RDInsights

Mike Dempsey RDI selects a memorable Archive recording from 2010 with the great Oscar and BAFTA-winning film production designer Sir Kenneth Adam RDI. Stephen Spielberg described his design for the war room in Stanly Kubrick's 'Dr Strangelove' as "the greatest set in cinema history." Hear about this, his work on 'Barry Lyndon', the iconic James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, and his fascinatin...

Mike meets with the celebrated children's author and illustrator Lauren Child RDI, who burst onto the publishing scene in 1999 with Clarice Bean - That's Me, followed in 2000 by Charlie & Lola - I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato. They quickly became firm favourites to millions of children worldwide. Over the years, Lauren garnered many awards and honours, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, a...

In conversation with Mike Dempsey RDI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an RDInsights archive recording from 2008 with Kyle Cooper Hon RDI. His original title sequence for David Fincher's crime drama feature film 'Se7en' had a significant impact and enduring influence on the creative discipline of title design, that is still evident on feature films and TV dramas around the world.  In this interview, Kyle talks about his troubled Massachusetts working-cla...

In this latest edition of RDInsights, Mike is in conversation with Lucinda Chambers RDI, the British fashion director, designer, and stylist who worked at Vogue magazine for 36 years and is also in demand as a consultant to many major fashion brands.  Her creative path in that seemingly glamorous world was a combination of mishaps, luck, hard work, dedication, creative imagination and passion...

In this new episode of RDInsights, Mike is in conversation with Kate Hopkins RDI, the three-time BAFTA-awarded documentary sound designer.  Her meticulous and imaginative work spanning over three decades in landmark productions like Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet has enabled audiences worldwide to experience a heightened reality through her extraordinary creative sound work. In...

Charlie Paton is a design engineer with a passion for growing things. He owns and manages an ancient woodland and designs greenhouses that are cooled with seawater for applications in some of the most unlikely places, such as the hottest and most arid deserts. Here he discusses his early success with motorised lighting for theatre, and reflects on the importance of creative thinking for every...

This RDInsights Archive recording featuring Michael Wolff RDI, made with Mike Dempsey RDI in 2012, and this podcast issue coincides with Michael’s 90th birthday today, 12 November, along with news that a major book about his life and work is to be published in the spring of 2024. Michael discusses his relationships with companies and their leaders and a more profound connection with brands beyond...

Mike Dempsey RDI interviews graphic designer Fernando Gutiérrez RDI. Gutiérrez's career began in 1986 at CDT Design in London. In 1992, he relocated to Spain and joined Sumer in Barcelona. After briefly returning to London, he formed Studio Graphica in Barcelona with fellow designer Pablo Martin. In 2000, Gutiérrez moved back to the UK as a Pentagram Partner, where he worked for six years. In 2006...

This archive recording was the very first RDInsights interview.  It was made in April 2006 with the brilliant designer Thomas Heatherwick RDI, who was beginning to make waves. We all know how big those waves became, with many significant projects now completed worldwide. The essence of Thomas’s thinking and his approach to creativity is very evident in this 17-year-old conversation. Hosted on...

We return to one of the earliest RDInsight recordings, with the illustrator and writer Sara Fanelli Hon RDI, recorded in 2006.  Mike Dempsey RDI caught up with Sara recently. She has devoted a great deal of her time to homeschooling her daughter Flora but has also ventured into the world of architecture with commissions from Thomas Heatherwick, for whom she created illustrations of science, a...

This recording from the RDI Sound Archive with Royal Designer David Gentleman was made in 2010 during his 80th year.  Since then, he has had three new books published, three exhibitions of his work and in 2022, Royal Mail issued a set of six stamps commemorating his work.  Now, at 93, you will still find him around London or in Suffolk with pen and watercolours capturing the world around...

In 2020 Margaret Howell RDI celebrated her five decades in the world of fashion design. Throughout those years, Margaret has kept to her abiding principles of creating elegant, classic and understated fashion through her love of tweeds, corduroys, linen, wool and cotton, all carefully selected to develop her sense of Englishness with her passion for muted natural colours and patterns.  Mike D...

In 2018 Mike Dempsey, RDI, interviewed one of the titans of British graphic design and typography, Derek Birdsall RDI. A few years before that conversation, Derek walked into his Islington studio at the back of his house, where he was about to start work on a new book commissioned by a regular client. Looking down for some time at the manuscript and the accompanying pile of photographs on his Desk...

In this interview with the landscape architect Andrew Grant RDI, Mike Dempsey RDI covers Andrew’s idyllic farming childhood, the long path to discovering his creative potential, his teenage passion for the illustrator Roger Dean’s otherworldly landscapes, and the reality of his own interpretation of such a setting in Singapore that would change his life and firmly establish him on the global creat...

Nine years after this 2008 interview with The Times, political cartoonist Peter Brookes RDI was awarded a CBE in the 2017 New Year's Honours List. Gone is his original tiny triangular Times office with the smallest window imaginable and its view of a red brick wall, to a desk boasting a magnificent view of London's skyline with the Shard centre stage. From this vantage point, Peter will produce hi...

On this 50th anniversary year of ‘The Rocky Horror Show', what better time to pull out from our sound archive an interview with Sue Blane MBE RDI, responsible for the outrageous costume design for that crazy, trailblazing and legendary cult stage show and film, seen by 30 million people and is still pulling them in. In Sue’s delightfully honest and personal conversation with Mike Dempsey RDI in 20...

Canadian-born Alison Brooks RDI is one of Britain's most highly acclaimed architects. She moved to London in 1988 and founded her practice in 1996. She has produced a range of seminal works, from urban design and housing to major arts and higher education buildings; to temporary pavilions and private houses. She is the only architect to have won all three of the UK's most prestigious architectural...

Roger Law RDI was one half of Luck and Flaw (with Peter Fluck), together creators of the classic 80s TV satire show ‘Spitting Image'. In the early noughties Roger lived in Australia creating large ceramic works and supervised their making in China. He eventually returned to the UK, and in 2020 he was back in the world of television as executive producer of a new series of ‘Spitting Image’, streame...

Margaret Calvert RDI OBE is best known for her groundbreaking work with Jock Kinneir on the design of Britain’s road and motorway signing system introduced in 1965. She was also Head of Graphics at the Royal College of Art in London where she encouraged the rigour to design that she believes in. Still today you'll find her in her North London studio working on her lifelong passion for letterforms....

In episode four of the RDInsights podcast series, fashion designer Sir Paul Smith RDI shares with Mike Dempsey RDI his story of leaving school at age fifteen, the accident that curtailed his hopes of being a racing cyclist to global recognition for his sartorial creations and much more in this revealing interview. This recording is from the RDI sound archive of 2010.  Hosted on Acast. See aca...

In episode three of the RDInsights podcast series, the three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell RDI, who was recently awarded the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship for her “outstanding and exceptional contribution to film” is in conversation with Mike Dempsey she shared her views of being up close and personal with actors and with advice on what you need to survive in the film business. T...

In episode two of the RDInsights podcast series, Mike Dempsey RDI is in conversation with four times Oscar-winning animator, Nick Park RDI whose beloved characters, Wallace & Gromit will return to the screen in 2024. Find out how his creative journey started and his relentless tenacity to make his first film, ‘A Grand Day Out'. This recording is from the RDI sound archive of 2013. Hosted on Ac...

In this first episode of the RDInsights podcast series, Mike Dempsey is in conversation with renowned architectural designer John Pawson. For over three decades Pawson has dedicated his career to creating minimalist spaces that eliminate the unnecessary. With his passionate attention to detail and materials he has become known for his signature style, which has brought him global fame.&n...