Design Your Life with Vince Frost

In life and in business, how big a part does luck play in our success? And are our good ideas really good at all?

Professor Frederik Anseel is the newly appointed Dean of the University of New South Wales’ Business School and an expert in what works, and what doesn’t, in business. He’s spent his career researching organisational psychology, leadership, how to motivate people, how to treat colleagues with respect and how to be authentic. It’s this combination of the study of management and psychology that changed from a very niche field to one of wide-spread interest during the COVID pandemic.

Anseel grew up in a small town 15 minutes from the French border in Belgium, where education, even university, is free for all. One side of his family are engineers, the other teachers. It’s clear how his upbringing has defined his view of life, value of education, and area of academia. 

Listen in as Vince and Frederik discuss; how the 2008 GFC shifted the narrative for the hero CEO paradigm, the art of getting office politics right and the surprising origins of the Type A personality. 

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In the 80s, Stiff Records, the British independent Punk Rock and New Wave record label, had an open-door policy. You could walk in and pick up posters, stickers and pin badges most days of the week.

Jeremy Leslie was one of the kids doing just that. He’d catch the bus over to Notting Hill from the London College of Design to visit the shop. Originally, he was there for the music, but it was the storytelling in the design that made a lasting impression.

Leslie is an internationally recognised creative who’s been making magazines for over four decades. He’s also the founder of magCulture, the iconic London magazine shop. After having his eyes opened to the world of design by a thoughtful art teacher, he’s gone on to art direct quarterlies, monthlies and weeklies, and spent the noughties developing award-winning magazines at John Brown Publishing.

He’s written four books about editorial design, and in 2018 was awarded the Mark Boxer Award by the British Society of Magazine Editors for services to the magazine industry.

Listen in as Vince and Jeremy discuss the legendary English graphic artist Barney Bubbles, their favourite magazines of the 90s (The Face and i-D), and how the independent print scene has been empowered by digital and the internet. 

https://magculture.com/ 

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You could argue a lot of kids grow up with a love of drawing. This one knew he wanted to be an architect in high school. When his older brother brought home some Rotring pens, it all clicked.

Domenic Alvaro is the Director and Global Design Leader at Woods Bagot, one of the world’s leading architecture firms. Drawing is a huge part of his professional practice to this day. He’s a long-term collaborator of Frost*collective and someone the studio is immensely proud to have worked with over the years.

Dedicated to agitating traditional typologies, he is an architect who breaks from convention to unlock spatial potential. He’s led projects all over the world, ranging from mixed use developments that redefine the way nature can be woven into a city, experiential large-scale transportation links, landmark commercial precincts, holistic masterplans and residential that defines the way we will live tomorrow. 

Listen in as Vince and Domenic discuss why micro projects like his globally award-winning Small House have relevance at the larger scale, bringing back laneway culture for Sydney with the massive Ivy project, and the singular beauty of Peter Zumthors The Therme Vals in Switzerland. 

https://www.woodsbagot.com/ 

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Having a knock-out creative career five decades long is one thing. Setting up a charity to inspire the same creativity in the next generations is another. But the iconic British design duo, who are also husband and wife - Sir John Sorrell CBE and Lady Frances Sorrell CBE - have done just that.

Frances and John started their lives in design both aged of 14 when, in different parts of London, they attended free Saturday morning classes at their local colleges of art and design. Neither were from well-off families. John had never been to an art gallery and most of his peers were dropping out of school aged 15 to get jobs. The experience was a revelation that paved the way for full-time study and their careers in design. It was also the prime motivation for the formation of the Sorrell Foundation in 1999 with the aim of inspiring creativity in young people to change their lives and make the world a better place.

After meeting through work, the Sorrell’s launched their now legendary design studio, Newell and Sorrell, in 1976. They’ve redesigned some of the UKs most high-profile organisations, including British Airways, The BBC and the Royal Mail. After 25 years in business, they sold to Omnicom, and have spent the past 25 working to give young people pathways to higher education in the creative industries.

Their achievements and accolades are too long to list. John is co-founder and chairman of London Design Festival and co-founder of London Design Biennale and is a UK Business Ambassador, appointed by successive prime ministers to help promote Britain’s creative industries abroad. John was appointed CBE in 1996, was awarded the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal in 1998 and holds numerous honorary fellowships and degrees. John was awarded a knighthood in the 2008 New Year Honours List for services to the creative industries.

Frances is a tour de force in her own right. She is Chancellor of the University of Westminster, London, has Honorary Fellowships from the Royal Institute of British Architects, Falmouth University, Hereford College of Arts and Plymouth College of Art. She holds Honorary Doctorates from the Open University, Coventry University and University for the Creative Arts, and has been a visiting Professor at University of the Arts London. As Creative Director at Newell and Sorrell she won over a hundred awards for creativity and effectiveness.

Listen in as Vince, Sir John and Lady Frances Sorrell discuss; cold calling BP fresh out of art school and designing their exhibition stand at the Paris Air Show six weeks later, growing up on the same working-class council estate as Rod Stewart, and why you have to put your money where your mouth is if you really believe in something. 

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People are considered lucky when they find something they’re skilled at and love, then make it their vocation. Growing up with a parent they’ve inherited that skill and passion from helps, especially when they’re exceptionally talented.

Both Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy have parents who helped them on their path to a life shaped by creativity. Olsen’s father, John Olsen, who passed away aged 95 in 2023, is arguably Australia’s most famous artist. Her mother was a painter, too. Ormandy’s mother was a sculptor, who tirelessly championed his creative pursuits. He knew he wanted to be an artist from age five.

