About me

I am a Design Leader and Strategist with a background in Human Centred Design Strategy.

My focus is on building design organisations and successful services, products and physical spaces to serve life in the world's urban centers.

It is my unshakable belief that research, foresight, experimentation, ideation and real-world testing in collaboration with clients, audiences and other contributors bring the strongest most sustainable results.

Academician at Academy of Urbanism.

Speaker, guest lecturer and moderator at events and institutions including Los Angeles Design Festival, AoU, Gather Festival, Business of Design Week, 城區活動」, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Aalto University.

Co-host of the 'design, Design, DESIGN, design!' → and 'Dauer & Orvet' → podcasts.

Ideation workshop at Together 22. Photo by Manyone

Co-author and co-creator of State of Mind at Work. The second edition is available to order →.

Founder of independent print publisher Paper Light Publishing.

Delivering the keynote at Metta Hong Kong during Business of Design Week. Photo by Vicky Lo

Swedish, formerly based in San Francisco and London with a stint in Washington D.C. Currently living in Stockholm. Previously working in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Coffee lover, especially when the beans are roasted by La Cabra.

Recently

Details on LinkedIn

Partner and Global Strategic Design Director at Manyone 2022-2024.

Partner and Singapore lead at Manyone Asia 2019-2022.

Before

Global Cities Lead at M by Volvo Car Mobility 2018-2019.

Global Head of Design for the Futurice agency (Berlin, Helsinki, London, Munich, Oslo, Stockholm, Tampere).

International Head of Creative at Comprend (Stockholm, London, Lisbon + Milan).

Global Head of Creative at Nansen (Stockholm, Chicago, London, New York, Washington D.C.).

UX & Design Director at cloud collaboration leader Huddle in San Francisco.

Founding Editor of Paper Light Magazine together with Frida Vega Salomonsson and Andreas Carlsson.

Guest lecturer at Berghs School of Communication.

Jaan talking to another panel member
On the "Can enterprise apps ever be beautiful?" panel at MobileBeat by VentureBeat in San Francisco. Photo by Michael O'Donnell

Co-founder at Skrivr and OpenTypography.

Advisor to Weld and MND Labs.

Co-author of 'Noded - The untouchable business', listed by Internetworld magazine with Apple and Nintendo Wii as ideas and companies that “got it right and are leading the way to the future".

Alumni of Spray, Marieberg Interactive, SMC, Yahoo!, Sharpenr and Stanford University CSP, JMK Stockholm University and Poppius School of Journalism.

Former writer, editor, photographer and columnist.

Featured

Orvet speaks through the lens of Swedish culture when he cites precisely such a standard: ‘It’s ok to be human; it’s ok to be you. And on top of that, you can also be this role at the company where we work. It’s always having the individual at the forefront.’

— Cultivating a Creative Culture by Justin Dauer (Lead Hand Books)

Listen to what the human ‘you’ wants, not what the title on your business card demands.

— Engage (Intl. "Think Human: The psychology of user experience design")

Orvet said corporations have done a good job at suppressing employees’ desire to be productive. Tablets and smartphones don’t suppress that desire.

— InformationWeek (United States)

[Huddle is] the jewel in tech venture capitalist Eden Ventures’ crown

— Wall Street Journal

The breakout success of the year

— Read Write Web, on Huddle

User Experience is also about creating something that evokes emotion and provides something better, simpler or more effective. Like [...] Soundcloud’s simple way to share music and sounds. [They] allow us to play with and explore our human senses, said Jaan Orvet.