He has seen the initial models and designs ("mind-bogglingly wonderful", "huge teams of people"), and though he is still sworn to secrecy on the details, he confirms that Haley Joel Osment (the boy from The Sixth Sense) and Jude Law are both on board.
And Steven Heller, who was art director of The Times Book Review for more than three decades and remains a columnist, received the Design Mind prize for influencing generations of graphic designers.
The awards are given in various categories, including architecture, product design, fashion, interior design, landscape design, corporate achievement, lifetime achievement and "design mind" (for writers and curators as well as designers).
Michael Bierut of Pentagram, widely recognized for his design mind, took the design mind category; Charles Harrison of Sears won for lifetime achievement; Google was recognized for corporate achievement; and Tom Kundig won for architecture.
Darwin's theory of evolution was meant to show how the fantastically complex features of organisms — eyes, beaks, brains — could arise without the intervention of a designing mind.
What we do know is that in 1981, another great design mind described it, if memory serves, as "the silliest thing I've ever heard".
When Michael Sorkin, the architect, writer and scholar, accepted the design mind award, he said, "I'd like to thank Harvey Weinstein, Sue Mengers... Oh, that's the wrong speech".
Put a creative design mind with a kettle manufacturer and my money is on a solution that would engage and create fun for the public.
Kean Etro, the 40-year-old design mind behind the Italian label Etro, was greatly influenced by his English prep-school experience.
Pentagram partner Michael Bierut certainly deserved his Design Mind award, and Tom Kundig his Architecture Design award, but it would have been nice if they had been recognized before they became megastars.
Other winners this year include: the architect James Wines for lifetime achievement, the architect and critic Michael Sorkin in the "Design Mind" category, and TED, the nonprofit idea group, for corporate and institutional achievement.
