can miss a lot of sales. You can lose the loyalty of the customers. I think this is where creative intelligence plays a role in my industry. For me, the biggest satisfaction is seeing return customers – in LA they move house more often than in Europe – who come back to DIVA to decorate house after house. We need to know the market incredibly well and anticipate the local market’s needs. To do this, we adapt to the light of the city, the need for indoor and outdoor furniture, the consideration of the hot weather, for example. As a result, the Italian brands trust DIVA. They realize the retailer’s contribution is fundamental and creative, not incidental.

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN:

I have to be creative. The very top brands have a new collection every year. What I do is make the store into a showroom – in the usual sense, but also into a “show” in the meaning of a big performance. I try to update the creative presentation every two weeks to keep it fresh – so the client feels a new atmosphere. These brands speak for themselves. We give them room to breathe and for the design elements to work. This builds trust with the brands because, as a retailer, I understand the products and I create a showroom to communicate this.

PHILIPPE ROUSSELIN:

Interaction is stronger and stronger between interior design and fashion, celebrities, music, cars, everyhting. if Iam a developer and people like my products, its good to collaborate

JC Chopin sat down with him to discuss the changing role of retailers in the creative industries, how they are increasingly relying on creative intelligence themselves, and Philippe’s journey to becoming one of the most soughtafter advisors on interior design in America.

Interview with Philippe Rousselin LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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A Solution to the

unknown unknown

's

of a new Industry

is knowing what is meaningful to a defined group; that is exactly what strong influencer marketing strategies aim to achieve and leverage.

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etrics are essential to our industry, but it is important not to confuse “reach” with qualified audience engagement and market penetration. Indeed, content is endless, and to catch the attention or generate demand in a potential consumer group is no easy feat.

Influencer Marketing, like most burgeoning industries, is in constant evolution. At its inception no conventions, industry standards, nor real processes existed, industry pioneers like Open Influence had to rely on trial and error to progressively shape a new field of marketing and its codes. Fortunately, our expertise developed, many influencers/content creators developed a strong degree of professionalism, and together with our most innovative clients we established the pillars of a new industry. From this, and for the first few years, marketers relied on the expertise of leading specialist agencies to accomplish their influencer marketing goals, with great success.

As influencer marketing exponentially grew, and the industry’s merits became apparent to most, in the worlds of advertising or consumer goods, a few marketers started to develop bad habits, in part fueled by bad actors infiltrating our field, introducing fake data, dishonest techniques, phantoms capabilities, and a reliance on the widely feared fake follower. These new entrants, and their “techniques” sometimes even tarnished the name of influencer marketing but, most critically, equipped some unfamiliar marketers with inefficient influencer habits and a skewed understanding of the industry. Furthermore, some marketers initially relied on strategies that were not tailored to influencer marketing, sometimes even finding success only thanks to the nature of influencer marketing being a particularly effective marketing tactic. The repeated bad habits,

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Ideas that resonate are holistically developed. They leverage the values most potently expressed on a platform to create truly engaging pieces of content; on Instagram, beautiful and uniform content is the norm of success for photos, humor and inspiration, the key to success for videos, stories, the key to success for experiences… ect.

One of the facets of creativity

regardless of results, still led to an unforeseen growth in confidence of those advertisers in their ability to execute and understand influencer marketing; an Unknown Unknown - not knowing what you do not know.

Unknown Unknowns are always hazardous as they can materialize in a false sense of knowledge, on which I have seen many unfortunate marketers rely on in crafting advertising efforts, ultimately leading to generating far less than optimal returns. For those reasons, creative intelligence is one of the two clear paths, along with artificial intelligence, to succeed in influencer marketing.

In marketing, creative intelligence is not only being “Creative”, it is being creative with a purpose. Understanding the market needs, leveraging the data (both psychographic and demographic), and perhaps most difficultly, truly understanding the difference between your brand’s current and desired positionings. These concepts fuel the “intelligence” in successful creativity.

Ideas that resonate are holistically developed. They leverage the values most potently expressed on a platform to create truly engaging pieces of content; on Instagram, beautiful and uniform content is the norm of success for photos, humor and inspiration, the key to success for videos, stories, the key to success for experiences… ect. Now further, platforms have diversified, Instagram is no longer the unchallenged king of influencer marketing, YouTube is taking a renewed share of budgets through the platform’s outstanding storytelling capabilities. Pinterest, Twitch, Musical.ly and the leading Chinese platforms are particularly noteworthy in influencer market, with twitter, blogs, Facebook, and Snapchat seeing specialty usage. In this sea of possibilities creative intelligence is indeed a must.

