All About Yves Behar

Two years ago, Yves Béhar stood before 300 Coca-Cola bigwigs at the company's Atlanta headquarters and asked an impertinent question: "If Raymond Loewy were alive today, would you still hire him?"

Loewy, the father of industrial design, was the guy responsible for updating the iconic contour bottle in the mid-1950s, as well as everything from the graphic design on Coke's steel can to the look of its vending machines and coolers.

The man is still idolized at the company; indeed, this gathering honored Loewy's daughter, who was in the audience.

Béhar had been invited by Coke's VP of design, David Butler, to speak broadly about design's role in a global enterprise.

"I wanted them to get back to thinking across all functions of the business, from a logo to a bottle to a dispenser to a fountain," Béhar says.

"And I wanted them to ask themselves if they'd allow themselves, today, to let somebody have such a wide-ranging impact on their brand - to lead them by design.

Béhar, founder of the San Francisco design firm fuseproject, had his answer six weeks later: Coke hired him.