Tim Kobe's company Eight Inc. translated Apple's design zeitgeist into a game-changing retail format. John Bielenberg founded rapid ingenuity firm Future and Project M, the platform for creatives inspired to contribute to the greater good.
Both have shown how design thinking, fearless creativity, and empathy can be used to make the world a better place. And both will share their experiences and perspectives at Above the Fog, the 2013 SEGD Conference June 6-8 in San Francisco.
"Above the Fog is designed to inspire us to seek out the blue sky and find ways to do our best work as designers and human beings," commented Lonny Israel, Associate Director with Skidmore Owings and Merrill and Co-Chair of the 2013 SEGD Conference with Julie Vogel, Principal of Kate Keating Associates. "We're excited to have keynote speakers like Tim Kobe and John Bielenberg, who in their unique ways dramatically show us how."
After creating MacWorld for Steve Jobs, Kobe's design firm was asked to imagine a store where Apple customers could experience the brand and adopt an emerging digital lifestyle. Eight's work on the Apple stores and in commercial, retail, and hospitality spaces around the globe reflects how the design of public spaces must evolve as our ways of communicating, working, shopping, and learning undergo radical change.
At Future, Bielenberg delights in helping people find the courage and sense of humor to bring their stories, ideas, and ingenuity out into the world-the wilder and crazier, the better. He is also founder of Project M, an immersive program he started in 2003 to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers by proving that their work-especially their "wrongest" thinking-can have significant impact on communities. Project M has developed projects worldwide, from Alabama to Iceland.