After meeting on the first day of art school in Sydney — it was love at first sight, depending on who you ask — the two became best friends. After graduation, they set about creating a tangible product people would want to buy. By the late 80s they were making jewellery for Kylie Minogue and INXS and opening a tiny shop in Sydney’s Strand Arcade. Dinosaur Designs, their jewellery and homewares business, is 40 years old next year. They have seven stores in Australia and one each in New York and London, with stockists globally. 

They’re also both successful artists in their own right. Not to mention their daughter Camille. The trio are preparing a group show to be held in Paris later this year. 

Listen in as Vince, Louise and Stephen discuss; being born into the art world, how they’ve made their marriage and business work and how children have a natural ability to get inside a subject when it comes to art. 

https://www.dinosaurdesigns.com.au/ 

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Being driven is one thing. But being driven by trauma is another. It’s a special kind of motivation, and when combined with a competitive nature and natural feel for what an audience wants, great things can be achieved.

Aidan Anderson is the Founder and CEO of The Local Project — the fastest growing design platform in the Asia-Pacific region. The platform is followed by design and architecture lovers worldwide, and champions authentic design, showcasing and supporting architects, designers, makers and suppliers. Incredibly, he started it by profiling his friends and local makers on an Instagram account run from his dusty furniture workshop. The Local Project now has an audience of over 4 million across print, video, digital and social media.

Anderson has no formal training, and has always just made the content he wants to see. He first fell in love with design and architecture working on building sites to make extra money in the summers of his teenage years. The furniture workshop opened when he dropped out of an architecture degree at university just three months in. He credits the agility that comes with youth as one of the keys to his success — he was 21 when he started the business in 2016.

Listen in as Vince and Aidan discuss; how Australian architecture is perceived internationally, the powerfully addictive nature of social media, and how the hand you’re dealt defines you. 

https://thelocalproject.com.au/ 

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There’s an art to bringing history into modern creativity as more than a reference. 

Sibella Court is adept at it. The creative director, author and interior and product designer has made a career out of creating with her love of history at the forefront. When you learn she grew up with two incredibly creative parents — a builder father skilled in transforming spaces and a mother who specialised in Central Asian textiles — her multifaceted creative career comes as no surprise. 

After studying history at university in Sydney, and getting a start at Australian Vogue, she spent a decade shooting editorial in New York. Since returning to Australia in 2006, she’s written and published six books, hosted a TV series, and designed the interiors for some of Sydney’s best-known restaurants and bars, including Mr Wong's and Palmer & Co. 

Listen in as Vince and Sibella Court discuss her lifelong love of history, working at Australian Vogue in the early 90s and the seismic impact the death of a parent can have. 

https://thesocietyinc.com.au/  

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For a small country with a small population, the Danes are incredibly well-known on the global stage as highly skilled when it comes to design. In Viggo Haremst’s case, he knew he wanted to be an architect, like his father, very early in life. But he credits his Swedish mother for his commitment to process and detail.

As a Design Director and Partner at the prominent Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen he steered the winning proposal for the Canberra Theatre Centre and is leading the city-shaping Lighthouse at Darling Park in Sydney. The practice believes good design begins with curiosity, and is leading the world when it comes to evidence-based building design with a focus on investigating and prototyping innovation in sustainability.

Viggo is a sought-after keynote speaker who delivers insights into Henning Larsen’s design method and projects, and the future of workspaces. 

Listen in as Vince and Viggo discuss learning about limits from Zaha Hadid, how to create a longer life cycle for a building and why Danes are so good at design. 

https://henninglarsen.com/en 

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How much do the environments we inhabit impact our health and wellbeing? And does our emotional state impact our physical health?

Dr. Esther Sternberg is internationally recognised for her discoveries in the science of the mind-body interaction in illness and healing, and the role of place in wellbeing. She is a pioneer and major force in collaborative initiatives on mind-body-stress-wellness and environment interrelationships. 

Her inspirational and popular books — there are three, the latest ‘WELL at WORK: Creating Wellbeing in Any Workspace’ has just been released — are backed by science and are changing the way we design public and private places for people.

Dr. Sternberg’s list of achievements is extensive. She’s advised the World Health Organization and the Vatican, and briefed high level U.S. Federal Government officials. She’s also moderated a panel with the Dalai Lama and been recognized by the National Library of Medicine as one of the women who ‘Changed the Face of Medicine’. She has authored over 240 scholarly articles and edited 10 technical books on the topic of brain-immune connections and design and health. 

Her two decades-long research with the U.S. General Services Administration, using wearable devices to track health and wellbeing in the built office environment, is informing healthy design standards for workplaces in the public and private sectors around the world. 

Listen in as Vince and Dr. Sternberg discuss immersive reality nature recharge rooms, being one of only ten girls in a class of 110 at medical school and the best prescription for a healthy building. 

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When we think of life on earth in the context of the universe, being human can seem absurd. That’s what British artist and illustrator Paul Davis thinks. When he was 17, growing up in Somerset in England, his father died suddenly. But he’d already taught him everything he needed to know about space, time and human existence. 

Davis’ sometimes controversial work has been widely published and exhibited. He’s regularly commissioned by international broadsheets and magazines, has created animated idents for BBC Radio 4, and his handwriting has been used in animated adverts for American Express. 

The artist’s craft is born from a deep curiosity about the idiocy and beauty of being alive. And a compulsion to make art as a form of therapy. He doesn’t just want to make art. He has to. And he’s not shy about being satirical. Despite a long battle with alcoholism (he’s been sober for over six years), his work has made him a London icon. 

Listen in as Vince and Paul discuss his experience of alcoholism and thoughts on AA, drawing Trump giving himself a blow job, and how to know when you’ve pushed it too far. 

https://www.instagram.com/paulcopyrightdavis/ 

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