Royaldesigners

This is a podcast version of our RDInsights archive recording from 2013 with the award-winning architect Sarah Wigglesworth RDI MBE, who recently closed her practice. Mike Dempsey RDI caught up with Sarah to record an update and learn about her decision to move to new pastures. Photo: Jim Stephen

Mike meets with the celebrated children's author and illustrator Lauren Child RDI, who burst onto the publishing scene in 1999 with Clarice Bean - That's Me, followed in 2000 by Charlie & Lola - I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato. They quickly became firm favourites to millions of children worldwide. Over the years, Lauren garnered many awards and honours, including the Kate Greenaway Medal, an MBE, CBE and Royal Designer for Industry. She was also the 2017 Children's Laureate. But Lauren’s creative path to success was long, winding, and, at times, bumpy, as you will hear in this revealing interview about Lauren's life and work.

Mike Dempsey RDI in conversation with the German artist, designer, and author Christoph Niemann Hon RDI. He rose to international fame through his highly inventive conceptual cover designs for The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, Wire and The New York Times Magazine. His many prestigious awards and accolades include induction into the US Art Directors Hall of Fame, along with membership of the international body, Alliance Graphic International and the RSA’s Honorary Designer for Industry award. After spending over a decade in New York, Christoph moved back to Germany to settle in Berlin, where he works on international and personal projects, exhibitions, and books.

In this latest edition of RDInsights, Mike is in conversation with Lucinda Chambers RDI, the British fashion director, designer, and stylist who worked at Vogue magazine for 36 years and is also in demand as a consultant to many major fashion brands. Her creative path in that seemingly glamorous world was a combination of mishaps, luck, hard work, dedication, creative imagination and passion for her subject, which she continues in her new fashion enterprise, Collagerie, curating the best of fashion, interiors, beauty and lifestyle.

In this new episode of RDInsights, Mike is in conversation with Kate Hopkins RDI, the three-time BAFTA-awarded documentary sound designer. Her meticulous and imaginative work spanning over three decades in landmark productions like Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet has enabled audiences worldwide to experience a heightened reality through her extraordinary creative sound work. In 2014, Kate was awarded The Technicolor Creative Technology Award for Women in Film and Television.

Mike Dempsey RDI interviews graphic designer Fernando Gutiérrez RDI. Born in London in the 1960s to Spanish parents, Gutiérrez displayed artistic talent from a young age, often drawing and painting on the walls of his room. Despite being initially directed towards a trade job with the London Electricity Board, his art teacher recognized his potential and steered him towards a different path. Gutiérrez’s unique upbringing contributes to his identity as a genuinely European designer, with a unique way of choosing projects and the clients he works with.

In this interview with the landscape architect Andrew Grant RDI, Mike Dempsey RDI covers Andrew’s idyllic farming childhood, the long path to discovering his creative potential, his teenage passion for the illustrator Roger Dean’s otherworldly landscapes, and the reality of his own interpretation of such a setting in Singapore that would change his life and firmly establish him on the global creative map.

Mike Dempsey in conversation with renowned architectural designer John Pawson. For over three decades, Pawson has dedicated his career to creating minimalist spaces that eliminate the unnecessary. With his passionate attention to detail and materials, he has become known for his signature style, which has brought him global fame. But as you will hear, Pawson's creative path was long and winding before he finally found his passion in architecture.

Mike interviews the aeronautics designer engineer Geoff Kirk RDI. During his long career at the Rolls-Royce Airline Business, he rose to the position of Chief Design Engineer and worked on the designs of many of the company's iconic jet engines. On retirement, he continues to pass on his design engineering knowledge as visiting professor at Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Nottingham.

John McConnell in conversation with Mike, talks about his long career as a leading light in the world of graphic design, along with his thirty-one years as director of Pentagram Design. And he explains the complexity of coordinating large corporate projects. John left Pentagram in 2005 and re-established as McConnell Design.

Sir Christopher Frayling has long been a friend and supporter of the RDI with his impressive wealth of knowledge of its history. During his extensive period as rector of The Royal College of Art, he changed the course of design education and presided over many designers who are now members of the RDI Faculty. Mike Dempsey RDI interviewed him at BAFTA in 2018.

In this interview, Mike talks to architect and product designer, Kim Colin about her early life and career in a male-dominated profession. Kim Colin became an RDI in 2015.

Sir Kenneth Adam RDI, most famous for his set designs for the James Bond films of the 1960s and 1970s, talks to Mike Dempsey RDI about the production design discipline

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 on Rocacorba 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.