When Blu Dot founders wanted to buy well designed affordable furniture as recent architecture grads in the ‘90’s, none was available. John Christakos and Maurice Blanks tell us the story of helping to found a design/manufacturing company to build their own, and offer it to the market. 20 years later, these Cooper-Hewitt Design Award winners have thousands of items in their catalog, and stores around the country.

Original, unexpected, eclectic, rebellious, sophisticated, and always on the edge of commercial reality and cultural interest, Robin Bevers and Martien Valentijn take us behind the curtain into the extraordinary life of Dutch lifestyle brand, Moooi.

The universal allure of light and the history and technology of Italian lighting design as explained by Jack Scheur, CEO FLOS North America. This 20-minute crash course interview reviews current design and technology enabling such marriages as that of hand blown glass and LED lighting to create high design light sources. Famous designers from the Castiglioni brothers in the 1960’s through Phillipe Starck, Jasper Morrison and Konstantin Grcic today, illuminate the human experience.

Hewlett Packard, Toyota, Herman Miller and many other companies call Laura Guido-Clark when they need an expert consultant on color, materials and finishes for their products. Laura takes us on her design journey, to discover the humanity and science of color which lifts and empowers individuals and communities and explores the connection between color and love. Listen in to hear Laura share the Optical Optimism so dearly needed today.

Andrew Blotky believes the strong cultures at the core of all great, high-performing organizations, are built by confident, inclusive leadership and open, clear, authentic communications. Andrew’s book “Honestly Speaking” is the foundation of our conversation about communication, culture, and connection.

As humans, we use more air than just about anything else in our daily lives. Collin Cavote, Biome founder, talks with us about how plants in the workplace are beautiful and calming to our senses, and how they introduce beneficial bacteria into the places we work and live to combat viruses, VOCs, and decline in our cognitive function.

While multisensory design includes all five senses, the most overlooked may be the most powerful. Learn the intriguing history, science, and art of scent as told by Dannielle Sergent, architect, artist, and scent making founder of Cognoscenti.

Join host Carolyn Clark Beedle (“CCB”), OWP Director of Audience Development, for thought provoking conversations with designers, architects, makers, thinkers and other visionaries around the connections between human behavior, the workplace, and how design can shape them both.