Design Thought Leader

I think it’s absolutely critical to have a strong culture in a studio. A design studio is a living, breathing thing and people generally work extremely hard, so its important the environment and culture supports that. They’re creatively investing themselves in their outcomes so there’s a bit of your blood in everything you deliver. I think that brings a bit more emotion and passion to the process and more emotion and passion means more potential conflict or just more intensity.

It’s very important that people feel valued, that they’re part of the team and that they’re supported. We’ve developed out Quality Assurance system for delivering projects, so that people feel they could go out on a limb and make mistakes, stuff up and not ruin a project. Because part of design is that element of chance and surprise, if you manage that out of your creative process you miss out on a whole world of interesting outcomes. You’ve got to allow people to make mistakes and you’ve got to allow people to grow in a business.

Soren Luckins
Founder and Director, Büro North