The Experience Designers

Recorded live at Ministry of Sound in London, this episode is in partnership with London Experience Week, and the studio is dressed by USED Creative, a circular Marketplace. Paul Nicholls is the BAFTA- and Sports Emmy-winning CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Factory Fifteen, the studio behind some of the most ambitious cinematic worlds in entertainment — from the BBC's Tokyo Olympics titles to UF...

Lea Karam is a behavioural scientist, Founder & CEO of Mindscope, and one of the most distinctive voices on human behaviour in the tech and entertainment industry. She has advised Google, TikTok, Snapchat, BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Pinterest. Lea turns the industry's assumptions on their head and doesn't stop. She makes the case that attention spans haven't decreased, we've built sharper filters, ...

Recorded live at Ministry of Sound in London, this episode is in partnership with London Experience Week and the studio dressed by USED Creative. , a circular Marketplace. Dr Amna Khan is a Senior Lecturer in Consumer Behaviour at Manchester Metropolitan University, a PhD researcher, and one of the UK's most recognisable consumer behaviour commentators, with over 400 appearances on BBC Breakfast,...

Dean Rodgers is the Experiential Director at Secret Cinema, one of the world's most iconic immersive entertainment companies. With over a decade of building some of the UK's most beloved live experiences, including the Crystal Maze Live Experience, Time Run, and now Secret Cinema's ambitious Studio arm, Dean has watched the experience economy grow from an underground art scene into a global indust...

What happens when cinema breaks free from the screen? In this episode, we sit down with Mike Anderson , award-winning director and creative at Nexus Studios, to explore one of the most fascinating shifts in modern storytelling: spatial cinema . Mike and his team partnered with Meta and Universal Pictures to bring Blumhouse Enhanced Cinema horror films — The Black Phone and M3GAN — into an entirely...

In this episode, we sit down with immersive experience designer Frances Vieras Blanc in the heart of Paris to explore the "atomic unit" of human connection: presence. Dressed in Marie Antoinette-era attire to embody the power of anchoring and immersion (whilst in Paris!), Frances shares her journey from politics to creating the Oracle of Immersion , a tool designed to help brands move beyond the "...

We speak with retail experience expert Ghalia at 104.fr in Paris to explore the evolving landscape of physical commerce. As the pendulum swings back from ultra-digital to physical, Ghalia shares her deep insights into why brands must move beyond transactional efficiency to embrace "story living".  They discuss the strategic value of pop-up stores as experimental tools to test location and product...

A rare behind-the-scenes look inside The Traitors Live Experience in London. Creative Director Neil Connolly at Immersive Experience reveals what it really takes to turn a hit TV show into a living, breathing world, from designing a game with 475 possible outcomes, to building a four-storey immersive venue in just four months. This episode explores how the live experience extends the Traitors univ...

What happens when leadership training stops being something you sit through and becomes something you step inside? In this episode, theatre director and experience designer Donnacadh O’Briain shares the story of a bold leadership programme that replaced slides, frameworks, and role-play with a fully immersive live theatre experience. Set inside a 1930s dockyard, leaders became participants in an u...

Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) is an experiential artist collective that believes in the power of storytelling to spark the senses and shift perception. Their work guides audiences through multisensory journeys where imagination and information collide. Bringing together coders, poets, chemists, ventriloquists, brands and institutions, MLF collaborates across disciplines to explore new cultural for...

In this conversation, Ben Robinson takes us on a journey from skateboarding in Liverpool and the golden age of UK clubbing, all the way into the cutting edge of immersive experience design and climate communication. Ben shares how those early subcultures. DIY, community-led, rebellious, and embodied shaped his worldview and eventually his career, leading experiential work for global brands. But th...

We’re live at FRAMELESS, London’s #1 immersive art experience, for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how art, technology, and emotion converge. Host Steve Usher sits down with Rosie O’Connor, the art historian and curator behind this groundbreaking space, to uncover how timeless masterpieces are transformed into living, sensory worlds. Located in Marble Arch, FRAMELESS is redefining the immer...

