Ari Nave, Ph.D.
A small window into my world of anthropology, corporate research, strategy & design. Plus family & passion projects.
Central to cultural identity, a Mallorcian fishmonger sells the daily catch at the market in Palma, but the local fishing industry has been mostly devastated due to over-exploitation. 90% is imported.
Anthropology demands the open-mindedness with which one must look and listen, record in astonishment and wonder that which one would not have been able to guess.
Margaret Mead
Design as operating system
Design is more than an occupation for me, it is an approach to living. It is a guiding principle to my decision-making. Forethought, planning, predicting, and systems-thinking. Whatever the issue, my core approach is to look at relationships, examine the available mediums from which a system can be built, and intentionally try to put those elements together with specific functional goals.
On a trip to Copenhagen, the family visited the Design Museum. They have an extensive collection of Danish furniture designs, including works from Kaare Klint. They also have stunning vintage industrial designs like B&O stereos. And they house an extensive collection of tsubas — hilts for the Japanese Iado.
The museum celebrates design thinking in a layered experience. The design of the museum flow invites you to appreciate the design of each singular built environment. Each room in turn celebrates and highlights design features. The lighting reflects the play of grain that Klint uses like brush strokes. Even the tsubas are housed in delicious drawers designed to telegraph the preciousness of each item.
About
I am a cultural anthropologist with a focus on behavioral economics, evolutionary cognition and psychology.
My academic work focused on how the evolutionary properties of cultural systems and the cognitive machinery of the brain impact what information is passed along and learned over time.
My professional work has essentially been applying these models to inform business and design decisions in one form or another.
Over the past 25 years, I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with amazing talent and teams at companies around the world, on problems large and small. I have interviewed low-income earners in Delhi and ultra-high-net-worth investors in New York. Front-line cooks have taught me to roll tortillas in the south of Texas and I have trained board members in innovation processes in Perth.
After leaving academia I worked for a number of advertising agencies as a strategist, including FCB, Grey, Deutsch, Ogilvy and R/GA. I then opened The King’s Indian, Inc.
The work I have led has resulted in new products and services being designed and launched, from pants to smoking cessation systems. It has changed brand strategies for large corporations, driven global advertising campaigns, shaped media buying strategies, impacted corporate governance structures, and even led to naming products.
Feel free to check out my professional bio on LinkedIn.