The biggest question in marketing will always be “what works?”. A first step in answering this problematic is to rely on creative intelligence to determine what will not work. To conduct a true analysis based on the reflective points, and real data, and eliminate automatic roads to failure; to evolve into a state of Known Unknown. The second step is to determine a possible path to success by analyzing which markets will respond best; markets should not be only defined by demographics, but rather by taste profiles and the audiences’ match in values and connection to the advertisers. The last step is the hardest, work with strong creatives, with a history of success in influencer marketing, and give the most innovative strategies the best shot. Innovation is key, safe strategies can work very well, but thinking outside the box, sometimes even taking a risk can work even better. To illustrate this point, a few pictures and video stills from our successful advertising campaigns leveraging creative intelligence, accompany this article.

Ultimately true intelligence in creativity most likely makes an Unknown Unknown progress to an Know Unknown by eliminating failure options, and with expertise, commitment and investment may even evolve into a Known Known; a mastery of influencer marketing and its very potential.

Article by Felix LaHaye

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Bernard Mariette

embodies the term “businessman.” The kind who has flair, inimitable business acumen and a thorough understanding even when listening with half an ear

T

his CEO’s brain never takes a break, except for the four hours he sleeps every night. Bernard Mariette is an enthusiast whose determination and unwavering discipline take him exactly where he wants to go.

One of the secrets to his success is, there are never two possible options. There is no “If it works,” or “If it does not work.” From the moment he decides to go for it, there is only one option: it will work. Bernard Mariette is a skilled strategist and does not proceed in a hasty or reckless manner. He advances like a determined lion and never waits long before achieving the goal in his sights.

Even the king of the jungle is not safe from certain pitfalls in his environment. If given a superpower to make them disappear, he would be bored without the challenge. He listens to the critics, manages the roadblocks and comes to terms with betrayal. Through it all, he keeps going. Business is business. It’s in his DNA. Bernard Mariette presided over the design of Quicksilver in France and in California before taking an interest in Lolë. His intuition agreed that this would be his new challenge: take a then-obscure brand of outdoor wear and transform it into “yoga wear.” Today, this brand is sold in Canada, the United States and in France, making known its state of mind, “Well-being is a way of life.”

The seed for the idea of the Lolë White Tour was planted in Bernard Mariette’s spirit in 2011. Being a lover of the Basque Country, he is a fan of the Bayonne Festival and attended this gathering in white, which puts differences

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LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

Design is synonymous with lifestyle, and the one that Bernard Mariette represents is intelligent, responsible, durable and functional.

aside and brings everyone together regardless of age or social status. Several weeks later at Times Square in New York, he stopped in front of a group yoga session. If it were up to him, he would have organized it differently. It was too noisy, too disorganized, with not enough joy and peace.

Bernard Mariette took matters into his own hands and organized an event according to his criteria with this single priority: yoga for all, inclusive versus exclusive. The success at the Montreal Olympic Stadium is proven by the attendance: 2,000 participants, with the event running exactly as envisioned. Seven years later, 7,000 people participated in the 2018 edition in Montreal, with a total of 65,000 participants since the beginning of this adventure.

Behind his impressive stature, strong nature, intense outbursts that make the office and meeting room walls shake, and on the spot demands, is a man with a heart that beats. First, for his family, for his son and wife, who he has always looked upon with shining eyes, even on the day of her wedding, wearing his best groomsman suit. She is his closest ally and keeps him centered and focused. His heart beats second for his ideas, projects, and the people who inspire him.

Is he proud? Bernard Mariette would rather say he is happy. That can be seen by anyone. No posturing there. He maintains the same state of mind when it comes to design.

At Lolë, there is no ambiguity, only a brand that states loud and clear: “Live Out Loud Everyday.”

Design is synonymous with lifestyle, and the one that Bernard Mariette represents is intelligent, responsible, durable and functional. Fashion, yes, but style first. Materials, yes, but from a specific selection that guarantees sustainability. Sports, yes, but first comes the encouragement for people to go for it. Innovation, yes, but no gadgets needed. At Lolë’s design offices, each garment is considered multifunctional and minimalist: yoga leggings look great when paired with a jacket, while a running top has a stunning effect with a pair of jeans. Chic comfort, inspired by the CEO, enriches the spirit of every piece in the Lolë collection. Sharing is caring. Bernard Mariette makes it a point to give a second life to the old coats, selling them and donating the proceeds to those in need through his Yellow Label program. The brand’s hallmark, the famous yellow yoga mats, are also recycled and given to yoga studios, as a helping hand from Lolë.

The brand new and first ever men’s collection has just been released and includes a capsule collection of iconic pieces for everyday life. A new illustration of Bernard Mariette’s beliefs, commitment and inspiring lifestyle.

Bernard Mariette written with Juliette Dumas LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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Intelligence Prive

Travel

Destination

Travelling has never been so easy. Eve-

ry day new properties are built, airlines tickets become more affordable and travel magazines overflow with accurate information. But what are going to do with it all?

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We understand that sometimes all you want is to get away from the civilization and get lost in the Alaskan Wilderness

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ry to connect the dots and your 30-minutes planning session will soon transform into a day long misery work. So here we are, a new bread of creators, who instead of mastering an object that will last for a lifetime, we design souvenirs meant to be collected the same way you would with masterpieces. Like a tailor, we take the time to get to know you, we listen to your needs and unspoken dreams, in order to hand-make your next journey from scratch.

