Thought Starters

This week's Thought Starter discusses writing love stories, his first novel, and how everything starts from a blank page. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It's Nice That, sits down with author Caleb Azumah Nelson, to explore the journey of writing, and his first novel ‘Open Water'.

This week's Thought Starter discusses why exposing children to all types of art is so important, ahead of the launch of The Ultimate Art Museum, an incredible “museum-in-a-book” for young readers published by Phaidon. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It's Nice That, sits down with podcast host and author Ferren Gipson, to explore how to use writing to make museums more accessible.

This week's Thought Starter discusses writing editorial, and how to approach the blank page. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Liv Siddall, commissioner at WePresent and former Editor at It's Nice That, sits down with journalist and Guardian columnist Stuart Heritage, to explore how to stay inspired during the process of writing.

This week's Thought Starter discusses consumer psychology and the senses (touch, taste, smell, sight and sound) and how they impact our perception of the world. Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Sam Bompas of Bompas and Parr - the leading Architects of Taste: Feeding Minds and Stomachs, sits down with Betina Piqueras-Fiszman, Professor of Consumer Behaviour, to explore how our senses impact our perception of products and the world around us. Betina dedicates her time to research around exploring new ways of understanding consumers food preferences and motivations

This week's Thought Starter asks where does pain come from, what does it mean, and what effect does it have on our daily lives? Recorded live from The Pod at White City Place, our special Co-Host Sam Bompas of Bompas and Parr - the leading Architects of Taste: Feeding Minds and Stomachs, sits down with ​​Linda Rodriguez McRobbie, writer and journalist, to explore the science of pain and how it ultimately affects our survival. Linda has recently launched her book titled 'Ouch! Why Pain Hurts, And Why It Doesn't Have To', which explores why pain is complicated. The way we treat pain is superficial – we seek out states of perfect painlessness by avoiding it at all costs, or suppressing it, usually with drugs. Through in-depth interviews, investigation into the history of pain and original research, the book paints a new picture of pain as a complex and multi-layered phenomenon.

This week's Thought Starter asks what is art in the realm of Science Fiction, the idea of making personable art, the beauty of the unknown and more.

As the whole world grapples with lockdowns, closures and cancelled events – and the milestones of the design industry’s busy calendar of trade shows disappears, we might look to one country for lessons on how to cope: China.

We meet Benedicte Sunde and Jan Christian, two leaders in the Norwegian design community who would have been showing at the Milan Design Week, to speak instead about the role of design as we emerge from Covid-19 lockdowns.

The Museum of the Home, with Sonia Solicari, the museum's Director, and Naila Yousuf, a senior associate at award-winning practice Wright & Wright Architects that leads the team working on the redevelopment of the Museum of the Home.

We take a look at the latest exhibition at London’s Royal Institute of British Architects, an exploration of 500 years of aesthetics in architecture.

In this episode we meet two people involved in reshaping museums for the future – and in particular, two museums for children, one here in London and the other in Berlin.

In the pod today, experience designer Hiro Aso and architect Adam Scott debate the joys and woes of transport hubs, the spaces around which we build the cities and towns we live in.

A conversation with H.E. Reem BinKaram, Director of NAMA Women Advancement Establishment, and Farah Nasri, Design Executive at Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council.

Patrick Grant and Mat Heinl discuss the building of businesses and the responsibility for them to think ethically and sustainably about their impact on their workforce and the environment

In this episode, we meet a prolific product designer and a serial entrepreneur to discuss the many challenging hurdles in transforming good ideas into good products that are finally able to make it market.

In this episode, Adam Nathaniel and Rob Fiehn – one an artist and designer, the other a communications consultant – pick apart the value of digital forums for discussion, and the future of debate in the industry.

How can design make us feel valued as employees, and remind us of the value our work has in the world?

In this episode, perspectives from the old and established and the new and start-up, as we talk about what work each has to do to develop their brands, tell their stories, and rise to become benchmarks in their industries.

As guarded as the country is about itself, and as careful about who and what they let in, there is a certain pride taken in the architecture of North Korea.

A conversation on the future of mobility between Deyan Sudjic, director of Design Museum of London and Philipp Rode, director of the LSE Cities research centre at the London School of Economics.

