Aug 27, 2026 · 53 min · 10 segments
Joel Sampson is head of design at Unispace but this conversation isn't really about buildings. It's about letting go of needing to be right. I had a conversation with Joel about learning to design…
Joel SamsonGuestKelHost
If anyone's ever talk about the random objects I've got in my house, I've always got a story behind it.
Oh, I, I'm absolutely the same.
Like, I...
And in particular, I find that the items that get kind of handed down to you as well.
So for instance, I have a lot of, um, ceramics from my grandmother, and they're throughout the house.
And then, you know, e- even in the kitchen, I've got my great-grandmother's measuring cup, and so there's all of these pieces that, you know, back in the day were probably just pure function and now, you know, we have-
... them there as pride of place because aesthetically they're quite beautiful and they've got that story, and you can talk to it so freely.
And again, it's like it's that pride around the piece.
So yeah, I...
That's, that's probably the thing that I love the most about design, is that it becomes something that you can, you can talk to it.
You can appreciate it.
You can spend a moment with it.
And particularly, you know, you said earlier going to galleries, there's favorite pieces that I could stand in front of for hours.
And you know, you hear those stories of people that see a piece of artwork and just burst out crying because it's just evoked those emotions for them.
So yeah, it's, it's just so incredibly fascinating for me to hear it from the perspective of somebody who gets to do it every day.
And, you know, it must be quite fulfilling for you to be able to share that part of it.
Not just the work, not just the outcome, but the journey of getting to those points with the people that are coming to you for solutions.
I guess that's, I mean, that's the most fascinating part that I mentioned earlier, that the designer's work is never done, and every single design process is...
Even though you try to streamline processes as much as possible to make things as easier and clear for clients to understand how we're doing it, every project is different.
And, you know, on this project you might have a special piece of art that's suspended from a ceiling that a client wants or, you know, there's a sp- specific requirement for some project I worked on.
If anyone's ever talk about the random objects I've got in my house, I've always got a story behind it.
Oh, I, I'm absolutely the same.
Like, I...
And in particular, I find that the items that get kind of handed down to you as well.
So for instance, I have a lot of, um, ceramics from my grandmother, and they're throughout the house.
And then, you know, e- even in the kitchen, I've got my great-grandmother's measuring cup, and so there's all of these pieces that, you know, back in the day were probably just pure function and now, you know, we have-
... them there as pride of place because aesthetically they're quite beautiful and they've got that story, and you can talk to it so freely.
And again, it's like it's that pride around the piece.
So yeah, I...
That's, that's probably the thing that I love the most about design, is that it becomes something that you can, you can talk to it.
You can appreciate it.
You can spend a moment with it.
And particularly, you know, you said earlier going to galleries, there's favorite pieces that I could stand in front of for hours.
And you know, you hear those stories of people that see a piece of artwork and just burst out crying because it's just evoked those emotions for them.
So yeah, it's, it's just so incredibly fascinating for me to hear it from the perspective of somebody who gets to do it every day.
And, you know, it must be quite fulfilling for you to be able to share that part of it.
Not just the work, not just the outcome, but the journey of getting to those points with the people that are coming to you for solutions.
I guess that's, I mean, that's the most fascinating part that I mentioned earlier, that the designer's work is never done, and every single design process is...
Even though you try to streamline processes as much as possible to make things as easier and clear for clients to understand how we're doing it, every project is different.
And, you know, on this project you might have a special piece of art that's suspended from a ceiling that a client wants or, you know, there's a sp- specific requirement for some project I worked on.
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