Land Rover BORN Awards 8th Edition by BORN.COM

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October 4th 2018 Global Final

London Design Museum

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ook ahead five or ten years and we encounter a world where the insatiable appetite for new things will be met only by good design. These will be thoughtful products, sensitively crafted to make consumers’ lives better: enriching, expanding, enhancing. The road to that future begins now and it starts with how we approach design thinking, or as Jon Kolko puts it: “It’s about making things.” In a nutshell, that is the mission of the BORN Awards: supporting, nurturing and celebrating the next generation of design thinkers and makers whose innovations will shape the lives of tomorrow. We’re building on the core belief that while design might be everywhere, good design will not. Our task, then, is to seek out those new talents across the world who embody these values of integrity and innovation and whose strength of vision has the potential to revolutionise their respective fields. Together, we’re crafting a global network of creatives connected by the power of beautiful things. An integral part of this undertaking has been our partnership with Land Rover, whose support remains invaluable in forging the way ahead. Pioneers in their own right, they share BORN’s fundamental belief that success is only possible through the seamless synergy of creativity and business. We also understand that there is no algorithm for innovation or good taste; they have to be sought after, nurtured and developed. Our joint global initiative meets this challenge head on, culminating in an annual celebration, but also encompassing a year-long process of enrichment.

E D I TO R I A L

THEY CREATE IT, LOVE IT.

Jean-Christophe Chopin Founder and CEO of BORN Founder of the BORN Awards

As the dedicated magazine of the Land Rover BORN Awards, we want to bring you along for this exciting ride – for, as many have noted, it’s not just the end point but the road travelled that counts! It begins with the registration of nominees in seven global regions, the convening of a panel of distinguished professionals and experts, and the vigorous deliberations before the final announcement of our 2018 finalists. Just as vital are a series of special platforms and forums designed to promote professional dialogues - these include the BORN Conversations, a dynamic exchange between emerging talents and established icons before a global audience. Initiatives such as this distinguish the BORN Awards’ undertaking from all others. We’re peerless: a community, a lifestyle and a worldview, helping realise the smartest possibilities to enrich our tomorrow. It’s all about things and the people who make them – so we invite you to meet them all – from this year’s distinguished nominees to the mentors and experts who have made their accomplishments possible.

LESS IS MORE BUT DO WE NEED MORE LESS?

E D I TO R I A L

what is peerless?

eerless is the aspiration of excellence in design. In an ideal world, all design would be peerless. We live in a highly visualised world. We’re constantly bombarded with brands and products. Consumers look to design to be surprised and enthralled. There’s an insatiable appetite for great products, but little or no design curation. We crave a sense of discovery, but don’t have the time to source it. Ross Bailey, Founder of Appear Here, a short-term retail space marketplace for brands and designers seeking a temporary bricks and mortar presence, says: “There’s too much choice, not enough editing. If you look in people’s wardrobes or bedrooms, the things they love are never things they bought on the internet. They tend to be souvenirs of their experience in the real world.” “A peerless design stands apart, for all the right reasons. It’s easy to simply be different...but to truly deserve the term ‘peerless’ takes imagination, intellect, wit, and more than a little wisdom.” Prof. Gerry McGovern, Chief Design Officer, Land Rover, Range Rover.

Examples of peerless designs with imagination, intellect, wit and wisdom?

8TH EDITION

GMG : “The Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair, designed in the mid-fifties, there have been many imitations but nothing like the original. I love the wit in designing a chair based on the form of the egg. The Patek Philippe Nautilus designed by Gerald Genta in 1976 was inspired by the porthole, as found on transatlantic ocean liners, it took him five minutes to sketch the watch that would become an icon. It’s as timeless and contemporary today as when it was first created. Finally The Range Rover. Evolved over almost fifty years. Sophisticated, elegant and highly desirable. There is nothing else like it. It has a wonderful sense of formality which makes it feel at home anywhere. My Range Rover is in Byron Blue with a satin-finish, with 22” gloss black wheels. The finish is iridescent, so it adapts to the light, darker by night, lighter by day. It’s the perfect colour to showcase the sophistication of the vehicle.’’ JCC : ‘‘Peerless design is not necessarily expensive or unaffordable. For me, I would nominate the Burberry trench, the Chanel 2.55 handbag, the Audemars Piguet watch and perhaps the Fiat 500, to my mind, even more peerless than a Ferrari.’’