Sophie Rochester and Miranda West reflect on the conversations they’ve had with investors, the importance of having a genuine social value at the core of a business, and why establishing a positive company culture from Day 1 is crucial.

Today, the design industry often blurs boundaries with the art world, and collectible craft and furniture is becoming increasing popular, gaining market value and a prominence at major fairs.

In the Pod today, a curator and a designer in praise of the prototype.

In this episode, a conversation with architects Alex Gore and Timothy Smith about the impact of the smaller details.

A notoriously fast-moving industry, the world of fashion seems to be changing like never before: a hyper-quick metabolism for images which drives down our attention span, eco-consciousness, and the breaking down of the gender binary. In this episode, a designer whose brand has transitioned effortlessly from menswear to gender neutrality, and a journalist, consultant and teacher who helps readers, designers and students navigate these changes.

The do-it-all design work of Sella Concept

Graphic design and art often interplay, with boundaries regularly blurred. One element that often to link the two is type; using individual letters or words in a way that either subverts or elevates linguistic communication. In this episode we meet two artists whose successful careers have layered an expressive approach to typography with traditional techniques. Alan Kitching, one of the world’s foremost practitioners of letterpress typographic design and printmaking talks to Anthony Burrill, a graphic artist, print-maker and designer, renowned for his persuasive, up-beat style of communication.

When you're working in the creative industries, the dream is often to use creativity to fuel a social cause. Aspiring to make a contribution instead of simply fuelling consumerism. Sadly, that seems to very rarely come to fruition. But not so for our conversationalists today, who are co-founders of Glimpse, a creative collective that tries to cut through consumer and popular culture with a healthy dose of wit and compassion. Glimpse enables creative professionals to use their existing skills for positive social and environmental causes – their projects have included “Choose Love” the world's first store that sells real products for refugees.

“Craft.” For a long time, the word has had been pushed to the periphery of the design world, disregarded for its perceived quaintness. But, thanks in part to the efforts of crafts organisations, that has very much been changing. “Craft” now has become associated not with homeliness, but with the highest forms of the discipline – creeping its way into the lexicon of luxury fashion, and architecture too. In the Pod today are two people who’re are helping the public engage with craft’s new identity. Hugo MacDonald, curator of Useful/Beautiful: Why Craft Matters at the inaugural Harewood Biennial speaks with the Craft Council's creative director, Natalie Melton.

As snappy as we seem to like our information these days, each year there are innumerable books of non-fiction that explore our world in great depth and thoughtfulness. These works can help us see the world in a new way, by exploring previously murky arenas of culture, or taking focus on themes that rarely get much breathing space. We have two such authors in The Pod today. Kassia St Clair, whose books have charted the curious histories of colour and fabric and Zahra Hankir, whose forthcoming book compiles essays by women reporting on conflict in the Arab world. What they have in common: selling the value of stories that had been pushed to the periphery – and experiencing the painstaking, nerve-wracking process of getting them published.

As much as photography and video have gained in reputation in the world of fine art, they have also been democratised. Thanks to smart phones, 1.2 trillion photos were taken in 2017 alone.  Image-making is also something often scrutinised. It can reinforce strict and unrealistic standards of beauty or, collectively, define a narrow demographic of who and what gets to be represented. As ever, though, a new generation of photographers and videographers are challenging the rules and helping to redefine a mainstream aesthetic. Our guests today, Ronan McKenzie and Esrael Alem, are two such artists.

These days, we expect brands to reflect a set of values, not simply provide products. No businesses do this better than those whose entire mission is to change the world for the better, even in just a small way – these are social enterprises. Combining commerce with social progress, they often work with vulnerable groups, offering work and a sense of inclusion that might not have been available to them, but in all cases, they reinvest or donate their profits to create positive social change. As we head into Christmas, we can think of no better sector to celebrate than social enterprises. In the Pod today, one man whose job it is to promote social enterprises in the UK. And, another, the CEO of a trust that operates social enterprises of their own. Our guests: Social Enterprise UK CEO Peter Holbrook, CBE, and Spitalfields Crypt Trust CEO, Steve Coles.