What if the future of experience design starts not on a screen but on your tongue? In this episode, food anthropologist Caroline Hobkinson invites us into her London kitchen to explore the connection between taste, sound, and human emotion. Through a live sensory experiment, she reveals how our brains respond to flavor, sound, and ritual and why modern life has numbed our ability to truly feel. Fr...

Tim Hill shares his unique insights into the magic of live events and the communal experiences they create. Drawing from his ethnographic research at Liverpool FC's Anfield stadium and Berlin's underground techno clubs, he shares how rituals, community, and emotional connections shape unforgettable experiences. He emphasises the importance of co-creation in designing atmospheres that resonate deep...

Sally Earnshaw brings her trademark “oomph” to this high-energy conversation about leadership, life, and the messy, brilliant realities in between. From middle-aged business travel mishaps to the humor of raising teenagers while running a company, Sally grounds leadership in humanity and positivity. We explore her philosophy of energizing and focusing people, the gaps in leadership depth today, an...

Brian D’Souza has spent his life exploring the power of sound—from late-night radio discoveries and Glasgow club culture to pioneering sound design for wellbeing, workplaces, and psychedelic therapy. In this episode, Brian shares how music and psychology came together in his work, from building Open Ear, a platform that reimagined how businesses use sound, to founding Swell Studio, which creates s...

In this episode, we’re joined by Nick Cawthon, a design leader with decades of knowledge in user experience (UX), service design, and the evolving discipline of experience design. From his childhood discovery of creative flow to shaping the culture of UX in San Francisco, Nick reflects on the pivotal shifts that transformed design from skeuomorphic interfaces to design systems, and now to the rise...

From his early fascination with synths and soundscapes to touring the world as a DJ, Tom Middleton has spent decades exploring the neuroscience and emotional power of music. In this conversation, Tom shares how his journey through burnout led him to pioneer “experience as medicine,” using sound intentionally to promote well-being, focus, and recovery. We explore neuroaesthetics, spatial audio, vib...

Jessica Weickert joins The Experience Designers to explore how emotional regulation, neuroscience, and story-living are reshaping the future of experiential design. Drawing from her personal journey with ADHD and her role at XDA, Jessica shares how neuroaesthetics is helping brands design immersive, purposeful experiences that support well-being and create real emotional impact. From luxury as pre...

In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Colin Nightingale, Associate Artist at Punchdrunk and Co-founder of Right/Left Project, takes us on an immersive journey through his creative evolution. From his early days immersed in London’s underground music and DIY culture to co-shaping some of the most iconic immersive theatre productions of the 21st century, Colin shares the moments that shaped...

In this episode of The Experience Designers, Steve is joined by James Warren, expert storyteller, experience strategist, and founder of Share More Stories to explore how storytelling unlocks deep human connection and business insight. Together, they unpack the true power of stories: as tools for building trust, designing immersive experiences, and revealing hidden emotional truths that traditional...

Join us as we talk with Laura Hess, who attended 500 experiences in 5 years, about building a 25-point “Remarkable” rubric for scoring immersive theatre, fine-art installations, XR activations, brand activations, and more.... Learn how intentionality, multi-sensory design, and post-show reflection can help creators craft moments that truly resonate, transport audiences into flow states, and leave...

What makes a workplace worth the commute? In this episode, we sit down with workplace experience explorer and content creator Tom Hitch to uncover how the best office environments are co-created , not commanded. From sensory design to return-to-office (RTO) policies, Tom shares powerful insights from his travels into global workplaces, highlighting where companies get it right (hello, Miro and San...

Steve sits down with experience-design pioneer Pigalle Tavakoli to explore what she calls "StoryFeeling". The shift from telling stories at people to orchestrating the feelings they live through.  Building on her recent keynote at the London Experience Week and forthcoming book - The Building Blocks of Experience Design. She explains how emotion-first design unlocks deeper narrative power. Startin...

In this episode, we explore Stefan's career journey, sparked by an epiphany during a friend's 50th birthday in Italy. This experience led him to prioritize quality over quantity in his work. Stefan shares his approach to restructuring his workload by focusing on fewer projects, which fosters creativity and personal growth. The discussion explores how AI can transform work dynamics, emphasizing the...