RDInsights

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2021 with textile designer Jenny Frean RDI, known for her refined use of colour, versatility and distinctive pattern construction. In conversation with Mike, Jenny reflects on the many stages of her long creative path and fascinating career, which in later life has evolved into a highly personal solo practice, allowing her to connect directly...

Mike recently caught up with Arnold Schwartzman, RDI, for a brief follow-up to the original RDInsight recording from 2006. Arnold’s career began in the 1960s and spans television and editorial work, photography, branding, book design, and filmmaking, during which he won an Oscar for his documentary  Genocide . And in later years, he became something of a favourite on...

Mike Dempsey is in conversation with the legendary graphic designer  Ivan Chermayeff, Honorary RDI (1932 - 2017). Born in Britain, the son of the notable Russian architect Serge Chermayeff, Ivan made his career in the United States, creating many iconic logos, visual identities and design projects around the world. His legacy lies not just in the well-known logos and visual identities we see...

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2021 with the writer and illustrator Marion Deuchars RDI, who believes that everyone would benefit from living a creative life. In the interview, Marion talks about her childhood, her work, and what it was like to live and work under lockdown. Her creative activity books have sold worldwide, inspiring people to discover their own inner creative potentia...

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2009 with the textile designer Georgina von Etzdorf RDI, whose work is celebrated for its wonderful use of colour and its unique mastery of design. Mike Dempsey RDI recorded this conversation 16 years ago, up in the hills of Málaga, Spain, where Georgina still escapes our dark, cold UK winters and spends much of her time painting. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Mike Dempsey RDI is joined by Teucer Wilson, one of the UK’s leading stone carvers and letter cutters.  After studying stonemasonry and carving at Weymouth College, Teucer completed a five-year apprenticeship with the distinguished stone cutter Richard Kindersley, cutting tens of thousands of letters and immersing himself in a tradition tracing back through David Kindersley.  Since estab...

Mike Dempsey RDI is in conversation with furniture designer, maker and environmentalist, Sebastian Cox. He is renowned for his nature-first approach to making, his championing of British woodlands, and his ability to weave centuries-old traditions into contemporary design. His studio in Margate, Kent, is not just a workshop, but a statement: of zero-waste, carbon-awareness, and regeneration. We fo...

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2010, when I spoke at length with the distinguished illustrator and graphic designer David Gentleman RDI, then celebrating his 80th year. It remains a rich and in-depth conversation, full of insight into his remarkable career and outlook. Now, fifteen years on, and with David at the age of 95, I caught up with him once again. This ti...

This RDInsights interview with Dinah Casson RDI was recorded in 2015 by Mike Dempsey RDI. In it, Dinah reflects on her childhood and her creative journey to becoming one of the UK’s leading interior and exhibition designers. Mike recently caught up with Dinah again to hear what she’s been doing over the past decade; an update of this conversation has been added to the end of this ar...

Graphic designer Ian Cartlidge, co-founder of Cartlidge Levene, one of the UK’s most admired graphic design studios. Ian began his career at Conran Associates before moving on to work on the Habitat catalogue, a formative time that laid the groundwork for what came next. 1987, he teamed up with Adam Levene to establish their own practice. Cartlidge Levene has since built a reputation for thoughtfu...

This is an RDInsights archive catch-up recording from 2015 with Interior designer Ben Kelly RDI, best known for his innovative and often industrial approach to interior spaces. His most iconic work is the design of the legendary  Hacienda  nightclub in Manchester, which opened in 1982. Ben's design approach often incorporates elements of postmodernism and brutalism, with a strong emphasi...

Mike Dempsey RDI is in conversation with the Oscar and BAFTA award-winning production designer Shona Heath RDI. She is well known for her visionary approach and has spent nearly three decades crafting a distinctive world of visual storytelling. Her work is a magical fusion of art, fashion, and film, blending the fantastical and tangible to create immersive, otherworldly experiences. Shona has beco...

This is an updated RDInsights 2007 archive recording by the new media and graphic designer Malcolm Garrett RDI MBE, made by Mike Dempsey. It covers Malcolm’s early life and career working with many of the notable emerging punk groups in Manchester in the 1970s and 1980s, alongside his passion for digital technology and being the first all-digital graphic studio in the UK. At the end of the 2007 re...

