Design to Move

I wrote a very popular piece 2 years back called Hey CEO: Do you know how to dress? In the interim 2 years, Design has become a critical and celebrated element of business success. Business leaders have started paying attention. Nerds have started getting intrigued by right-brained creativity, even though they don’t quite understand the Science of Art.

These last 3 weeks, I have been in Europe, looking at great designs – both from the past, and also cutting edge, modern designs. I will write more about that as I gather my thoughts, as well as post some pictures.

Meanwhile, you have been reading my very personal story, As India Builds, lamenting India’s relentless architectural destruction. In this story, for the first time, I have talked about my own history, which perhaps explains some of my extreme and unapologetic sensitivity to design and style. [Two follow-on pieces to these are, India’s Real Estate Boom and Architecture, and Heritage Hotels].

And, you have been reading Dominique’s writings on how design commands premium pricing:

* Teaching Design in Business,
* Tasteful Design = Premium Pricing,
* Crisp Design Enjoys Premium Pricing,
* Apple: End-to-End Design,
* Airline Experience: End-to-End Design, and
* Design can carry a Brand.

I have also pointed you to a few brilliant pieces of architecture, as designs that have moved me:

* I.M. Pei’s Miho Museum,
* Louis Kahn’s Dhaka Assembly,
* Frank Gehry’s new IAC HQ, and
* Frank Lloyd Wright’s Xanadu Gallery.

I have also cited as examples,

* an Alessi vacuum cleaner,
* a Noguchi lamp & a table,
* a Terence Conran chair,
* Bang & Olufsen Speakers,
* a Sydney Lynch necklace,
* a Deborah Krupenia pendant,
* a Reiko Ishiyama brooch,
* the Chanel No. 5 box,
* an Issey Miyake watch and
* an unknown fabric designer.

Dominique and I are both absolute suckers for great design. I am sure we will continue exploring the topic in the future. Meanwhile, I want to leave you with a mention of my favorite style icon, Audrey Hepburn, and a quote from Albert Einstein, whose biography I am reading now:

“Formal symbolic representation of qualitative entities is doomed to its rightful place of minor significance in a world where flowers and beautiful women abound.”