Designing from & for the human experience

Christophe Rebours, founder of the innovative design company InProcess, was in Seoul last week for the 2010 Seoul Design Fair. The French designer offers a thoughtful and telling description of his audience with each product.
/Courtesy of InProcess

By Ines Min

The world is in a state of flux, ascending into a future of automation and sleek lines. As pristine tomorrow is sure to look with an ever-increasing focus on aesthetics, it is to the human experience that design still speaks.

As the 2010 Seoul Design Fair (SDF) hits its stride, Korean and international creative counterparts are gathering to share their ideas of promising design. The Korea Times sat down with Christophe Rebours, founder and president of the innovative company InProcess, last week to get a glimpse into that stretch of future so full of promise.

“The situation today, I think around the world, we are in the middle of a complete change of model: socially, economically and

InProcess collaborated with Korean cosmestics brand Amore Pacific to completely revamp the design of a mascara brush.
/Courtesy of InProcess

industrially also,” said Rebours, who attended the French design fair “Rendezvous @ Seoul,” which closed Thursday at the Kring Culture Complex in Samseong-dong. “And I think it’s really a big chance for people who are interested in innovation.”

InProcess, a company that emphasizes a combination of design based on research and scientific observations, brought to the exhibition some of its most well-known works, including Nabaztag rabbit robot, an “emotional messenger” that communicates everything from the latest forecasts to text messages (“Half of the text messages in Europe are to say nothing...just moods,” Rebours laughed).

“We know that there are places for new generations of services. We don’t speak anymore about products, we speak about the services or experience,” the designer said. “The product is just an interface with a new experience.”

Rebours has collaborated with Korean companies on previous occasions as well, working with Amore Pacific to update a line of mascaras and with LG on appliances. Though his company was only established in 2002, his recognition has reached the ears of corporations here, and meetings with major local names including Samsung, Hyundai Motor and iRiver were scheduled during his stay.

What sets the firm apart from the others, however, is its unique approach and dedication to observing the lifestyle of the consumer. Aided with a team of researchers — comprised of anthropologists, ergonomists and scientists — in-depth ethnographic surveys are conducted for R&D, uncovering not only the needs of the consumer but far more information about contemporary lives.

“That’s the specialty of InProcess,” Rebours said. “It’s a way to find insight, and that’s why we do such research, because we know that it will provide material for creation, for innovation.”

For the Amore Pacific mascara line revamped by InProcess, research was conducted in Korea, Japan and China. Although the company had expected to learn what the average woman’s make-up ritual was, Rebours was surprised to discover quite a bit more about her psychology as well.

“It was very important to understand that, what the women were targeting in terms of their self-expression, identity was the makeup of the eyes. That’s really the emotional side,” he said. Not to mention, the fact that makeup was more than a mere accessory, but a private, relaxing period of creativity.

A thorough investigation of consumer habits has helped InProcess accurately pinpoint the qualities fit to adapt to a modern society. As the world continues to move forward and progress, so will the designs in life. Rebours said he believes in two types of creation. “On one side, innovation can be incremental; that is, we go step by step. Even if we make a big step, we stay on the same line,” he said. “Or it can be breakthrough, and if it’s breakthrough there’s no relation with the past... it creates a new generation of something, which is what we call a new archetype.”

Yet each country also develops in its own methods, befitting its own niche.

“I really think there are interesting things to observe in Korea in terms of ways to use communicative experience with the Internet. The early adopter community is very strong in Korea and there is a really specific relation to technology, which is not common in the world,” he said.

“Korean people have been the first to speak about the ubiquity generation, which is a keen insight in terms of the new generation of devices and serves around telephone and computers of tomorrow.”

And the French? Rebours chalks up his well-researched, functional and boundary-breaking style with his heritage.

“I think it’s one of the most advanced countries in the world when it comes to human sciences,” he said. French users dare you to build and innovate, he explained, due in part to the fact that people-oriented studies have been a part of its history, both in the academic arena and daily life.

“I think that when I get old, I will be pleased to feel that I have participated to a progressive way in my society.”