GÉRALD GENTA - PATEK PHILIPPE NAUTILUS

ARNE JACOBSEN - EGG CHAIR RADISSON BLUE

What distinguishes great design from peerless design? GMG : ‘‘That emotional connection is what differentiates great products from average products.’’ One company successfully combining data mining with a personalised experience is Style Fix, an online personal shopping service with a stylist who hand-picks pieces to correspond to the online customer’s taste, needs and budget and delivers them directly. Each delivery is like receiving a specifically tailored personal gift.

ARNE JACOBSEN - EGG CHAIR PRODUCED BY FRITZ HANSEN

LAND ROVER - THE RANGE ROVER

E D I TO R I A L APRIL 2018 PEERLESS EDITION

GÉRALD GENTA - AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK

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JCC : ‘‘I divide my time between Europe and San Francisco, home of Apple, Google and Elon Musk! It’s an alter-dimension where anything is possible. A case in point, Adidas’ latest sports shoe, created by Carbon. This is set to become peerless, with a system that lets anything the designer imagines be reproduced by the industry. For me, this is the proper way to harness great design.’’ The product development process traditionally follows four distinct phases: design, prototyping, tooling, and production. This process is slow and costly, so many development programs can afford fewer than five cycles of design refinement before finalizing, which constrains the creative process. Carbon’s game-changing development process enabled Adidas to iterate no fewer than 50 different midsole lattices before selecting the final design. Ten times as many iterations as previously possible were made for a sports shoe that will be mass-produced. JCC : ‘‘Tech is easier to manage than niche design. In 20 years’ time, if you have the latest generation 3-D printer, you’ll be able to select the brand you like and produce your own design in your own living room.’’ Empreintes, the online marketplace of the Métiers d’Art de France has a dual motive - to get artists’ and designers’ work and process into the public eye, and to make beautiful creativity accessible and affordable to everyone. It has both a bricks-and-mortar and an online vitrine for artists throughout France, ensuring that all of its members have international exposure, and that design lovers can buy a unique, signed piece for as little as 75€. JCC : ‘‘Empreintes is very BORN-minded. This is exactly our objective, connecting people who make beautiful products for people who love them, celebrating creativity. It is a curation-led process. BORN can help make this happen. We all need to do our utmost to enrich creators’ lives, to showcase their creativity.’’ GMG : ‘‘Design is actually the glue that holds everything together. The world would be a sad place, for me, without great design.’’

BURBERRY - THE HERITAGE TRENCH

CHANEL - 2.55 HANDBAG

FIAT - 500

NOTHING ELSE

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Nearly 50 years ago, Land Rover created the luxury SUV sector with the introduction of the Range Rover. now it’s redefining a new era with the world’s first full-size luxury suv coupé: the limited edition two-door range rover sv coupé.

INTERVIEWS 8TH EDITION

reated by Land Rover Design and Special Vehicle Operations, the SV Coupé is an exemplar of Range Rover design, craftsmanship and capability. It features a seductive body allied to the next generation of cabin luxury. The embodiment of the peerless character, this one-of-a-kind Range Rover will be sold to no more than 999 clients worldwide. “The Range Rover SV Coupé is a celebration of the Range Rover bloodline. With a dramatic two-door silhouette, this breath-taking four-seat coupé alludes to its unique heritage while being thoroughly modern and contemporary. Beautifully realised and superbly engineered, the Range Rover SV Coupé delivers the most distinguished, luxurious and exclusive Range Rover ever built.” Gerry McGovern, Chief Design Officer. Beautiful proportions with a powerful stance give the SV Coupé unrivalled on-road presence. The Range Rover DNA is iconic, yet expressed in a unique way for this exclusive edition.

