Design Thesis: Design Fancy: Berit Kalmar

Berit Kalmar is one of a kind. One of those people that will be part of a shuttle launch on Monday and eating hot dogs with hobos on the tracks on Saturday. This sort of understanding of humanity is what has defined most of her work. She's Swedish—from a small town called Kalix up in the far north. When she was 16 she wanted to get some experience overseas and moved to Sandusky, Ohio.

Most people laugh when they find out that she moved there to work at Cedar Point, ride the coasters, and train in her own way to be an astronaut. It worked though, that's the thing. After 6 years of doing that and studying around the world, she got a job at the Trans-Continental Space Authority. One of her first assignments was to decide what object should be shot into space to help aliens understand humans. She was on a team of 50, and after several years of ideating and brainstorming they came up with the "Bear With Saxophone" or BWS.