My Life In Design Podcast

This week, Claire sits down with Dave Recchia, Executive Creative Director at creative brand consultancy The Team. An award-winning creative director and author, Dave takes us on a journey from his early days in Australia to a 27-year career at The Team in London - shaping iconic brands like Heathrow Airport, McLaren Formula One, NatWest, Coca-Cola, and IBM.  On the podcast Dave shares his early f...

In this episode, recorded live at the Northern Design Festival, Claire met up with Claire Parker, Group Creative Partner at The Chase. Claire shares her globe-trotting and award-winning career to date. With over 30 years in the industry, working in major cities including Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and New York, Claire has led global teams, working at agencies including Design Bridge a...

Last week at in sunny Barcelona, My Life in Design was recorded live at OFFF with special guest: Marc Català.  In this in-person episode, Marc shares the story behind co-founding Mucho - a global design agency with studios in Barcelona, San Francisco, and Melbourne, and a collective of 11 partners. With award-winning work for brands like Visa, Aeroméxico and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barce...

This week, Claire met up with Claire Robertshaw, Executive Creative Director at Design Bridge and Partners - the world’s most awarded brand design agency. Claire leads the London studio, overseeing creative excellence across one of the most dynamic teams in the industry. She's also a powerful advocate for gender equality, education, and mentorship in design. Claire talks about the role of edu...

This week, Claire met up with the founding editor of Creative Boom, Katy Cowan. A huge creative industries cheer leader, Katy launched Creative Boom in 2009 as a platform to celebrate, support and inspire. Katy shares how she transitioned from broadcast journalism to PR, to founding Creative Boom. Why engagement and community are essential to Creative Boom’s success, and she talks about the import...

This week Claire sat down with Laura Stein, Chief Creative Officer at Bruce Mau Design. Laura’s work has earned recognition from D&AD and Cannes Lions. Beyond the studio, Laura has served on the board of the Advertising & Design Club of Canada and presented at leading conferences around the world, from Brand New to Design Thinking. She’s created brand identities for the likes of Sonos, Lul...

This week, Claire sat down with Spencer Buck, founder and chief creative officer of the global brand consultancy, Taxi Studio. Spencer discusses the impact of support from key people in his life, from his parents, to art teachers, to industry professionals and his peers. Future trends in design, including the influence of technology and the need for meaningful work, and the meaning and importance...

This week, Claire met up with Debbie Millman, the renowned designer and the host of Design Matters . Debbie hosts one of the world's longest-running podcasts and the OG design podcast, which has featured nearly 700 influential creatives and won multiple prestigious awards. She is the author of eight books and has also received the Audio Vanguard Award and a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award...

This week Claire met up with with design industry leader Jonathan Sands, former chair of Elmwood, who led the international brand design consultancy for 40 years, completing a management buyout in 1989 and selling the global business in 2021.  Awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to the creative industries, he has worked with major brands like the BBC, Heineken, and Royal Mail and now serves as a t...

This week Claire caught up with Vuokko Aro, the Chief Design Officer at Monzo. She helps the bank’s leadership team use design as a strategic lever across the company as it scales. This all helped Monzo win Marketing Society brand of the year in 2024.  Vuokko discusses her unconventional path into her current career, from studying economics to working in journalism and eventually transitioning int...

In the first of a new season, Claire sat down with Kwame in front of a live audience in New York to share his life in design… so far.  Kwame is the first US D&AD President, and also the co-founder of Kin, a creative company that drives positive change in business and culture. He shares his early influences in design and talks about his transition from working in finance to discovering the worl...

In the final episode of this series, Claire has the honour of speaking to Henry Steiner, founder of Steiner&Co, also known as the ‘Father of Hong Kong Graphic Design. Fresh from being the subject of a recent exhibition at the M+ gallery in Hong Kong, 90-year-old Henry shares his long and insightful journey in design, starting with being awe-struck by a piece of packaging design when he was onl...

