Vince Frost has been designing good ideas since 1984. Earlier this year, he was awarded the Australian Good Design Prize in recognition of his contribution to the world of design. Here, we chat to the Founder, CEO and Executive Creative Director of Frost*Collective about career longevity and how he literally designed his life for the better.
Your career has spanned almost 40 years, what’s the secret to your longevity, how do you stay hungry?
Yes, 40 years as a designer and this year we’ll celebrate 30 years in business... I guess I’ve always been a very optimistic person and I’m excited by the potential of working with business owners to help them achieve their dreams - there’s something incredibly exciting and addictive to finding the solution to a client’s brief.
I’m fascinated by the fact that you can design anything – your career, your future, your relationships... you can design better outcomes for yourself. Design can and does add value to the world, which helps you to be happier and healthier, for longer.
In 2014, I wrote a book called Design Your Life... it came at a time when my business was busier than ever, but I was struggling with stress, burnout and a complete lack of energy. When I look back now, I realise I wasn’t taking care of myself... I was drinking too much, not sleeping enough and not exercising at all... I was unhealthy and a result my relationships were unhealthy.
After a confronting appointment with my doctor, who said I was on track for an early departure if I kept on this path, I asked myself a very important question ‘what do I want my life to look like?’ and I set about designing my life just like I would a design project.
Your life is the most important project you’ll ever have but when you’re busy with the day-to-day minutiae it’s impossible to see that, but I approached it like a design brief using design principles to find solutions to my own problems just like I’d been doing for my clients.
I haven’t been drinking for about 13 years now, I exercise most days, and I eat healthily - I’m still crap at sleeping mind you... but I get enough for me.
Being a ‘creative’ is often at odds with running a successful business, how do you reconcile the two skillsets?
I’m actually writing another book on this topic with Dr Martin Kornberger called The Business of Design. So many creative people do struggle with being in business and I think that’s because when you’re starting out, you don’t set out to run a business - you almost get there by default.
You train in the field you’re interested in and if you want to do your own thing, running the business is a by-product of that. You certainly attract more opportunities by being good at something, like design for example... and then you've got to work out how to navigate that and how to grow in response to attracting more opportunities.
I remember hiring my first employee because I was so busy... but I didn’t know how to delegate. I had so much work to do, but I felt bad about asking them to do anything - which is ludicrous... That was something I had to learn how to do, now we have around 45 people in our business.
For me business is inherently hard, no matter how long you’ve been doing it or what you’re trying to do – you can always do it better. My team and I are constantly looking for ways to become a better business, to do our work more efficiently and stay relevant. As a business owner I have a responsibility to keep everybody in a job and deliver on our ability and expectations, so we’re constantly looking at the business and refining it to make it better.
Early on in my career I was in awe of those who ran other design companies, and I was never afraid to ask for advice from people. Like a design brief, I was constantly trying to find the solution, looking for others’ thoughts so I could form my own opinion on how to do that too.
What’s exciting you about design now, what’s inspiring you?
Even though Covid made me question if this was the end of the world or the end of the business... once we got past that, it gave me the opportunity to reconnect with nature and myself. There was suddenly time to just sit outside and look up at the trees and that made a massive difference to our collective mindset. I think it also fast tracked the idea of businesses adding true value to the world and accelerated people’s entrepreneurial mindset. So, I’m inspired by people just having a go and using design to create a better world.
There are amazing designers around the world doing great things... there are times when you think design might flatline and that’s often reflective of where the economy might be... but design during harder times is interesting too because people use it to shift, change and improve the situation.
Sydney, for example has just been voted by Conde Nast Traveller as the number one city in the world. Sydney has changed massively, and Coronation is part of that change... things like the new Metro and International Airport, the new light rail systems... Things that have been ideated a long time ago and were seen as an inconvenience to people’s lives at the time, are now coming to fruition and they’re world-class... it’s really exciting to see what Sydney is becoming.
Design can improve a city through things like planning, architecture, retail, pop-up activations, landscaping and transport... The ease, beauty and positive energy that design can have on a place is inspiring. It’s wonderful to see big public places being reimagined... making it better, more inclusive, more enjoyable, reducing stress... and all of that is through design.
Tell us about your podcast?
The podcast is an extension of my book Design Your Life... The book came out in 2014, and I started the podcast in 2018... we’ve done 147 podcasts so far.
When I was writing the book I interviewed about six people to get their perspectives on different ideas, their journeys and how they thought... and I found that really inspiring.
The podcast is really just a way of me being able to chat to interesting people from all walks of life with different points of view... and I’ve found that everyone I speak to is incredibly real and honest in their answers. I ask everyone at the end of the interview ‘do you think you’ve designed your life?’ and surprisingly the answer is almost always no.
These are all very highly regarded individuals in their fields... but what I’ve realised is, nobody really knows what they’re doing and we’re all just trying to figure it out as we go. I wish I’d known that when I was starting out... I probably would’ve worried a lot less about what I didn’t know.
I love human beings, I love the fact that we’re all trying to make it work, we don’t know all the answers and that people are very genuine about sharing their successes just as much as their failures... they’re just very open, honest and generous... and if their stories can help just one person, then it’s definitely worth doing.
You’ve worked with Coronation for almost a decade now, what projects are you most proud of?
The Paper Mill was a visionary project, Domenic Alvaro from Woods Bagot was the architect... and the vision and the value that it added for the people of Liverpool... was bigger and better in terms of quality, than anything that was previously there. To this day it is still one of the best projects we’ve worked on in our property portfolio.
Then there’s 8 Phillip Street and the ‘PS. I love you’ campaign. That was the first property project that we brought VR into the sales experience... and that was featured on Channel 7 and Channel 9 news as ‘the new way to sell property’... We set out to create something that was special, memorable and engaging... It was a real moment.
The great thing about working with Coronation is that it's a company that likes ideas... and not just decorative ideas but things with heart and soul and offers something of value. So, it’s great to start from that basis and run with it.
Coronation has really evolved over the last decade; they’ve gone from one development in Liverpool to being one of the biggest developers in Sydney and seeing the scale and quality of projects coming through are world class... That is incredibly exciting and I’m proud to be a part of that evolution.