In design, there’s a certain aesthetic we imagine we hear the word “sophistication” – it’s likely muted, neutral, maybe even sombre. And, we apply it often: to offices, to homes, to restaurants, to hotels. But these spaces aren't often very ‘joyful’. Joyful spaces are playful and bright. And, so, we often think of joyful places as those for children. Rarely do we think the two can co-exist. One is mature, the other juvenile. More and more, however, designers are challenging this preconception, and questioning why we so often push joy to the margins and write it off as something that lacks in refinement or elegance. In the Pod today, two such people: Morag Myerscough and Ingrid Fetell Lee.

In the field of architecture, communicating ideas has always been a challenge. A combination of scale models, illustrations, plans and renderings help explain how a space, a building, or even an entire city might look and feel. But all of that is beginning to change, with the introduction of cheaper, quicker and more elaborate VR experiences. Now, clients and even public can step inside buildings, guide themselves around them, and experience them in 1-to-1 scale. Will this make for better buildings? In the Pod today, to architects who’ve embraced the use of VR in the practices, two discuss what they see as the future of this technology in design.

For what seems like forever, we've been told we live in a “consumer society” – we are defined by how we spend, it is our most important expression of ourselves, our aspirations and our politics. And, while still a powerful concept, some have argued that we are sliding into a new era: a citizen society. Instead of simply a choice to purchase or not, we are feeling a greater power to influence through participation. We expect the brands we engage with to reflect our values – not just sell to us. Meet our speakers: Robert Jones, Head of New Thinking at Wolff Olins and Jon Alexander, founder of the New Citizen Project

Today, we delve into the world of digital publishing with two editors at the top of their game, for two of the most notable women-focus publications out there – industry-leading digital magazine Refinery 29 and one of the biggest names in fashion: British Vogue. Womens-focused publications have changed significantly since these Sarah Raphael and Alice Casely-Hayford were reading fashion magazines as teens. For one, the industry is turning around how it's representing women, and how it speaks to them. What else? A broader scope, a new tone of voice, and capturing attention in a ever-more cluttered landscape of content-creators.

The Pod is going on tour for London Design Festival! Last stop: Exhibition Road, outside the V&A as part of the Day of Design street party. We met Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Rory Hyde and founder of Digital Identities, Dr. Abhay Adhikari. Together, they reflected on this year's London Design Festival as the city-wide event came to a close. Tune in for an invigorating chat about the future of cities, and how digital culture shapes our behaviour.

The Pod is going on tour for London Design Festival! Last stop: Exhibition Road, outside the V&A as part of the Day of Design street party. We met editor of Icon magazine, Priya Khanchandani, and design curator Max Fraser. Together, they reflected on this year's London Design Festival as the city-wide event came to a close. Tune in for wrap-up for this year's London Design Festival.

The Pod is going on tour for London Design Festival! First stop: The Brompton Design District. Today we met Sevra Davis of The Design Museum and Seetal Solanki of Ma-tt-er, a research design studio that explores the past, present and future of materials. Tune in for an invigorating chat about strange new materials, and how we can nudge them into mainstream use.

The Pod is going on tour for London Design Festival! First stop: The Brompton Design District. Today we met Johanna Agerman Ross, curator of contemporary design at the V&A and Tetsuo Mukai of the research and design and research consultancy, Workshop for Potential Design. Tune in for an invigorating chat about how we display design in museums, how we can learn to appreciate past objects in new ways, and the challenges of curation.

The Pod is going on tour for London Design Festival! First stop: The Brompton Design District. Today we met architect and furniture designer Kelechi Odu of Oparanze Collective and Sophie Thomas of communications design studio Thomas Matthews. Tune in for an invigorating chat about the reuse of materials in design, enjoyable ways to tackle not-so-enjoyable subject matter (such as pollution), and: is London too clean?