We understand that sometimes all you want is to get away from the civilization and get lost in the Alaskan wilderness. Aboard light bush airplanes, we take you to the Ultima Thule Lodge, hiking on top of a high alpine plateau surrounded just by arctic flowers and grizzly bears, or landing on the largest non-polar glacier in the world. We open the doors of extraordinary hidden gems such as Holy Deer, former residence of Pope Innocent X overlooking the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, in the heart of Rome. Here, 17th century Baroque frescoes and mouldings mix with contemporary furniture from Italian handpicked artisans, making this 350-square meters, 2-bedroom apartment a place where guests are not only surrounded by art, but they can also live it, touch it and fully experience it.

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We believe that travel is also about changing worlds and empowering local communities. Sol y Luna for instance, is a Relais & Chateau in the Peruvian Sacred Valley that was built in order to fund a school for children. Petit, the delightful French owner, has spent the last 20 years giving children a safe place to grow, learn English and escape some very difficult life situations. Nowadays, the lodge is one of the most stunning properties in Peru, and has deeply contributed to the economical and human development of the region. We support environment consciousness and animal protection, taking you to places like the brand new Omaanda, set in a 9000 hectares animal reserve in Namibia. Using traditional Owambo architecture, Zannier has created a lodge of exceptional beauty and partnered with

the Namibian N/a’an ku sê Foundation to fight the extinction of threatened species such as elephants and rhinos. We are experts for the family adventure and trust travel is the very best education. With the help of Origen Extraordinary Escapes, we take you on a treasure hunt around Costa Rica.

From canopy walks looking for endemic birds to snorkeling with dauphins, to helping baby turtles with their first swim, we create family adventures that teach kids how to understand and respect nature, as well as widen their vision of the planet they live in, while having fun.

And of course we help you reach distant places that seem easily reachable but actually entail complicated logistics. The Galapagos are an example of it: every island is different and while there is a myriad of operators both inland and on water, it can be extremely difficult to plan the perfect trip and chose the right travel partner. That is why we have carefully selected the Galapagos Safari Camp, a combination of land explorations and boat excursions that get you in touch with stunning scenery, giant tortoises, exotic plants and flamingo lagoons, amongst other things.

Anthony Bourdain once said “ The journey changes you, it leaves marks on your memory, on your conciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you, hopefully you leave something behind.” We are here to make it a reality.

“We support environment consciousness and animal protection, taking you to places like the brand new Omaanda.“ Article by Olivier Weisse

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Food Design

Dreams are made of this:

sunlit Provençal country-side, the scent of wild fennel in the warm air, olive trees, vineyards inching along hillsides, the welcome sight of a 19th-century coaching inn near the side of a twisting road.

Cuisine Libre is not about “Doing without”. It's a way of using ingredients that contribute to wellbeing, it's a way of making people happy.

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It may not come as a surprise to discover that Nadia’s background includes studies in medicine and biochemistry. Understanding the chemistry of how ingredients can react to each other and, for example, to temperature, has underpinned her approach.

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ick every box you can imagine when you come across Auberge La Fenière in Lourmarin, a tiny village in southern France. As the Sunday lunch service glides to a finish, satisfied diners stroll out of the vault-ceilinged restaurant gastronomique towards a terrace that overlooks the gardens. Guests staying in one of the auberge’s 16 guest rooms make their way towards a siesta. Meanwhile, diners who’ve been having brunch in the relaxed barnbistro a little way downhill from the main building start strolling up the path that links the two.

Unlike most other chefs, Nadia is more than willing to share. Sharing what she’s learned is a basic principle that underpins everything she’s doing in this delightful environment. She calls it Cuisine Libre – a philosophy of wellbeing and mindful eating that embraces knowing where every ingredient comes from, using each ingredient intelligently, and enabling everyone to share the same table. The restaurant is now 100 per cent gluten-free – and yet it has maintained the Michelin star first earned by Nadia’s mother Reine 24 years ago. ‘I’m not necessarily into health,’ Nadia explains, ‘and Cuisine Libre is not about “doing without”.

It’s a way of using ingredients that contribute to wellbeing.

It’s a way of making people happy.’

