Sarah Ellison is a Byron Bay–based creative director whose winding, capital-C creative career has taken in fashion, interior styling, magazine editorial and a furniture brand that found success on both sides of the Pacific. In this episode, we trace the full arc – from a fashion label sold at Bondi Markets, to years assisting stylists and schlepping props across Sydney in a little Suzuki Swift, to seven years as a style editor at Real Living, to launching her own eponymous furniture brand and, most recently, stepping away from it to build a slower, more sustainable studio of her own.

Sarah is refreshingly open about creative burnout – the desk-bound years running a growing brand, the day she felt she'd run out of ideas, and how a few weeks off and a pottery wheel helped her bring her back. We also get into her sensory approach to design, the alchemy of past and present, working with local bio-materials, her ever-shifting take on what AI means for creatives, and the dream of a boutique hotel done top to bottom.

Find Sarah's work at sarahellisoncreative.com and follow her on Instagram at @sarahellisoncreative

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Creative or Dead is hosted by Aleesha Callahan and David Constantine. Aleesha is the founder of About Futures, an independent publication on the future of sustainable design. David is a creative business builder and leader with more than two decades across branding, strategy and social impact, and sits on the board of the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

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