Collette Dinnigan has a storied history as one of Australia’s must successful fashion designers. Ever. But that’s just one chapter of her creative life.  Her adventurous spirit and love of colour, fabric and proportion make total sense in the context of her childhood. In the mid 70s, her father built a yacht and set sail from Durbin, South Africa for the world with his young family. When they settled in New Zealand her creative mother got involved in textile design, Collette would get the...

Born in the small town of Hastings, New Zealand, Derek grew up in a working-class family with limited financial means and modest aspirations. His unexpected passion for photography ignited when he was a young bank teller and noticed a wedding photographer's bank statement, revealing the potential to make a living from photography. This serendipitous moment set Derek on a journey that has taken him around the world, from Sydney to Los Angeles, London, and back to Sydney. Along the way, he has...

In some families, the parents’ DNA instructs so clearly the way their children think and work that it’s impossible to deny the familial impact. Jason Bruges is the product of just this. His dad was a software and computer engineer, and his mother a trained artist. Both influenced where and how he came to be a multidisciplinary artist and designer. His eponymous Jason Bruges Studio is internationally renowned for creating interactive spaces and surfaces that sit between the world of...

In today’s economy, people are more considerate about what they’ll spend money on, retailers have to fight to hold or grow their market share. If there’s one person who knows this better than most, and will be the first to step into the ring, it’s Felicity McGahan. McGahan is the Group CEO of STRAND, the Australian handbags and luggage retailer, where she is leading a transformational vision for growth by modernising, digitising and internationalising every aspect of the business. Backed up...

What does it mean to exist professionally as an artist? Does being business minded compromise an artist’s creativity? If it’s a frank discussion on the topic you’re after, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is the artist to have it with.  Nithiyendran is a Sri Lankan born contemporary artist whose work is often described as bold, hyperbolic, exaggerated and expressive. He’s achieved huge success in his decade-long career — his artwork has been presented in museums, festivals and the public domain,...

What does it mean to exist professionally as an artist? Does being business minded compromise an artist’s creativity? If it’s a frank discussion on the topic you’re after, Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran is the artist to have it with.  Nithiyendran is a Sri Lankan born contemporary artist whose work is often described as bold, hyperbolic, exaggerated and expressive. He’s achieved huge success in his decade-long career — his artwork has been presented in museums, festivals and the public domain,...

Some people take a lifetime to find their true north, the thing they want to spend their days working on. That’s not the case for Sean Perkins. Growing up in South Yorkshire in the 70s, it wasn’t cool to get good grades. Even though he was smart, he flunked almost everything. Everything, but art. From a young age he was exposed to, “the future, all this incredible visual culture”, by way of Japanese mementos his dad would bring back from work trips to Tokyo. And the fashion his mum would...

Not every path to success is a straight one. Mike Tosetto knows this firsthand. From growing up in Sydney’s Inner West as a skate kid who took photos with a disposable camera of the local street art — or, as her calls it, ‘mad graph’ — to living out back for two years at Ayres Rock Resort, to playing didgeridoo on stage at the Glastonbury music festival. His path has been anything but direct. After realising his job at a supermarket chain wasn’t going anywhere, he got a job at a publishing...

Hurricane Katrina and the Northern Rivers Floods may have happened over a decade apart and on opposite sides of the world. But the disasters have a lot in common. New Orleans and Lismore found themselves caught in the eye of the storm when the cities, both located for prosperity around a major waterway but on compromised ground, were inundated by water and devastated in the process.  The other thing these disasters have in common are Elizabeth Mossop and Dan Etheridge. The academics met in...

How much does your environment shape your life, and what can city-makers do to make our lives better? Michael Stott has spent over 25 years crafting narratives for cities around the world, considering how they can be made better for the people who inhabit them. As Head of Cities and Places, Masterplanning & Urban Design at DBI, one of Australia’s foremost multidisciplinary design practices, he’s at the forefront of Brisbane’s evolution as a global city in time for the 2032 Olympics. ...

In life and in business, how big a part does luck play in our success? And are our good ideas really good at all? Professor Frederik Anseel is the newly appointed Dean of the University of New South Wales’ Business School and an expert in what works, and what doesn’t, in business. He’s spent his career researching organisational psychology, leadership, how to motivate people, how to treat colleagues with respect and how to be authentic. It’s this combination of the study of management and...

In the 80s, Stiff Records, the British independent Punk Rock and New Wave record label, had an open-door policy. You could walk in and pick up posters, stickers and pin badges most days of the week. Jeremy Leslie was one of the kids doing just that. He’d catch the bus over to Notting Hill from the London College of Design to visit the shop. Originally, he was there for the music, but it was the storytelling in the design that made a lasting impression. Leslie is an internationally...

