"Deep Strength"

Last night at the UK's Creative Industries Reception held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, UK Prime Minister David Cameron talked about creativity as a "deep strength" of the UK. He referred passionately to Britain’s global successes in film, arts, dance, music, drama, literature, fashion and the cultural industries. He spoke about the achievement of the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was very much an advocacy of creativity in the domain of culture and entertainment. The overall message was a call to international players to invest in British creativity and to invest now. The time has never been better.

That is not to say that design was not well represented last night. There were very many design industry figures enjoying the excellent English sparkling wine and the beautiful art on the walls of the Royal Academy. The star-studded design cast included Sir Jonathan Ive (who was presented to the Duchess of Cambridge) and many other leading UK design companies across the design disciplines, including Pearson Lloyd, IDEO, Priestmangoode, Thomas Heatherwick, Creative Action Design, Marc Newson, Ozwald Boateng and S-Point from Shanghai.