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2011 featuring the much-acclaimed film production designer Stuart Craig RDI.  Over the past 13 years, Stuart has made significant contributions to the film industry, working on a total of five major films:  Gambit , The Legend of Tarzan , and J.K. Rowling's three Fantastic Beasts movies. Stuart’s influence extends beyond the silver screen.&nbs...

In this RDInsights recording, Mike Dempsey RDI is in conversation with the multi-award-winning American graphic designer and Pentagram partner Michael Bierut HonRDI, known for his exacting approach to the projects he takes on. Over his 44 years in the field, Michael spent a formative decade working with the legendary designer and Hon RDI, Massimo Vignelli. In 1990, he joined Pentagram’s New York o...

Join Mike as he chats with landscape architect Johanna Gibbons RDI, whose nearly 40-year practice is dedicated to reconnecting urban spaces with nature at a time when our planet needs it most. Johanna’s designs foster resilience, support ecological and human health, and unite communities, offering a hopeful vision for a more sustainable future. Johanna’s passion is palpable, especially for her lov...

Mike is in conversation with Luke Pearson RDI, one-half of the thriving industrial design consultancy Pearson Lloyd, which he formed with fellow RDI Tom Lloyd in 1997. Luke looks back to his Hampshire childhood, his struggle to find a creative path until late on, his period working with Ross Lovegrove RDI, the big jump to starting Pearson Lloyd, his philosophy on the ever-changing world of product...

This is an updated RDInsights archive recording from 2015 with the landscape designer Dan Pearson RDI. During the ensuing years, Dan and his team continued to create many magnificent natural landscapes, and in 2022, Dan was awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours list. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Lloyd RDI is one of the UK's foremost product designers. Along with partner Luke Pearson RDI, they run the multi-award-winning London-based industrial design and innovation consultancy, Pearson Lloyd. Tom is in conversation with Mike Dempsey RDI and shares his views on a wide range of issues facing design and industry in the 21st century, the future of the post-pandemic workplace, and much mor...

Perry King RDI moved to Italy in 1964 as a consultant to Olivetti, where he worked on a wide range of products, including the classic Valentine Typewriter and the Sistema 45. He later teamed up with the Spanish designer Santiago Miranda, and in 1976, they formed the King Miranda Associati, always working closely together on the many diverse projects they undertook. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

In this early RDInsights Archive recording from 2006, Gerald Scarfe RDI, one of the world's best-known political cartoonists, is in conversation with Mike Dempsey RDI. He discusses his early years and his long and highly successful career, using his recognisable ink-slashing pen style that pulled no punches when depicting public figures. After 50 years, he ended his weekly cartoon with The Sunday...

Mike is in conversation with the graphic designer David Pearson RDI, who inhabits the highly competitive world of book cover design; he is a self-confessed Typophile, naming his company 'Type As Image' where typography is king. Ironically, one of David's most renowned covers was for George Orwell's 1984, which had all front cover types redacted as a powerful representation of that dystopian t...

For many, the work of Sir Kenneth Grange RDI  would have touched their lives at some point; think the classic TX1 taxi, the ease of taking a photo with a Kodak Instomatic, whipping up a storm in the kitchen with a Kenwood Chef or nodding off while travelling on the sleek lines of the intercity 125, or posting a letter in one of Kenneth's postboxes or writing that masterpiece under the light o...

This is an RDInsights Archive recording from 2013 with Sarah Wigglesworth RDI MBE, the British award-winning architect who was a Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield until 2016 and has long been an outspoken advocate of the role of women in architecture. In 1995, she initiated Desiring Practices: Architecture, Gender and the Interdisciplinary, an exhibition, symposium, catalogu...

This RDInsights archive recording from 2009 features product designer Terence Woodgate RDI. In 2023, he left the UK to set up a new home and studio close to Roca-Corba Mountain, just outside of Girona in Catalonia, Spain. We look forward to seeing new work emerge from his new permanent base in these sunnier climes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.