You could argue a lot of kids grow up with a love of drawing. This one knew he wanted to be an architect in high school. When his older brother brought home some Rotring pens, it all clicked. Domenic Alvaro is the Director and Global Design Leader at Woods Bagot, one of the world’s leading architecture firms. Drawing is a huge part of his professional practice to this day. He’s a long-term collaborator of Frost*collective and someone the studio is immensely proud to have worked with over the...

Having a knock-out creative career five decades long is one thing. Setting up a charity to inspire the same creativity in the next generations is another. But the iconic British design duo, who are also husband and wife - Sir John Sorrell CBE and Lady Frances Sorrell CBE - have done just that. Frances and John started their lives in design both aged of 14 when, in different parts of London, they attended free Saturday morning classes at their local colleges of art and design. Neither were...

People are considered lucky when they find something they’re skilled at and love, then make it their vocation. Growing up with a parent they’ve inherited that skill and passion from helps, especially when they’re exceptionally talented. Both Louise Olsen and Stephen Ormandy have parents who helped them on their path to a life shaped by creativity. Olsen’s father, John Olsen, who passed away aged 95 in 2023, is arguably Australia’s most famous artist. Her mother was a painter, too. Ormandy’s...

Being driven is one thing. But being driven by trauma is another. It’s a special kind of motivation, and when combined with a competitive nature and natural feel for what an audience wants, great things can be achieved. Aidan Anderson is the Founder and CEO of The Local Project — the fastest growing design platform in the Asia-Pacific region. The platform is followed by design and architecture lovers worldwide, and champions authentic design, showcasing and supporting architects, designers,...

There’s an art to bringing history into modern creativity as more than a reference.  Sibella Court is adept at it. The creative director, author and interior and product designer has made a career out of creating with her love of history at the forefront. When you learn she grew up with two incredibly creative parents — a builder father skilled in transforming spaces and a mother who specialised in Central Asian textiles — her multifaceted creative career comes as no surprise.  After...

For a small country with a small population, the Danes are incredibly well-known on the global stage as highly skilled when it comes to design. In Viggo Haremst’s case, he knew he wanted to be an architect, like his father, very early in life. But he credits his Swedish mother for his commitment to process and detail. As a Design Director and Partner at the prominent Danish architecture firm Henning Larsen he steered the winning proposal for the Canberra Theatre Centre and is leading the...

How much do the environments we inhabit impact our health and wellbeing? And does our emotional state impact our physical health? Dr. Esther Sternberg is internationally recognised for her discoveries in the science of the mind-body interaction in illness and healing, and the role of place in wellbeing. She is a pioneer and major force in collaborative initiatives on mind-body-stress-wellness and environment interrelationships.  Her inspirational and popular books — there are three, the...

When we think of life on earth in the context of the universe, being human can seem absurd. That’s what British artist and illustrator Paul Davis thinks. When he was 17, growing up in Somerset in England, his father died suddenly. But he’d already taught him everything he needed to know about space, time and human existence.  Davis’ sometimes controversial work has been widely published and exhibited. He’s regularly commissioned by international broadsheets and magazines, has created...

The craft of graphic design has changed dramatically since the 80s. Computers. The popularisation of branding. Over the past four plus decades John Rushworth, the design behemoth Pentagram’s longest serving partner, has seen it all. Despite these seismic shifts, he believes the thinking and innate human ability it takes to do truly impactful work hasn’t changed.  Rushworth has had a huge impact on the world of design. He’s delivered graphic solutions to clients across almost every industry...

In the past decade, the debate about the role of books in our increasingly digital world has been a hot one. This devotee of the printed form is unequivocal. She believes content online has simply pushed publishers to make better books.   Emilia Terragni is Associate Publisher at Phaidon Press, the world’s leading publisher of books on art, design and culture. Phaidon turns 100 this year. Terragni has been there for 22, specialising in books on architecture, design, food, fashion and art,...

Which parts of our heritage and childhood form who we are and impact what we do in later life? If you spend your childhood wallpapering your bedroom walls with drawings of Europe’s great buildings, are you desisted for a career in built environments? Does being a self-confessed neat freak make you better at simplifying complex problems? In this case, the answer is resoundingly, “yes!”.  Carlo Giannasca is a multi-award-winning graphic and three-dimensional environmental designer who is a...

Buckminster Fuller and Cedric Price were mentors when Peter Murray OBE was studying architecture in the 1960s. Peter Cook and the Archigram Group were idols, “they were the Beatles of architecture at the time”. Not a bad selection of teachers for someone interested in the craft from the age of ten.  Since then, Murray has had a huge impact on shaping the city of London. Although he qualified as an architect, he didn’t become one. His calling was to carve out a huge career writing about and...