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Its purity of line is perfectly complemented by seamless power-close doors which, combined with the panoramic roof, accentuate the refined and sophisticated nature of this highly desirable vehicle. Enhanced luxury and exquisite craftsmanship extends inside too, bringing Range Rover’s already premium interior to a new level of luxury: comparable to private jets and yachts. Each SV Coupé will be hand-assembled to the client’s personal specification by the fastidious experts at the SVO Technical Centre in the UK – a first for Range Rover.

VO’s bespoke personalisation team will offer SV Coupé clients the unparalleled opportunity to indulge their desire to create a unique vehicle to their exact taste, granting them access to endless possibilities of customisation through paint colours, finishes, bespoke leather patterns, contrast stitching and semi-precious metal badging. It is also the fastest-ever full-size Range Rover, with a 165mph top speed. Powered by an exhilarating 565PS 5.0-litre Supercharged V8 petrol powertrain, the most powerful ever placed in a full-size Range Rover, means SV Coupé hits 60mph in just five seconds. The suspension is tuned to provide a more driver-focused edge than the standard Range Rover, with a ride height lowered by 8mm, but will remain composed and comfortable at all times. Plus, the SV Coupé loses none of Range Rover’s legendary all-terrain ability. “As you’d expect from a Range Rover, the SV Coupé is compelling in so many ways. It is a meticulously honed vehicle that’s designed and engineered for clients who love driving.” Mark Stanton, Special Vehicle Operations Director.

The expert anti-aging lip and contour care

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04/04/2018 19:05

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What are the BORN Awards? 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. 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).

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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So, how does it work? Each “BORN Year” is a cycle of events that starts regionally and expands globally. The cycle commences with four

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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. 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.

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Ilia Potemine & Fred Winkler Interior

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Thomas Heatherwick Studio Architecture

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L’abus d’alcool est dangereux pour la santé, à consommer avec modération.

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PRESIDENT OF THE JURY Jean-Christophe Chopin BORN Founder and CEO Founder of the BORN Awards

Bodo Sperlein

Deborah Spencer

Gabbi Cahane

Leo Fenwick

Alexander Purcell Rodrigues

Stewart Dodd

Founder Bodo Sperlein

Founder Design Junction

Chairman Multiple

Nicole Junkermann Founder NJF Capital

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Menswear Buying Manager Fenwick

CEO & Creative Director Alexander Purcell Rodrigues Design Studio

Founder Satellite Architects

Grant Gibson

Writer and Editor

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.

A Unique Combination of People

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The Origins

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, Mobility, Interiors, Fashion, Sports Leisure and Architecture. Take for example, the last two BORN Awards – in a single room was assembled in 2016, Gerry McGovern chief design officer of Land Rover, Jean-Claude Biver CEO of LMVH Watches, multimedia artist and social activist Annina Roescheisen, along with bike designer Cristiano De Rosa; and in 2017, architect Bruno Moinard, designer Bodo Sperlein, financier Romain Lavault and broadcaster Nik Gowing – a combination of diverse creative and business minds just waiting for the spark to set preconceptions ablaze and change the world.

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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 Milan during Design Week – a fluid and experimental precursor, before the more refined, streamlined BORN Conversations Summit which will be launched in London for the Global Final at the Design Museum in October 2018. Workshops, discussions and panels can help with this balancing act. Compelling stories will provide a new perspective on issues of creativity and business. New friends will provide guidance and professional insights on next steps for participating companies 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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The american author and What to Look For aviatrix Anne Morrow I Lindbergh once wrote “good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.”

