Design consultant and researcher Callan Rowe joins Jessica Watson to unpack co-design that actually sticks: building the speed of trust, naming decision power, and moving from co-define to co-design to co-deliver. Cal traces a path from film and communication design to strategy and capability-building with Village Collaborative, sharing how to balance breadth vs depth, why “voice of …” projects are often research not co-design, and how strategy should make the useful feel exciting. We explore design as responses (not one-and-done solutions), asset-based community work, and the future of services that aim to make themselves unnecessary. Practical, principled and immediately applicable for facilitators, service/strategic designers and for-purpose leaders. ❤️‍🔥 Follow us on Instagram: @thefeelingdesigner 👉 See more resources: thefeelingdesigner.com.au Find Callan at: https://www.villageco.co/ Resources mentioned in this episode: ❤️‍🔥 “Speed of Trust” (echoed in Stephen M.R. Covey’s work) ❤️‍🔥 Herbert Simon – The Sciences of the Artificial ❤️‍🔥 Richard Buchanan – “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking” ❤️‍🔥 Liz Sanders & Pieter Jan Stappers – Convivial Toolbox ❤️‍🔥 Ivan Illich – Tools for Conviviality ❤️‍🔥 Asset-Based Community Development (Kretzmann & McKnight) ❤️‍🔥 Co-production literature (esp. UK public services; role in co-implement) ❤️‍🔥 Distinction guide: co-define / co-design / co-deliver / co-evaluate 00:00 Welcome, Acknowledgement, and Episode Framing 02:00 From Film to Design: Early Career, R&D, and Burnout 09:00 Strategic Design, Facilitation, and Making the Useful ‘Sexy’ 16:00 The Co-Design Clash and Founding Village Collaborative 21:00 Capability-Building, Thought Partnership, and On-the-Fly Synthesis 28:00 Beyond Toolkits: Depth vs Breadth, ