Peter Arnell is a brand inventor. He designs logos, advertising campaigns and objects. Now he is collaborating with Frank Gehry on the design of the Atlantic Yards Arena in Brooklyn, one of the greatest and most talked-about projects of the moment.

Peter Arnell says that his design can deliver happiness and the designer’s dream is to dress the world in happiness. Undoubtedly, Peter has received a lot from design but has given plenty, too. Arnell is a star behind the scenes in advertising, architecture and design. He is a little genius who acts in the shadows: “I don’t like to be on the stage,” he says, “it’s distracting. That’s it. I really don’t care about my name, I prefer to work behind the name of the company.” Really? “If you don’t believe me, I can tell you that every day I wake up and I feel like nobody. As if I had to start all over again.” We believe him. We know about his love of failure. “It pushes you to be creative,” he once said.

Meanwhile, the Japanese chef is looking at us with concern, seeing that we are chatting and not caring about the sushi he prepared for us. But with Arnell, ideas come fast and words roll out so quickly that you are not hungry for food anymore. Sorry, Mr. Chef. If one night an internationally-known designer invites us for dinner (in his favorite midtown restaurant, Hatsuhana) to chat about his projects, we have to keep up, listen, ask. It’s a tornado of ideas, new things, the new Pepsi look, the arena with Frank Gehry, the partnership with The Home Depot, the new snack food line with Muhammad Ali.

Designer? “I prefer the term ‘brand inventor,’” he says. Let’s take a step back. Let’s try to describe this 49-year-old half British, half Russian brand inventor with the brilliant smile. The Blackberry always working and at hand. The super-famous DKNY mural in Soho that now every tourist knows and the citizens of downtown New York notice – like the Milanese notice the little Madonna on top of theDuomo. Yes, that’s Arnell work. The logo of the New York utility company, Con Edison, is his work, too. And so is the identity of Bank of America, the logo of Lipton Tea, Knorr and Pepsi products. The advertising campaigns of Reebok, Chrysler, Samsung, Fendi, Banana Republic, McDonald’s. The partnership with Frank Gehry, with whom he shares an office in Los Angeles. An entire building on Prince Street in Soho (his office, according to the New York Times, is one of the most beautiful in New York). A company with about 160 employees. “It’s Italian design that changes my vision,” he says. “At the beginning of the eighties I was meeting with Memphis, the design group founded by Ettore Sottsass. I wasn’t part of it, but I was breathing the ideas. I understood the need to marry function with art. Italians have invented the type of design I am interested in. I have to say that Italians and Japanese are the only ones in the world that understand design. In the U.S., this dialogue doesn’t exist. Design is the future and Americans don’t realize it. Personally, I am focusing on industrial design and I am a firm believer that businesses can support design. I try to change the businesses I deal with using my brand creations.”

“An example? My partnership with The Home Depot,” he says. Arnell has signed the design of a small fire extinguisher, now in production with The Home Depot, the do-it-yourself giant. “I started a venture with The Home Depot called Orange Works to make design-oriented products. I am not interested in getting work and finishing the relationship after the work is done. Today, I think it’s important for a designer to be part of the production process in a big way. I want to play a central role so that I can push every button.” The partnership between Arnell and Gehry (two good friends with common ideas and a collection of robot fish that Arnell has created for a resort in Singapore) is underway on one of the most famous and talked-about projects: The Atlantic Yards Arena in Brooklyn, a large sports and housing complex that will change the face of the borough. These two creative people would like to take this opportunity to start a talking architecture that relaunches the old advertising “billboard,” the old tool made famous on the Vegas strip and in Times Square. 

In the arena, it will be a big piece of the façade that transforms itself into a gigantic luminous billboard. Thirty percent of the building will shine with lights like an electronic painting. Information, news, ads, will float on Gehry’s creature with the lightness of an ever-changing stream. The idea comes from Peter’s hand. He has invented an illumination system capable of disappearing. Thousands of small lights that become invisible once they are switched off. Will Brooklyn become a little Vegas? “Not to risk that chance, I have accounted for the taste of the local residents,” says Arnell as he starts a technical drawing on a piece of paper. “People from Brooklyn don’t like the rumors that this piece of news has generated. They protest against it. My proposal is to change it. To make something spectacular yet discreet. From a functionality standpoint, I have designed a system that takes the heavy stuff away from the big billboards and so it lightens up the lighting effect and the building itself.”

Another friendship, another project: To fight against youth obesity, the former champion and fighter Muhammad Ali – in a venture with Arnell – has founded G.O.A.T., a food and beverage company that makes healthy snacks. The idea started with Arnell a couple of years ago when he learned that Mars was doing research on natural products. “With an ally like Mars Inc., it was impossible not to win the challenge. We were only missing the face and the name of the company.” Arnell immediately thought of Ali. Convincing an old friend to dive into such a venture was not difficult. The goals were sufficiently strong. Snacks, wrapped in silver packages with orange text, are just starting to enter the market and will be available in American schools and universities.

Arnell’s private files have 60 letters from Fellini. “It’s a dialogue I started when I was 17 years old. Maybe one day I will publish them,” he says. “You see, I believe in what Alessi used to say – everything is possible – and I am convinced that the only power that we have is to create things that last in time.” Then he goes on, “Knowledge is the key to everything. We must learn. But I have to tell you,” with a lower tone of voice, “that in my sleepless nights (I only sleep three hours a night), I feel desperate in front of this massive amount of knowledge. I think about taking my life, like the character in the book, If A Winter Night, A Traveler, by Calvino.” The dinner is over. A driver comes to pick up Peter Arnell. But wait, isn’t this a FDNY truck? “Yes, of course, I am the Creative Officer of the Fire Department of New York. Come, jump in, it’s really cool, isn’t it?"