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he market was overcrowded, highly focused on more outrageous trends: bold, bright colours, seasonal looks and more over-the-top artifice. And don’t even get me started on social media’s super-human ideas of women and make-up. Even when I was repeatedly told it was not advisable to jump into the sea of cosmetics, I was still my father’s daughter and I wanted to set an example to my own daughter that make-up could be you: “nude”, natural-looking, beautiful and confident, with an enviable glow. Born from my belief that feeling beautiful IS being beautiful, I started Nude Envie two years ago with a refined, stylish, complimentary range for lips designed to enhance features and highlight natural beauty. When looking at a woman, people are drawn to her energy, exuberance, charm and being her most comfortable and authentic self – wondering how to “have what she is having”. Like a secret weapon, I was able to create make-up to help women discover a newfound sense of positivity and confidence. It was empowering. It always helped me to feel more beautiful, more powerful, prepared and ready to face the word, and with Nude Envie I knew I could help other women developing their best, most natural look – and a healthy dose of self-esteem. I started with Envie De Lèvres – seven shades of nude colour lipsticks to complement any lip colour and skin tone. Creamy, long-lasting and subtle, with one perfect nude lip pencil. But, I also wanted to build around the brand ethos that everything about Nude Envie would empower women. Packaging and brand messaging, statements, product names and the idea of letting your own beauty glow were all built on the affirmations that women are not only “enough”; they are worthy of feeling beautiful without hiding behind any make-up. After seeing the reaction, I launched a second season of colours and a full line of nude pencils in complimentary hues, and now for Spring/Summer 2018 I have created glosses for a light, sheer shine to finish the look. I will have face and eye pallets by autumn. Stores truly see the potential and the vision, which inspires me and Nude Envie to keep going and glowing.

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or me, swiping a wand with a fresh coat of mascara across my lashes, perfecting a natural look with a slanted brush around the around the eyes or perfecting a subtle lip tint is much more art than vanity. The daughter of a cosmetics visionary, I grew up immersed in beauty culture and I understood that there was a “make-up effect” well beyond physical beauty. I was fascinated by cosmetics, both as a little girl in awe of her father at work, attracted to the colours and of course the glamour, but I also found a connection to make-up from a deeper, more psychological perspective that I did not understand until later, when I had a teenager daughter of my own and when the “cosmetics gene” kicked in. I truly believe that there is a strong, credible psychology behind make-up and even perhaps a type of physical anthropology in terms of expectations of women and social development. Putting my best face forward was always important to me. I did not feel complete without my make-up, but I wanted to look natural and subtle, as though I was presenting the best version of myself, not creating a character. Finding that balance – between going without any make-up and a natural signature style – was highly transformative. With a palette as my tool kit, I found a way to prove that a finishing touch, framing the face and highlighting the features with elegance, not artifice, was the best self-care investment. It was a little later, as my kids were growing up, that the connection to cosmetics became a business calling – even in a highly competitive marketplace with big brands and big budgets everywhere. I had something to say and something to create that I knew would have an unique impact.

in Hollywood

Cross Creation

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Yi Zhou

t’s a fact well known but little acknowledged that a great artist must be both creative and have a head for business, but Yi Zhou approaches this paradox openly and with relish. “My mind is constantly racing for ideas for a creative piece or a new business venture,” she says. “Lately I’ve been joking with my friends that I could work on Wall Street.” (Like Rembrandt making his self-portrait ubiquitous among rich Renaissance merchants, or Andy Warhol cultivating a flamboyant media image that would garner him headlines and by extension, interest in his work), Yi can “see visions about company mergers, collabs, strategic partnerships and investments with the same detail I can perceive nuances for a musical tune or editing a piece of film footage.” Art, business and brand are all equally important. Yi is predominantly a multimedia artist, but she is also so much more: businesswoman, tastemaker, model, actress, musician. She puts much of her entrepreneurial spirit down to the influence of her father; indeed, innovation has always been in her blood. However, it wasn’t always so pronounced. “I must admit, I developed my biz mind only last year. Thanks to my dad’s encouragement, to try push my biz brain I am now doing some development for his enterprises in the USA. With BORN, I’m branding a new invention my dad has created: an environmentally friendly one he patented worldwide. I think to be able to work with one’s own family is an extraordinary development in our lives, as it changes the whole dynamic of the parent-child relationship. It’s no longer one-way, the parent giving to the kid. The chance to be able to give back and grow together is an extraordinary feeling.” Alongside her father, she names an eclectic group of people as inspiration: businessman Sir David Tang, Tommy Hilfiger, actress Colleen Camp, costume designer Susan Becker, directors Harold Becker and Oliver Stone, producer Barry Navidi, and serial entrepreneur Olivier Chouvet. Yi’s eclectic interests have led her to Hollywood, where she is now working on original content co-produced between China and the USA, through her company YiZhouStudio. She will start shooting her first feature film, which she also wrote, and in which she is credited as a supporting actress and producer, songwriter, set designer and costume designer. As part of the first wave of Chinese talent arriving in Holywood, Yi is keen to expand the cooperation between China and the States, and has entered into a partnership with Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group to do so.