Spiritland founder Paul Noble & Southbank Centre's Bengi Unsal

​​​​​The art world can be uninviting, and the sheer number of galleries can feel overwhelming. One solution: the internet. ​​​​​Counter Editions is a platform selling prints and multiples by leading international artists. Director Robert Diament joins us in the Pod, along with actor and art collector Russell Tovey. ​

​Some of the most esteemed and enduring brands are those that build in their customers an emotional connection – they give us more than just practical function. A few of those them seemingly manage to create own worlds, and come to represent a lifestyle and system of values, too. ​One such brand is Rapha, the cycling sportswear company founded in 2004 – now with a global following, thanks to a biannual magazine, the international Rapha Cycling Club, its in-store cafes, and a 2007 collaboration with Paul Smith. ​Graphic identity and art direction has played a huge part in keeping this all coherent and consistent – and adding to or changing any part of the brand is delicate business. ​In discussion today: Jack Saunders and Paul Barnes, two people who are helping to nudge and navigate Rapha into a new iteration.

​​​​Does the world need another chair? It’s a question often asked in the design world, mostly by industry journalists who have a hard time getting excited about countless new four-legged additions to furniture showrooms from Milan to Mexico City. ​​​What is far more intriguing are the experiments in how we make, not necessarily what we make. From explorations of new materials, to developing circular economics, companies small and large are investing in finding new ways to create. ​​​Our guests today: Jane Withers, a design consultant, curator, and writer, who is also behind the Brompton Design District, and Brent Dzekciorius, whose company DZEK creates original architectural materials and products in collaboration with designers.​ You'll have seen the terrazzo he did with Max Lamb – big beautiful specks of copper, blue and green on white.

​​​It's possible your social media feeds have been completely flooded with dispatches from the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The international architecture exhibition has just launched, and will take over the coastal city with national pavilions, individual architects and curators exploring themes that have ranged from cities and society – or, in the case of this year: free space.​ ​​​Today's guests run Neiheiser Argyros, the international multi-disciplinary architecture practice behind this year’s Greek pavilion. Their interpretation of “free space” explores communal spaces of several universities around the world, inspired by Raphael’s fresco, The School of Athens. ​​​We invited Xristina Argyros and Ryan Neiheiser to join us in the Pod, just before Venice.

​For a fashion brand, success takes many forms.Commercial success is an obvious one. But then there’s cultural impact. And now too, it’s about an online following. Often the audience that lends a brand its relevance aren’t always the most active consumers. Today we talk about just that, fashion that is more than just clothing, it’s also a message. ​A little about our guests: ​Eden Loweth is one-half of the design duo that founded Art School, a fashion collective that is embracing and celebrating non-binary, gender-fluid clothing. ​Nathalie Khan teaches fashion history and theory at Central Saint Martins and London College of Fashion. Nathalie writes often on the impact of technology on both the catwalk and the fashion image.

​​Sustainability is a word that gets frequently thrown around, but what, exactly, does it mean? Today on Thought Starters, Caroline Till of FranklinTill and Carole Collet, founder of the Material Futures master’s programme at Central Saint Martins talk about what sustainability means for the rapidly changing world of fashion and design.

​​It's been a decade of protest. And from the Women's march to the Brexit marches, what these large-scale political expressions carry with them is an outpouring of creativity. That's exactly what's explored at Hope to Nope, a new exhibition at the Design Museum in London. We were lucky enough to get the two curators, Margaret Cubbage​ and Lucienne Roberts join us in the Pod to record this episode, who told us the back story behind the exhibition and spoke more about the intersection between graphics and politics. ​​Hope to Nope runs at the Design Museum until 15 August.

​Today, we talk about architecture – its great triumphs, its failures, and where the world is headed. In conversation: architect Farshid Moussavi and writer and critic Phineas Harper. ​​Iranian-born Farshid Moussavi is an internationally acclaimed architect and educator, who founded her own eponymous practice in London in 2011, after first establishing Foreign Office Architects in the early 1990s. Her projects range from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland to the Victoria Beckham Flagship Store in London, with a portfolio that crosses continents and categories. ​Phineas Harper is the deputy director of the Architecture Foundation, an independent not-for-profit think tank in London, as well as being a critic, author and designer. He writes a regular opinion column for Dezeen, and is chief curator of the 2019 Oslo Architecture.

​​​The Gentlewoman and Gal Dem are two very different magazines combatting a common problem: how women are spoken to by women's magazines. To coincide with International Women's Day, we invited editors Penny Martin and Liv Little into the Pod to discuss their growing magazines, and the role of the editor.