Designing a life with intention with Gabriel Hendifar
What does it mean to create objects that tell stories, that shape how we feel, live, and connect? For Gabriel Hendifar, Artistic Director and Co-Founder of APPARATUS, design is about more than beautiful lighting and furniture, it’s about creating the container for human experience. Born in Los Angeles to Iranian immigrants, his early world was filled with music, memory, and craft, influences that continue to inform his deeply human approach to design. After a career in fashion, he co-founded APPARATUS in New York in 2012, building it into a 100-person studio renowned for its emotionally charged interiors and sculptural lighting. Listen as Vince and Gabriel discuss the poetry of light, the craftsmanship behind his creative acts, and the importance of designing not just spaces, but a life filled with meaning, discipline, and care. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Designing life at scale with Chris Godfrey
How do you go from almost joining the Marines, to leading the world’s largest hospitality design firm? Born in Yorkshire and now based in Singapore, Chris Godfrey’s story is one of creative grit, adaptability and quiet determination. From humble beginnings as a teenage print boy in an architectural practice, to founding his own studio, to now serving as Co-CEO of HBA, the global design powerhouse behind some of the world’s leading hotels and residences, his career has been shaped by curiosity and craft in equal measure. Listen in as Vince and Chris explore his remarkable rise through design, the future of global hospitality and wellness, and how his early lessons in resilience continue to shape the way he designs for life. HBA: https://hba.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Designing Peter Saville CBE
What does it mean to shape culture through design? For Peter Saville CBE, one of the most influential designers of our time, it has always been about perception. From his early work at Factory Records, crafting the visual identities of Joy Division and New Order, to collaborations with fashion houses like Yohji Yamamoto, Burberry, Calvin Klein and Chanel, Saville has consistently redefined how we experience music, fashion, and culture. Now in his late sixties, he reflects on a career that blurred the lines between art, design and branding, sometimes to his dismay, as he laments the loss of authenticity in today’s brand-saturated world. Listen as Vince and Peter explore his iconic album covers, his transition from music to fashion and cultural institutions, and why, in his words, he has “always been designing himself.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Designing Resilience with Rido Pin
How do you build a design career that spans continents, cultures and scale, and then redesign your life after a wake-up call? Rido Pin is a Director at Plus Studio, a solutions company for the built environment, with 11 studios across Australia and New Zealand and projects worldwide. Originally from the Netherlands, Rido’s journey has taken him from cycling the fields of Holland, to island life in Curaçao, to New York skyscrapers, and finally to Sydney, where he now helps lead Plus Studio’s rapid growth. This conversation comes at a milestone moment: last week, Frost* unveiled Plus Studio’s new brand refresh, reflecting its collaborative culture and future vision. Listen in as Vince and Rido talk about the launch of the new brand identity and what it means for Plus Studio, his career, and how resilience and well-being have shaped his leadership and outlook on life. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Designing creative independence with Ajaz Ahmed
What happens when you combine a love of design with a mind for business? For Ajaz Ahmed, it meant building one of the world’s most successful creative companies from scratch before starting all over again. Ajaz is the visionary founder of AKQA, the global digital agency that he grew to 5,000 staff across 30 countries. After three decades at the helm, he stepped down and launched Studio One, an agile new venture built for the AI age, where creativity is unleashed and hierarchy stripped back. Born in the Thames Valley and inspired by architecture from an early age, Ajaz began working at a software company as a teenager, driven by obsession with design and a fascination with business. His story is one of ambition, humility and reinvention. Listen in as Vince and Ajaz unpack the role of AI in creativity, the myth of scaling and mediocrity, and why having taste still matters more than ever. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Your life is the most important design project you will ever undertake!
Design is everywhere, in what we make, how we think, and how we live. The question is: are you designing your life, or just living by default?
Each week I sit down with creators, entrepreneurs, and thinkers who’ve shaped their own paths, to uncover the ideas, struggles, and breakthroughs that can help you design a life with purpose.
Vince Frost is the CEO and Executive Creative Director of Frost*collective, a strategic creative group dedicated to designing a better world through human-centered design. Its goal is to design experiences that enrich lives by combining specialist skills to tackle complex challenges and drive superior results.
Listen to Design Your Life with Vince Frost, Immaterial: 5,000 Years of Art, One Material at a Time and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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