She makes it sound simple, but behind her increasingly influential way of cooking and eating is a lot of painstaking research, experimentation, and scientific knowledge. Her elegant desserts, for example, don’t use allergenic ingre-

dients such as wheat flour, butter and refined sugar, but rely on hugely imaginative combinations of ingredients and culinary techniques. This can turn chickpeas, buckwheat, chestnuts, quinoa, rice, almond milk, lemons and coconut sugar into equally light, mouthwatering confections, without, crucially, any ill effect on wellbeing. Nadia herself sources the ingredients as locally as possible, and prides herself on personally knowing the producers of nearly everything she serves. Nadia’s pioneering culinary approach is rapidly gaining ground. Since taking over Auberge La Fenière from Reine three years ago, Nadia has attracted a talented team from as far afield as New York and Brazil, people who have come specifically to work with her and to take what they’ve learned back to their own countries. She met her partner (both romantic and commercial) because he had heard about what she was doing, and shared her ideals. Her Institut Cuisine Libre offers culinary courses at La Fenière. In hospitals in Marseille, she trains doctors in culinotherapy, showing them ‘the pleasure and power of food that is the centre of your life’. She travels abroad often, too, lecturing and demonstrating – and of course always learning new techniques and discovering new ingredients to inspire her. ‘When I travel, I ask myself what I can learn from each country,’ Nadia says. ‘The technique that I learned for making miso in Japan has enabled me to make a chick-pea miso here. Knowing the techniques is so important.’

It may not come as a surprise to discover that Nadia’s background includes studies in medicine and biochemistry. Understanding the chemistry of how ingredients can react to each other and, for example, to temperature, has underpinned her approach. It wasn’t mere scientific curiosity, however, that brought her to this point. It was many years of debilitating illness. She suffers from celiac disease, a severe allergy to gluten and lactose, which had been racking her body since she was a child. It caused constant pain and weakness. Eventually, in her late 20s, she ended up in hospital with a dismal prognosis. She had no choice but to spend the following two years living with her family in Lourmarin, trying to find ways to eat and to live. ‘My illness made me totally rethink everything, but by the end, I’d experienced a rebirth, because at last I felt that I was me. I learned to accept how I am.’

The Sammuts are a family of autodidact gastronomes.

Nadia’s grandmother Claudette opened a tiny rural restaurant equipped with only a love of home-cooking from her native Tunisia. Reine was studying dentistry when she met Claudette’s son Guy, and followed him home to Lourmarin, where she learned everything she could from her motherin-law. Now, as Reine points out proudly, Auberge La Fenière is the first Michelin-starred restaurant in France to be handed from mother to daughter.

Taking over such a well-regarded restaurant and making innovative, far-reaching changes doesn’t seem at all daunting to Nadia, so committed is she to the concept of Cuisine Libre. Of course, being brought up in a world of gastronomy – even when she couldn’t share it – has left its helpful mark. ‘We say that I was born in a kitchen after a Sunday service,’ she laughs. ‘I’ve been waiting by the service passe all my life. Now I’ve created my own world here, and I know everything about it. I’ve created my own world to change the world.’

Article by Nadia Sammut LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

All you need to wear! Envie de lèvres. nudeenvie.com @nudeenvie

los angeles

celebrates the new luxury and the power of the creative innovation since 2009.

F

or 1.618 Paris, the 21st century Luxury is foremost based on values and more in line with its time. It becomes immaterial, based on experiences, emotions and respect. It is found in the appreciation of rarity, notions of time, heritage, quality. It is also : the reflection of societal changes, research and innovation, the will to preserve and respect natural resources, Sel-discovery through objects, the expression of creative imagination, the respect for human rights, the preservation of know-how.

Real Luxury & Sustainable Development share three main values: Rarity, Beauty & Respect. It creates personal value, it works within local parameters, protects people and resources, respects the virtuous circle. Sustainable luxury is about ensuring that hundreds of years of luxury heritage inherited from the past will be passed on to future generations. It is about the interconnectivity of ourselves and the world around.

We believe that demand for sustainable luxury from consumers is rising faster than ever before.

We believe that an ability to understand and demonstrate sustainability is the key distinction between a luxury brand with 21st Century thinking, and one with 20th Century thinking.

Sustainability is vital to luxury brands because it touches on so many conversations that they are already having with consumers.

We believe that path to success in sustainable luxury is not to communicate guilt, but to communicate emotions, empathy and understanding, in order to engage consumer

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SUSTAINABILITY

1.618 Paris

commitment. The ethical company evolves into a successful company !

1.618 Paris identifies, selects and reveals brands, entrepreneurs, researchers, thinkers, NGOs and artists who find solutions, and interact to build a harmonious, creative, responsible and innovative world.

Part prospective think tank, part consulting agency and part experience creator, 1.618 PARIS brings to light pionneering brands through unique events, an online magazine, a digital reference guide and exclusive curations.

Guilt free and sensibilize through beauty are the levers of our different approach to sustainable development.

To arouse desire in a changing world led by society’s search for meaning, modern companies need to express their commitment to sustainable development and transparency. The Future Laboratory observes that : 70% of people would not care if brands disappeared ; Only 20 % of brands improve our sense of well-being and quality of life, in a meaningful way ; Only 32% of people think that brands communicate honestly about their commitments and promises, but 53% of people think that brands can play a role in improving quality of life and well-being.

Article by Barbara Coignet

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Following a successful

WOM

business career in technology, real estate development and exhibition handling, Yann Borgstedt set up the Womanity Foundation in 2005 to focus on pioneering approaches to the empowerment of women in emerging markets.