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learly, it is hard to overstate the range of her many business ventures. In 2010 she was profiled in The New York Times, which noted her exhibition at the Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria in Florence, her installation at the Place Vendôme and her short film starring Charlotte Gainsbourg. Since then, she has undertaken charitable work with Natalia Vodianova, collaborated with Persol, Chanel and Diane von Furstenberg as well as singer Bryan Ferry, and has been selected for the Sundance Film Festival three times. Now, Yi says, she is focused “on developing partnerships for YiZhouStudio with luxury high-net-worth companies such as Royal Yacht Brokers by Tommaso Chiabra, a high-profile Italian entrepreneur. I am also finalising my own fund, Into the Sun Investment Holdings, which aims to invest in entertainment and lifestyle brands globally.” Parallel to this is her latest project, Global Intuition, a new lifestyle apparel brand that “challenges the notions of simplicity, sophistication, fame and desirability of a product.” Designed and manufactured in LA and Shanghai, Yi plans to launch at Fred Segal on Sunset Boulevard. All of this makes Yi a shoo-in for the BORN Conversations. With cross-pollination at the heart of her endeavours, her experience in business, in acting, directing, producing and costume design, in art and in fashion, makes her insight invaluable. So what could Yi possibly still feel like she hasn’t achieved? A recent interview she gave may offer a clue. “I admire Jessica Alba for her career in entertainment, as well as being a global brand founder and a mother,” she said. “I hope I will have the chance to meet and work with her one day.”

Jessica, if you’re reading this, you know what to do. 8TH EDITION

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Polyte F F

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he oldest university in Milan might also be its most forward looking. Since opening its doors in 1863 on Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci, Politecnico di Milano has distinguished itself as Europe’s hub for innovation worthy of the Renaissance master’s name. The key to its vitality remains a fearless commitment to the new, which in the 21st century means anticipating the massive shifts that are redefining modern living. As renowned architect and Dean of the Design School, Luisa Collina, stresses, this makes creative thinking all the more vital: “Creativity has always been an essential ingredient of technical innovation - just think back to Bruno Munari with the Falkland lamp of 1964 by Danese where he used tubular elastic mesh developed for the pantyhose industry. The same is true today – only the types of available technologies have changed drastically: materials, production processes as well as the new digital interfaces that shape the products around us, our environments and our daily lives.” In order to meet these challenges head-on, Collina champions a constantly evolving curriculum, updated to meet fresh demands like the newly-launched master’s in Digital & Interactive Design, whose first graduates will enter the field in 2019. She has made moves such as recognizing that that state-of-the-art education no longer unfolds in a bubble, but must be tuned into the fluctuations of the real world. As Collina adds: “Digital technologies have had a drastic impact on all major fields of design and we’re constantly changing our curriculum to meet these shifts: from communication design dealing with interfaces, interactions and data visualization to fashion integrating technology into wearable devices; there’s product design facing IoT (Internet of Things) to interior design creating responsive environments, as well as product-service-system design that combines all these different ingredients and turns them into a service.” At its core, this diverse, field-driven approach heralds a bold ethos of holistic technical learning, one that fuses independent thinking with creative solutions for the ultimate foundation for the future. This is something Collina knows well through her own experiences as an architect, an educator and strategic thinker with a prescient ability to anticipates the twists and turns on the road of ahead. Part of this has been her embrace of the professional sector, forging and crafting strategic partnerships that prepare her students with real-world experience – from mentorships and feedback on the job market to added support for testing and carrying out experimental cases and projects. This ultimately all turns on the importance human users striving for peerless achievement. As she notes: “Technology can never be useful if it’s not combined with design culture. The more we live in highly technological landscapes, the more we need to pay attention to the humanities - studying and understanding human behavior. The best in design culture continuously offers new connections between these two point of views.”