This week Claire meets up with Benji Wiedemann and Alex Lampe, who co-founded the design agency Wiedemann Lampe. They share their lives in design and the evolution of their studio working in the cultural space and the skill of being able to articulate intangible things. They share their share the impact of starting their careers in the dot.com boom era of the early noughties… and the following cra...

This week Claire sat down with Julia Beardwood, founder of New York agency Beardwood&Co, to hear her unconventional journey into design, via mathematics and marketing, to advertising, then the switch to branding at Landor. She shares the secrets behind her transition into the world of brand design (and her move to New York from the UK via Paris) The importance of honesty and direct communicati...

This week on the podcast Claire sat down with Dick Powell, co-founder of product design and innovation agency Seymour Powell, to talk all things design. Dick talks about everything from design education to founding a business, working on designs for spaceships, and what ‘brand’ actually means to him. He shares his early interest in design and its evolution from architecture to industrial design, r...

This week Claire meets up with Fe Amarante founder and principal of Experimenta, whose career spans major companies like Coca-Cola, Danone, and The Hershey Company. Now running her own agency, Experimenta, focusing on sustainable creativity, she shared her life in design so far. Fe talks about the evolving perception of in-house creative roles and their potential for fulfilment, the thinking and e...

This week Claire meets up with design legend Ian Ritchie to talk about his life in design, from his early experiences of earning his way with signwriting, to art school and the evolution and growth of design agency JKR.  Ian shares his story of JKR, from co-founding, to the challenges and the big decisions made to enable success. He talks about the relationship between design and advertising and t...

This week Claire sits down with Jolene Delisle, founder and creative director of New York’s The Working Assembly.     Jolene shares her journey into the design and branding industry, from internships, to founding The Working Assembly in 2017 with the goal of supporting the start-up scene in New York at the time.  Jolene talks about her commitment to supporting emerging brands, especially those led...

This week, Claire meets up with Fred Gelli, co-founder and CEO of Brazil’s largest independent design agency, Tatil.   Fred shares his journey from engineering, to discovering his passion for design and co-founding an agency, and working on major projects including the 2016 Rio Olympics, the Rio Carnival, and a 17-year collaboration with Coca-Cola.  He talks about his informative experience workin...

This week Claire catches up with Joanne Chan CEO of Turner Duckworth. Joanne shares her journey from fine arts to the world of design and working with some major brands like Coca-Cola and Amazon.  She talks about how her background in fine arts helped lead to success in the competitive design industry. How brands need to evolve and what distinguishes a truly iconic logo from the rest (including th...

My Life in Design is back - recorded LIVE at the London Design Festival with designer Domenic Lippa, Pentagram partner (and chair) and Festival design director. Earlier this week we had the absolute pleasure of hosting a LIVE podcast recording of ‘My Life in Design’ as part of the London Design Festival. Marking the 50th episode and start of series 6, Domenic sat down with host Claire in front of...

In the final episode of the series, Claire sits down with Mauro Porcini, Senior VP and Chief Design Officer at PepsiCo. Mauro shares his journey of how he discovered design as a career, and how he arrived at PepsiCo with an ambition to reshape innovation at the company by leveraging design and introducing a design culture. He talks about how design can change the trajectory of a company and on thi...

This week, Claire sits down with Ekaterina Solomeina, co-founder of Future London Academy. Ekaterina shares her life in design from Russia to London, from agency to in-house. She shares her discovery of design as a career through early experiences of coding and website design, and her experiences of working with two original design powerhouses - Michael Wolff and Donatella Versace. How both have i...

This week on Claire sits down with Alex Moulton, chief creative officer at Trollbäck+Company in NYC. Alex shares his life in design, from filmmaking and sonic branding, to full brand experience. Links: Red Setter dba Trollbäck+Company

This week Claire sits down with Alex Center, founder of design agency CENTER. Alex shares his life in design, from a dream internship working on the New York Knicks, to his time at the Coca-Cola Company building iconic drinks brands like vitaminwater and POWERAID, to the founding of CENTER in 2017. Links: Red Setter dba Center