His creative approach has resulted in some innovative programmes, one of which is the animation B100Ragl, now gearing up for its fourth series.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT B100RAGL?

It’s an online edutainment series that shines a light on the issues affecting Arab women today. In a sense it’s a marriage between design and women's empowerment. The series was born from the idea that clever storytelling can address some of the most complex issues around gender inequality in the Middle East and be a catalyst for change.

The name, B100Ragl is an Egyptian expression qualifying influential and accomplished women that are said to be worth 100 men.

The audience follows the life of the main character, Noha, a journalist who encounters a wide range of social issues commonly faced by women throughout the region.

She fights prejudice and oppression, presents creative solutions and becomes a role model for the whole society.

ENTRE P R

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HAS THIS INNOVATIVE FORMAT GENERATED SUCCESS?

Yes - the show had over two million listeners and watchers for the first two seasons alone. We’ve found that tackling traditionally taboo subjects in a creative way through animation provides a platform for challenging conversations to take place. The format has a unique ability to engage audiences, to overcome women’s isolation, enter family homes and to put women’s and societal issues on the table. There’s a lot of research into the psychology of storytelling and the power of narrative transport. With vivid mental imagery and strong emotional connections, the audience can immerse themselves in the story, which can create a change in beliefs and attitudes.

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HOW WAS THE VISION FOR B100RAGL CONCEIVED?

Collaboration is at the heart of B100Ragl. Its inception was a creative process between a team of designers, animators and researchers. We’ve connected minds to foster creativity, spark innovation and use entertainment to change attitudes. We believe that creative, engaging media can be a powerful tool to change men’s perception of women. It can stimulate debate, create connections and offer new ideas.

TELL ME ABOUT THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SERIES?

WHAT IS THE THINKING BEHIND THE SHOW’S DESIGN?

We wanted to target young people, so the look and feel is modern and fun. We positioned Noha as a young Arab woman tackling in her daily life the many issues that face young women in the region. Our focus has been to build a relatable identity for Noha that audiences in the region can relate to and build an emotional connection with. The design involved in this has been at the heart of this work.

YOU HAVE DONE A LOT TO SUPPORT FEMALE ENTRE-

MAN WHY IS IT SO CRITICAL TO FOCUS ON WOMEN?

Let me ask you a question: if you look at society through the lens of a balance sheet and half of it – namely, women – are not given the opportunity to operate effectively, can you expect it to be successful? The answer, of course, is no.

As an entrepreneur and philanthropist, I regard women’s equality not only as the right thing for society, but also as a business imperative for development and growth. When women thrive, so can the world. That said, we believe equality is everyone’s business, and so it is vital to involve men in this fight. This series is a great way of engaging men with traditionally off-limit subjects in a non-threatening way.

PRENEURS. WHY AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT?

Yes, as a businessman I believe that economic growth can break the cycle of poverty. Our WomenChangeMakers program is a growing network of extraordinary social entrepreneurs in India and Brazil, all of whom are leading pioneering social enterprises which improve the lives of women and girls. Through our support we help them scale up and grow, very much like venture capital or venture philanthropy as it’s referred to now. One example of this is Alice Freitas from Rede Asta – a Brazilian organization that links dozens of fair trade and artisanal cooperatives to the market, generating revenue for low-skilled, underserved women.

In terms of learning, I would say that the importance of local understanding has really struck me. You have to be innovative to adapt solutions to local context. To take the time to research, listen, understand your environment and adapt ideas is to be truly creative. All the social entrepreneurs we work with demonstrate this skill.

R EN E UR TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FOUNDATION. IT HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS NOW - WHAT’S THE

FINALLY, WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR PEOPLE

KEY TO ITS SUCCESS?

WHO WANT TO CREATE AN ORGANISATION?

Womanity is run like a business. Our approach is entrepreneurial in that we support the incubation, scaling or replication of innovative models and leverage collaborations around such models in order to make a systemic impact and bring about lasting positive change. We also work in partnership with others to understand how we can add value to the sector. We seek out partners who share the same values as us and want to find creative solutions to some of the toughest challenges.

You need be challenged in order to be innovative and do new things. So, have the humility to hire people who are smarter than you and know more than you. I am a strong character and I believe in creative friction. If you work with people who have strong ideas you might fight, but if you both have humility you will come to incredible answers.

This creative tension can lead to great ideas.

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

“if you look at society through the lens of a balance sheet and half of it – namely, women – are not given the opportunity to operate effectively, can you expect it to be successful?”

B100Ragl is a collective effort. We’ve worked with a range of local artists to design and produce the show, to help bring the series to life. The soundtrack for series 1 for example was created by Lebanese pop superstar Nancy Ajram and Noha was played by Egyptian Actress and Superstar Mona Zaki. For series 2, Noha was played by well-known Jordanian actress Saba Mubarak, with the sound track written and performed by Alaa Wardi. Most recently, series 3 was designed and produced by a leading regional media company specializing in curating animated content in Arabic, with a soundtrack by Egyptian rappers The Sharmoofers. Iraqi Social media celebrities Lowi and Sandra Sahi endorsed and promoted the show on their unique platforms.