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INTERVIEWS APRIL 2018 PEERLESS EDITION BORN.COM

ake a drive down Wilshire Boulevard on any given day and the Los Angeles renaissance will be impossible to miss. From a thriving arts scene that rivals its East Coast counterpart to newly-minted high fashion pedigree (sealed by the soonto-be inaugurated Céline studios), world-class museums and more, the city built on eternal sunshine and a Tinsel Town reputation has matured into an internationally-renowned cultural powerhouse with a flavor distinctly its own. The shift has even reached the buttoned-up world of finance, attracting a new ilk of entrepreneur like Marlon Nichols, who along with co-founder, Troy Carter, launched Cross Culture Ventures (CCV) in April of 2015. The spark? An immediate connection to the Southland’s vibrant energy and diverse make-up. As Nichols notes: “L.A. is home to such a wide-ranging population - it has instant global appeal; it also breeds diversity in thought – from entertainment and real estate to technology and venture capital.” Nichols and Carter also recognised the untapped potential of this natural cross-pollination, which has the ability to transform current investment models. Hence, the company’s unique strategy of making decisions based on the growing trends that emerge from subcultures and ultimately drive popular culture. It is a radical approach built on the importance of the local, as Nichols adds: “Our spirit is about tuning into the moment, but also understanding the way these new energies are shaping larger cultural patterns.”

This breakthrough way of thinking is also deeply personal reflecting Nichols’ long-term commitment to inclusivity – something that extends to the company’s own make-up. As he stresses, “Diversity is key and we engage a wide-ranging network of creatives, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 executives, and sports professionals to develop strategic partnerships and promote brand expansion for CCV’s portfolio companies. Just as important is that our team mirrors this by including women, LGBTQ, Black, North Korean, bi-racial people and more.” Zoom out to the big picture and it comes down to promoting unexpected synergies and encounters. This was fully evident at CCV’s recent activation at SXSW with #CULTUREHOUSE, a celebration of the convergence of sports, tech and investing. The event featured a conversation with former NBA All-Star, Baron Davis, a day party with live performances and a wide-ranging mix of professionals assembled over two rooftop decks. While the mood was decidedly upbeat, the mix was expertly curated to facilitate real connections and partnerships. As Nichols notes: “Our unique DNA allows for that kind of integration and makes it seem natural and obvious but couldn’t happen in any other places in the world. Only in L.A. could Kobe Bryant retire from basketball, launch an investment firm and then win an Oscar for storytelling.”

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obe’s runaway success underscores the limitless possibilities ahead, particularly as the active design lifestyle becomes an increasingly important cultural force in the Southland and beyond. Capitalizing on these intersections while remaining true to their roots is ultimately what CCV is about: “Our vision is that we become the pre-eminent seed fund based here. We’ll continue to invest in great companies and drive value via the diversity of our network. We want to become the major connector for all things L.A.”

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this magazine is the result of a collective

BORN TEAM

Editor in Chief Jean-Christophe Chopin jcchopin@born.com

Partners Relation America Eli Gonda eli@born.com

Artistic Direction Constantin Chopin kostis@born.com

Gil Kruger gil@born.com

Project Manager Ambar-Maya Johnsson ambar@born.com Strategic and Corporate Partnerships Pierre Sapin psapin@born.com Partners Relation Europe Natalie Torin natalie@born.com

Communications & Events Emanuela Virago emanuela@born.com Chiara Bellisai chiara@born.com Video Content Production Paolo Santosuosso paolo@born.com Social Media Sara Nicole Rossetto sara@born.com

effort... Marlon Nichols Cross Culture Ventures Luisa Collina luisa.collina@polimi.it Jean Grogan grogan.jean@gmail.com Thomas Barrie thomas.barrie@condenast.co.uk Franklin Melendez felendez@gmail.com

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06/04/2018 13:01