Design Conversations is a podcast series aimed at recording an oral history of designers and design practices in Australia, from the twentieth century to the present day.
Each episode is a one-on-one conversation with an eminent design practitioner, in which they detail and elaborate on their careers. The series strives to cover most of the design disciplines currently practiced, and examine the motivation, inspiration and hard work that brought recognition.
Mimmo Cozzolino reflects on his journey from Herculaneum, Italy, to becoming a celebrated Australian graphic designer, describing how his birthplace instilled a deep respect for history that later led him to create the book Symbols of Australia and pursue a career bridging design and cultural heritage.
12 Aug 2025
Robyn Lindsey: Designing across retail, corporate & sustainability
Robyn Lindsey is an interior and experience designer with over four decades of practice across retail, corporate, hospitality and residential sectors. She studied Interior Design at RMIT and holds an MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies from Swinburne. From 1990 she spent three decades at Geyer Design, progressing to Director and Partner and serving as Global Strategy and Design Leader overseeing the firm’s expansion into Asia. In 2021 she established her own independent practice. She was recognised with a Lifetime Achievement in the 2020 Architecture and Design Sustainability Awards.
7 Apr 2025
Louise Dann: A journey through design, culture & sustainability
Geoff Isaac interviews Louise Dann about her journey through Australian and international design, exploring culture and sustainability in the design world.
11 Jul 2024
Rina Cohen: Interior designer
Rina Cohen is an interior designer who has been in practice for more than thirty years, and is an award winning designer specialising in the field of residential design. She is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia and winner of the KBDI Certified Designer of the Year in 2023.
11 Jun 2024
Colin Wood: Design publisher
Colin Wood was the legendary publisher of Design World, a major publication on design issues between 1983–1995. It was a roller coaster ride that was to spawn Design Ink. Currently Colin publishes the Art & Design Education Resource Guide, and the next publication will be the 41st edition.
14 Jan 2022
Dario Zoureff: Interior & furniture designer
Dario Zoureff is a pre-eminent interior and furniture designer, with a memorable catalogue of residential and commercial furniture designed over several decades. He was born in Vienna in the 1930s and came to Australia at the age of nine. He studied interior design at the Royal Melbourne Technical College in the 1950s, and began a sixty-year practice thereafter.
26 Oct 2021
Phillip Zmood: Automotive designer
Phillip Zmood studied Industrial Design at RMIT, and began his career with General Motors Corporation in 1965 as a designer. Soon after he became the General Manager of the Mid/Luxury Car Division of Holden/GM International Operations (USA) leading and contributing to future design programs.
14 Sept 2021
Mary Featherston AM: Interior & furniture designer, early childhood environmental designer
Mary Featherston, together with her husband Grant, have been seminal figures in Australian Design, delivering high-profile projects over decades in mid-century Australia. Mary has been celebrated in the field of children’s early-learning environments, working with schools, childcare centres and museums, and she continues as a consultant and advocate in this sphere.
13 Sept 2021
Jeffrey Newman: Industrial Design Council of Australia
Jeffrey Newman is an industrial designer, who trained in the fourth intake of students for the Industrial Design Diploma at RMIT in the mid 1950s. Jeff established his initial freelance design practice immediately after graduation, and later, following a period at Thorn Electrical, he eventually accepted a position in Myer Store Planning under Don Ward.
24 Aug 2021
David Terry: Industrial Design Council of Australia & industrial designer
David Terry trained in Industrial Design at RMIT, and then under architect Don Ward at Myer, where he made major contributions to the development of Myer Chadstone and then to Farmers in Sydney. David was engaged by the Industrial Design Council of Australia for several years and eventually became a State Director.
3 Feb 2021
Don Goodwin: Conran design director
Don Goodwin played a significant design role as an Associate Director of the Conran Design Group in London in the sixties, and then in Australia with Carl Nielsen, and later as Principal of Goodwin Design. Additionally, he became National President of the Design Institute of Australia and was recognised with a Life Fellowship.
31 Jan 2021
Robert Miller Smith: Dean & design educator
Robert Miller Smith has been a major contributor to the design profession in Australia and internationally, both in the field of visual communications and design education. From the London College of Printing, to Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, to University of South Australia and then to Swinburne University, he has had an extraordinary career and shares those experiences along the way.
17 Feb 2020
Roger Putnam: Furniture designer
An influential figure in the field of furniture design and manufacture, Roger began his career in London in the sixties, as assistant to the renowned English designer Robin Day. He trained at RMIT in Interior Design and did post graduate studies at the London College of Furniture, before returning to Australia.
3 Feb 2020
Kathy Demos: Design director
One of the most influential figures in Australian design, Kathy Demos has been responsible for steering the course of design in Australia, and internationally, by her skilled direction of major programmes, events and consultancies for the past few decades.
17 Nov 2017
Ted Worsley: Industrial designer & educator
Ted Worsley was a student in Australia’s inaugural Industrial Design course commencing in 1947. The Industrial Design Diploma at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University) was also attended by Clem Meadmore, later to become an internationally renowned sculptor.
1 Oct 2017
Ian Howard: International connections
A renowned leader in the field of furniture manufacture and design, Ian Howard was the Founder and Managing Director of Aristoc Furniture in mid century Melbourne; he then established Herman Miller Australia, and finally Co Design, the preeminent commercial furniture company in Australia in the 1970s. Ian established design activity at the centre of his enterprises, with the hiring of designers such as Grant Featherston and Fred Lowen.
23 Aug 2017
David Lancashire: Artist, designer & illustrator
A major artist and graphic designer, David Lancashire is still working in his practice, which spans signage/way-finding, graphic design, illustration, landscape design and mentoring. Lancashire’s career began in the UK where he received an exceptional grounding in illustration and commercial art before launching his almost sixty-year career in Australia.
2 Jun 2017
Ian Howard: Aristoc & beyond
A renowned leader in the field of furniture manufacture and design, Ian Howard was the Founder and Managing Director of Aristoc Furniture in mid-century Melbourne; he then established Herman Miller Australia, and finally Co Design, the preeminent commercial furniture company in Australia in the 1970s. Ian established design activity at the centre of his enterprises, with the hiring of designers such as Grant Featherston and Fred Lowen.
19 May 2017
Max Robinson: London & beyond
A contemporary artist and graphic designer, a poet and prose writer, Max Robinson had a sixty-plus year career in the UK and Australia. Renowned for his design work on numerous record covers for World Record Club and his contribution on the decimal currency council with Gordon Andrews and Harry Williamson, Max was also the designer of Australia’s first ten-dollar note.
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