Article by Yann Borgstedt

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Cumulus International

Association of Universities and Colleges in Art, Design and Media is the economy of contribution. It is the dynamic friendly network reflecting our desire to accumulate together knowledge and skills necessary in meeting challenges and exploring new frontiers of art, design and media.

Cumulus unlocks possibilities as the only global association representing education and research in our disciplines: Currently 289 members from 56 countries, we can reach over 800.000 students and tens of thousands of academics and staff members that also work as professionals.

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e do seek for the synergy, excellence and innovation created by the cultural and creative diversity of a variety of nations. Our actions serve finally the hot spot: The Talent of the Youth. Cumulus also reflects to the fruitful influences of highflying ideas, aspirations and cross-cultural human links. The beauty of the Cumulus fair weather cloud reminds us of aesthetic endeavours. We comprise also the idea of our dependence on the environment and the significance of nature and the environment for our welfare.

Cumulus was founded in 1990. The fall of the Berlin wall catered the pathway to this unique network. The University of Art and Design Helsinki Finland (School of Arts, Design and Architecture of Aalto University) and Royal College of Art London UK started Cumulus with great enthusiasm. Those two were immediately joined by passionate and visionary Danmarks Designskole Copenhagen Denmark, Universität Duisburg-Essen Germany, Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam the Netherlands and Universität für Angewandte Kunst Vienna Austria.

Cumulus is more than a name given by Dutch Professor Peik Suyling in 1992. We are so proud UNESCO once endorsed Cumulus.

Cumulus unlocks possibilities as the only global association representing education and research in our disciplines: Currently 289 members from 56 countries, we can reach over 800.000 students and tens of thousands of academics and staff members that also work as professionals.

Thanks to partners, the portfolio of excellent partnerships of Cumulus is extensive; it serves the members and partners themselves in multidisciplinary ways. Imagination is the only limitation.

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oing Beyond. From Everyday Academic Life to New Innovations. To mention some, Cumulusians debate and develop under the umbrella of education and research questions related to sustainability, climate change, artificial intelligence, wellbeing, industrial revolution, interna-

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tional economy and economic cohesion, industry, services, design tradition, values of art-design-media, significance of cultural diversity, link between design and local culture, e-learning, interaction, space, quality, employment, multiculturalism, xenophobia, peace, leadership, pedagogy, digital culture, internationalization, inclusive design, service design, pedagogy and professions of art, design and media. We dare to go beyond any limits. The dialogue happens between people sharing practises and knowledge among members and partners during the two annual international Cumulus conferences, other events, in projects with members and partners, competitions, exhibitions etc.

Individual becomes institutionaland vice versa.

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yoto Design Declaration. As a response to the changing world and as a predecessor to United Nation´s Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, Cumulus initiated and signed Kyoto Design Declaration on March 28, 2008 in the same venue of Kyoto Protocol in Japan. The Declaration received support from prominent international professional associations in the field of design like AIGA, ICSID (WDO), BEDA, and EIDD. Kyoto Design Declaration is the statement of commitment by the members of Cumulus to share the global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centered, creative societies. It affects our 800.000 students, thousands of staff and more.

The six declaration sub-headings to change the world today and tomorrow are: 1) Proposing new values and new ways of thinking – 2)An era of human centered development – 3) The imperative for designers to assume new roles – 4) Seeking collaboration in forwarding the ideals of sustainable development – 5) From education to global responsibility – 6) The power to make fundamental improvements to our world

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Kyoto Design Declaration is created to be an active institution; it is our challenge to ensure the declaration to impact the Earth everyday positively by our students, graduates, academics and staff with partners and others.

Share with us how, who, what and when?

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umulus Green. The Cumulus Green as an award is one of the actions as a direct consequence of Kyoto Design Declaration. The aim of Cumulus Green is to stimulate design actions, projects and research leading to a more sustainable society. Through this award, Cumulus implements the aims and goals listed in this declaration. The establishment of the Cumulus Green is a commitment of all member institutions towards global responsibility, human centred design methods and solutions, improving quality of life, creating optimism for the future and improving economic, social and cultural benefits for all people around the world. The Cumulus Green as a competition can consist of thematically different editions covering diversified initiatives and aspects of the Kyoto Design Declaration, it can also be an award to a prominent person.

New demands Our

responsibility is education and research in art, design and media to gain increasing importance in the cultural, social, economic and technological development of modern and globally acting societies. This leads to new and increased requirements in the quality and quantity of education and to the necessity to develop high-level research in these fields. The new demands also lead to multidisciplinary collaboration in curriculum, research and after the graduation in art, design and media.

