Building beauty into brands: Alan Moore on how to design a business the world needs

It is what Alan Moore believes, a designer and business innovator on a mission to help businesses discover their own unique "beauty". In his new book Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs, Alan draws on his years of research into some of the most pioneering and progressive businesses on the planet. By speaking to their purpose-driven founders, he discovers that it is possible to lead with generosity, design products and services that are considered joyful, and create a company culture where individuals flourish.

By sharing examples of best practice, Moore invites readers to create a different type of business: one that will regenerate and restore our economy, our environment, and our civilisation. Whether your brand is big or small, Alan has given us essential tips from the book on building beauty into your enterprise and designing a business that the world needs right now in these most uncertain times.

All businesses can be beautiful – and need to be right now

"My experience is based on witnessing how our world, even over the last decade, has become increasingly unfair and uncertain," Alan tells Creative Boom. "Climate change and the pandemic show us the world is not working as it should."

"My research shows there is another way, one in which we can all live a better life. Business and the people who run them are the means of this transformation. In Do Build is an appendix of 50 businesses, from a ceramicist to a country, which I describe as beautiful. Not everything scales the same."

Do good

"Business can do good," Alan stresses. "To remake our world, it can seek the good and manifest it in all that we create. If we are to build a future worth living in, we must try to achieve equilibrium between our economy, our ecology and our community."

"We need a reimagining of the very purpose of business, and the role it plays in regenerating our economy, our environment and our civilisation. That is what the world needs from business. That is what business needs to give the world. We need to reclaim beauty because it is our homecoming."

Put nature first

"We need to reconnect with nature and with ourselves. We need to embrace the language of beauty and all that it means. Nature has run the longest R&D project we know – if we want to be around for a bit longer, an eternity even, we should learn from her playbook. Not everyone is going to Mars, so we might as well fix the only planet we've got."

"Everything human-made is designed. We need designers and makers all motivated to build a regenerative world. If we want to move forward, we need to think in circles, as in circular. We need a new set of metrics and values, which enable us to work towards world-making and becoming good ancestors, creating longer-term value and legacy."

Ask yourself this one question

The single question which Alan thinks leaders should be asking themselves is: What is the most beautiful thing I can do, today and every day? How can I meaningfully contribute?

"My own experience is based on reconnecting to what matters most to me, which is how I found my path and calling," he writes. "Our most potent creativity comes from the deepest wells. It's not so much about purpose, but what I call 'the mattering' – does it matter to me, does it matter to the world, does it matter to my team?"

Look after yourself

"Particularly at this time, I would also like to say your first responsibility as a leader is to yourself. Are you in good shape mentally, spiritually and physically? How you move through the world is based on the quality of your being."

"Set aside time for your practice every day. Doing work on oneself is good preparation for bringing one's best self into this world. It is the quality of your thoughts and the quality of your actions that bring love, compassion, wisdom and the right action into this world."

Do Build: How to Make and Lead a Business the World Needs is published by The Do Book Co on 4 March 2021. The book is available to pre-order from Do Book and other stores, and you can read an excerpt here.