The current issue of Fast Company is delightfully full of a bunch of articles making a case for the pivotal role of design within any self-respecting organisation seeking to stride through the twenty-first century with confidence. Sir Alan's dream come true.
Highlights include a feature on Wrigley and the latest invention of their R&D team: 5. Targeted at young adults, it's intended as a gum that "reflects who they are".
Dan and Chip Heath speculate about how you make an idea "stick" by using environmental triggers.
There's a brilliant article about a guy called Yves Behar who runs a design firm called fuseproject that appears to have a tremendously successful track record with huge corporations like Coke, Johnson & Johnson and Kodak and uses the profits they make doing this to experiment with profit shares for smaller innovative start-ups. It's called "All About Yves". Hard to beat as an article title for Marilyn Monroe fans.
A very interesting interview with Bob Greenberg who started out using CGI for Hollywood films but then turned his attention to interactive advertising and now works with Nike and Nokia amongst others.
And then perhaps my favourite. An interview with the grand master of design (Sir Alan excepted for a second), Philippe Starck himself. He shares a couple of glorious soundbites with us.
"Today, all buildings are very fancy, they are all narcissistic masturbation to the glory of the guys who design them."
(Don't know if David Chipperfield, master architect for the new BBC offices in Glasgow would agree with that.)
And finally, his formula for creativity:
"Every morning, take royal jelly and omega-3 oil, eat oysters and have a good sexual life. Don't care about anything and never listen to anybody. Be free."
Sir Alan, take note.