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.

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Growing up in North London in the 80s, no one was talking about art or design. Life was about conversations with neighbours on the street, the good and the not so good. Four decades later, Paul Cocksedge’s work is grounded in these formative years. Known for his unorthodox approach to materials in works that span public art, sculpture and architectural installation, everything he designs is about human connection.

Paul founded his eponymous studio with Joana Pinho in 2004, they met at the Royal College of Art in London. The studio’s work is underpinned by its extensive research into the possibilities of technology, materials and making processes. They’ve collaborated with the V&A in London to Friedman Benda in New York, plus luxury brands including Hermès, Swarovski and BMW and work by the studio is held in numerous important collections worldwide.

Listen in as Vince and Paul discuss how to be human in the era of AI, stretching ideas at the Royal Academy of Arts with Ron Arad and why working in the public realm matters to him.

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When Elad Yifrach was growing up his art teacher mother would entertain he and his sisters by setting up art projects on their dining room table. It wasn’t long before his bedroom was home to stacks of magazines covered in sticky notes, and he was studying a unique architecture and interior design course at Technion, “kind of like the MIT of Israel”.

Yifrach is the Founder and Creative Director of L’OBJET, where he’s been bringing collections of the highest quality artistic objects to life for 20 years. His work exceeds traditional craftsmanship. Through effort, imagination and genuine collaborations with exceptionally skilled and open-minded craftspeople his collections transcend. A telltale sign of what was to come, his first prototypes were picked up by Bergdorf Goodman.

Listen in as Vince and Elad discuss studying at the same design school as Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, working with the Haas Brothers on making monsters, and the unbridled joy of bringing someone new into your creative practice.

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