Yves Behar. He's a good influence on boring companies.

Yves Behar is a design guy who at age 40 is telling multi-billion $ companies what's what. His visionary philosophy is simple: make your product more useful, more durable, more beautiful and very green - or else you "will fail to connect to consumers in a relevant way and become obsolete." He's the man behind Aliph's best-selling Jawbone headset, Herman Miller's breakthrough Leaf LED lamp, and the much-discussed $100 laptop [One Laptop per Child initiative] with MIT's Nicholas Negroponte.
What does this mean to BrokeFolk? It means someone is saying that we also deserve well-designed products whether it's earbuds for our subway commute or an umbrella that doesn't break in the wind. Having bought my share of metal bedside lamps that cook fingers on contact and high heels that like to commit suicide while I'm in them - I appreciate good design. It's exciting to think that with guys like this in boardrooms I may someday be able to afford it.
Yves is on the cover of Fast Company's design issue Read the article.