It is important to ensure the outcomes of education and research impact the society and are in good use. This demands dialogue and accelerating understanding of art, design and media between all stakeholders, old and new ones. Due to globalization and the development of research LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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and higher education in art, design and media cannot be dealt with only on a national basis. This must be discussed in a wider international context where Cumulus offers the right platform.

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one? Cumulus has been organizing not only conferences but also innovative projects, workshops and exhibitions as examples; a three-year project Spark! New Design Scenarios for Daily Life in Europe, others like I Can “Hear”, Design a Company, Arctic Design, Vice Versa, Scenario Building as a Design Tool and Vernacular Furniture Design, Design Spring, Design Lab, Research Frontiers in Industrial Design, Debunking the Stereotype, Quality and Sustainability in Design and the Needs of Communication within the Design Process, WHO project, Remembering The Future – Textiles and Fashion joint MA program started 2005 and later called NEID New European Design, Cumulus Fashion Tour, Cumulus European Ways of Life EWOL exhibition in Carrousel du Louvre Paris 2002, EWOL in Seoul 2002, Cumulus West Meets East exhibition in St. Petersburg 2003, Trento Pietra Italy Stone Design project 2004, European Design for All Award participation, World’s Arena For Future Design and Innovation Copenhagen exhibition and Index2005/Cumulus Future Scenario exhibition in September 2005, European Ways of Life EWOL exhibition in Nantes France in June 2006, exhibitions in several conferences e.g Young Creators for Better City & Better Life Shanghai World Expo 2010, Milan Italy in 2015 during World Expo 2015 and Cumulus Virtous Circle Design to Feed the World among many others.

Cumulus publishes the conference outcomes as well as other publications as Cumulus Think Tanks is one forum to share. Look for more: www.cumulusassociation.org Yes, You Love to Collaborate with Cumulus.

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PEERLESS COLLECTOR

This week, JC Chopin had the

chance to sit down with Stephane Medam - Proprietor of Worldly Watches.

A gentleman peerless collector.

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LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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tephane truly has an eye for beauty, wether its a watch, car, motorcycle, or anything mechanical. Over the years, Stephane has owned many of the most beautiful cars, bikes and watches that you and I can only dream about. Originally hailing from France, Stephane spent may years based in Miami, but now splits time between France and Los Angeles. During the winter ski months, Stephane has a beautiful store based in the French resort of Courchevel, where he sells a wide range of vintage and modern watches.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST WATCH?

Don't ask me why but since the day I've started to work I wanted a plastic crystal Rolex. At 17 years old I bought my first Rolex a GMT 1675 With black insert.

WHAT WAS THE LAST WATCH YOU BOUGHT?

My last purchase was a rare early Rolex Daytona 6265 big eyes. The dial is really amazing with that dark chocolate patina!

DO YOU PREFER VINTAGE OR MODERN?

have always preferred vintage sports model, but I've bought some new Patek Philippe that I really enjoy wearing in vacation.

CAN YOU REMEMBER YOUR LAST GREAT MEAL? WHERE WAS IT AND WHAT DID YOU EAT?

My last great meal was last week at Osteria Mozza in West Hollywood, I had the Tripe all a Parmigiana, the crispy Pig Trotter and the grilled Octopus with one of my favorite Italian wine a Bricco Dell'uccellone.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT VINTAGE ROLEX?

I love the emotional part of it; each watch ages differently, and no two are identical. The story behind each individual watch is truly special and unique and adds to the romance of its past.

DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT WATCH YOU WERE WEARING?

I was wearing my Rolex 1665 mk2 thin case, very Italian looking LOL!

STRAP OR BRACELET?

Mostly bracelet as I think it's more like the original design, but I also like band especially during the winter.

GMT/EXPLORER/SUB/DAYTONA OR........?

Lately while in the US, I love to wear GMTs, like this nice radial dial 1675. ...and in the winter, I love wearing this "fun" gold 5513 Sub that I customized!

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE COME OUT FROM ROLEX AT THE NEXT BASEL FAIR?

Maybe a new version of the Big Crown? Something with charisma.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE MOST INTERESTING WATCH YOU’VE EVER FOUND/OWNED?

Probably the most interesting watch I've found was a Rolex Daytona 6262 Paul Newman. It came from the original owner who was a jet fighter pilot for the USAF. He had worn it from his graduation until he got retired. He managed to take really good care of it, and I was so happy to be the next caretaker for that piece.

WHAT'S ON YOUR WRIST TODAY?

This beautiful 5513 milsub.

Interview with Stephane Medam

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

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Malcom Gladwell famously wrote in his best-selling book, Outliers, about connectors – that rare breed of person who somehow, magically, knows everyone and endlessly makes useful introductions among his or her infinitely vast peer group.

In my travels, I’ve met a handful of

people who wear that level of connection like a badge of honor. More often than not, there is a not-so-subtle mutual-backscratching business imperative behind it. But something about Marc Adelman is different.

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of power to another running through DC, New York, Los Angeles and London. I don’t think I’ve met anyone in his world I didn’t like; assholes don’t seem invited. Even with that, Marc seemingly pushes every single friend of his to be a better version of him of herself – using media, strategy and intelligence as his weapons.

I remember on one of my few trips to Washington DC, Marc – a player in a city I don’t know well - offered to drive me around. I still was in the early stages of our friendship, and had some general misgivings about going around in a relative stranger’s car. I remember I had forgotten my iPhone charger, and when he showed up, Marc had stopped at the Apple store and bought me one. I was surprised and grateful. To this day, I believe it’s the big things that make Marc known among a group of interconnected elites, but it’s the little things that make him special. This same person sourced up in the White House and 10 Downing Street will also treat your children, your “regular” friends, the non-“powerful”, the same as he does that evening news anchor he knows. For that, he has earned the trust and affection of many. Perhaps one day in your not-so-far-off future, you can be connected to him too. In fact, I’m going to bet it's more than likely you will.

Article by Marc Adelman

LAND ROVER BORN AWARDS

“His Network truly stretches from every corridor of power to another running through DC, New York, Los Angeles and London.”

met Marc Adelman at a small Today show dinner In Los Angeles in 2011. America’s weatherman, Al Roker, was at the table, as were some very senior executives and producers. I didn’t really understand what he did or what his relationship to the show was. I still don’t. But he was fun to talk to, and I let down my usual guard. I have had many enjoyable meals where I click with someone and we swap information – and then we never keep in touch. That’s just one of the air-kissy accepted practices of Hollywood.

Imagine my surprise when Marc actually reached out soon after. Soon he was a frequent lunch companion. He never pitched me anything or asked anything of me. I didn’t understand. He didn’t seem to want anything except friendship. How odd!

But now I understand. Getting to know Marc is like peeling the layers of an onion. Through his Adelmania Consulting, he seems to know everyone from top executives to politicians to on-air talent to celebrities. He may know more editors and writers than I do. They all invite him into their homes, their travels and their careers – and trust him implicitly as do I (though I am quite certain I do not know of everyone in his circle as he holds many close to the vest). I have entrusted him with secrets; and be warned, any slight against me (or any one of his friends) is a slight against him. He brought me to dinner with former US Senator Christopher Dodd; he once introduced me to Sarah Brown, the impressive wife of former UK Prime Minster, Gordon Brown, on an email because he thought we should meet. Another time he asked Geena Davis to show up at a Hollywood Reporter event. Voila, there she was the next day. His network truly stretches from every corridor

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23–25 NOVEMBER 2018, KING’S CROSS, LONDON → THEDESIGNJUNCTION.CO.UK/GIFTSHOP

Managing Director Pierre Sapin psapin@born.com Strategic Partnerships Deborah Spencer deborah@born.com Communications & Events Alice Breed alice@born.com

Richard Agnew ragnew@jaguarlandrover.com Colin Nagy colin.nagy@ffcreative.com Brendan Wypich brendan.wypich@gmail.com Scott Painter scott@fair.com

Tom Mullen tomm@fair.com

Luca Botticelli luca@aliveshoes.com Phil Ranta phil@mobcrush.com Pier Francesco Verlato p.verlato@thkohl.it

Emanuela Virago emanuela@born.com

Philippe Rousselin philippe@divafurniture.com

BORN Awards Registrations Chiara Bellisai chiara@born.com

Felix LaHaye felix.lahaye@gmail.com

BORN Society Members Relations Faustine Chopin faustine@born.com Esli Teker esli@born.com Social Media Sara Nicole Rossetto sara@born.com Finance Cansu Kucuk cansu@born.com BORN Europe Soho Works 56 Shoreditch High Street London, E1 6JJ BORN America 717 N Highland Ave Los Angeles, CA 90038 BORN China The L.Place 139 Queen’s Road Central Hong Kong, 17/F contact@born.com +44 [0] 7552 396 097

Bernard Mariette bernard.mariette@coalision.com Olivier Weisse weisseolivier@gmail.com Nadia Sammut nadia.sammut@gmail.com Barbara Coignet barbara@1618-paris.com Yann Borgstedt yb@pelichetexpo.com Luisa Collina luisa.collina@polimi.it Salmi Eija eija.salmi@aalto.fi Stephane Medam forstephane@me.com Marc Adelman marc@adelmania.com Franklin Melendez felendez@gmail.com Thomas Barrie thomas.barrie@condenast.co.uk

BORN is published by BORN UK All Rights Reserved

CONTACTS

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Publication & Project Manager Ambar-Maya Johnsson ambar@born.com

Paul Owen powen@jaguarlandrover.com

this magazine is the result of a collective effort...

Artistic Direction Constantin Chopin kostis@born.com

CONTRIBUTORS

BORN TEAM

Editor in Chief, Founder & CEO Jean-Christophe Chopin jcchopin@born.com