Fast Company's September issue is the 2006 Masters of Design special. Here is a summary of this year's selection of masters:

The Mind Reader - Steve McCallion, creative director, Ziba Design, in Portland, Oregon

McCallion, a sharp, linear thinker who speaks in complete paragraphs, argues that it's not enough to study the average user. "We're going for something deeper - to understand why people want what they want," he says. "Our ability to invent is solely dependent on our ability to capture that dynamic relationship between the brand and the culture that finds it relevant."

The Catalyst - Jochen Zeitz, CEO, Puma AG, in Nuremberg, Germany

Struggling to articulate his personal aesthetic, the best Jochen Zeitz seems to be able to do is, not Karl Lagerfeld: "I'm more the person for clean design," says the CEO of Puma AG, in a Teutonic staccato. "I think my taste is very straightforward, as opposed to a Lagerfeld - over the top."

Asked if he considers himself a designer, or even thinks like one, Zeitz shoots back, "No." Yet since 1993, when he took over the now 58-year-old feline brand (at age 30, when he was the youngest chairman of the German Stock Exchange), he has harnessed design to give it still another life.

The Wordsmith - Paula Scher, at the New York offices of Pentagram, where she is a partner

Within the design community, Scher is known both for her passionate populism - she has little patience for esoteric "just those of us who speak Helvetica" snobbery - and for her take-no-prisoners defense of good work. "As a designer, Paula has no particular ideological point of view," says Michael Bierut, her partner at the prestigious design firm Pentagram. "She's really, really eclectic. She only cares about making things that are good."

Go browse through the rest of the issue here.