All Guests
Brooks Atwood

Brooks Atwood

Le Provocateur, Creative Innovator & Designer

1 episodeNov 2019

About Brooks

Brooks Atwood - Le Provocateur, Creative Innovator & Designer

Brooks has been named as one of the “world’s innovative creators”, known for his passion for design, collaboration, education, and life. Brooks is the Design Director at OfficeUntitled and has given numerous lectures including TEDx, at the Museum of Arts & Design in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and the Australian Centre of the Moving Image in Melbourne.

In Brooks’s words

Verbatim from the transcripts — each quote links to the moment.

“I am not a genius. You're not a genius. Nobody's a genius. Even Einstein's not a genius. He was picking up on the context of what was happening around him.”
Ep 519▶ 5:19
“You can't collaborate with an agenda. You have to be totally neutral.”
Ep 519▶ 5:19
“I fail every day. I just do it fast.”
Ep 519▶ 22:04
“Humans are 100% creative entities. And so what happens to you then? Then society and culture must crush that out if you think that you're not creative later in life, because that's BS.”
Ep 519▶ 24:47
“Like, you have to live and like, you know, have experiences. And I would say the same thing with designers, you know.”
Ep 519▶ 36:17
“The more trouble I can get into, the better.”
Ep 519▶ 39:40
“He's like, hey kitty boy, what's up? And I was like, what the fuck? So I turned around and it's Christopher Walken.”
Ep 519▶ 1:01:52

Brooks’s advice on the show

How should designers approach failure and perfectionism?

Strive for excellence but accept imperfection in process - test and fail quickly on purpose, get the bad ideas out of the way fast so better ideas can follow, rather than being paralyzed by the pursuit of perfection.

Ep 519▶ 1:58

How do you build a culture where collaboration actually works?

Remove your ego and any personal agenda, treat the environment as a totally safe space where no idea is stupid, and let everyone have equal input regardless of hierarchy.

Ep 519▶ 2:55

How can someone stay creative as they get older?

Try to see the world through a child's eyes, forget universal preconceptions you've learned, and don't filter honest reactions out of fear of upsetting others or offending social norms.

Ep 519▶ 19:49

How do you turn a lose situation into a win when working with clients?

Look for communication breakdowns causing friction, reiterate back what the client is saying to confirm understanding, and actively reframe a win-lose scenario into a win-win rather than accepting a loss.

Ep 519▶ 55:35

Stories Brooks told

The salmon that tasted weird

Ep 519▶ 5:19

Atwood recounts his young son bluntly saying restaurant salmon tasted weird, prompting Atwood to realize the child was right and they stopped eating it, illustrating unfiltered honesty as a creative virtue.

Juggling and the Volkswagen Beetle

Ep 519▶ 32:37

Atwood recalls his unconventional Midwest childhood where his mother encouraged him to teach himself juggling and fix up an old Volkswagen Beetle with friends rather than relying on typical entertainment.

Dancing into a free apartment in Paris

Ep 519▶ 35:42

Atwood describes moving to Paris alone in his 20s, not knowing French, having a migraine on arrival, and then being spotted dancing on the sidewalk by a nightclub owner who offered him a free apartment in exchange for dancing in his club.

Designing an immersive multiple-personality-disorder room for Showtime

Ep 519▶ 41:00

Atwood won a Showtime charity design pitch with a performance presentation involving cue cards and music, then built an immersive, headphone-isolated installation themed around 'United States of Tara' featuring a Toni Collette-lookalike avatar with facial tracking and a record-setting wooden structure.

The Christopher Walken encounter

Ep 519▶ 1:00:57

While warming up his motorcycle on the Upper West Side, Atwood was approached by his neighbour Christopher Walken, invited in for wine, and given a tour of his home and his wig-maker's studio next door, which Atwood found terrifying given Walken's film roles.

Questions these interviews answer

Drawn from the episode transcripts.

What does Brooks Atwood mean by 'licking the details' in design?

It refers to fully engaging with the tactile and sensory experience of a space before it's finished - touching materials, testing mattresses, checking how surfaces feel and sound - to ensure every detail contributes to how someone feels in the space, even unconsciously.

From episode 519→
How does Brooks Atwood approach collaboration without ego getting in the way?

He argues you must remove your ego and not worry about what others think, treating every idea as valid in a 'safe space' so that the best ideas can surface, similar to how young children speak honestly without a filter.

From episode 519→
What is Office Untitled and what makes it different from other architecture firms?

Office Untitled is a creative agency in Culver City, LA, led by Brooks Atwood, focused on architecture and interiors with an experimental, question-everything attitude, including weekly 'Design Review Thursdays' and a culture encouraging failure and testing ideas quickly.

From episode 519→

When Brooks came up

Mentioned on 2 episodes Brookswasn’t on.

Tommy and Josh recall visiting this LA creative's office, which had corkboards and mood boards that inspired Josh's corkboard idea.

Ep 829▶ 6:20

Designer at Office Untitled who gave the hosts a tour of the office and its unusual bathroom.

Ep 508▶ 25:17

Episodes with Brooks

Every episode featuring Brooks Atwood on The Daily Talk Show.

Brooks Atwood On Design Perfectionism & Collaboration
EP 519
66:36

Brooks Atwood On Design Perfectionism & Collaboration

Brooks Atwood joined Tommy Jackett and Josh Janssen on Episode 519 (16 November 2019) — "Brooks Atwood On Design Perfectionism & Collaboration". Brooks Atwood - Le Provocateur, Creative Innovator & Designer Brooks has been named as one of the “world’s innovative creators”, known for his passion for design, collaboration, education, and life. Brooks is the Design Director at OfficeUntitled and has given numerous lectures including TEDx, a...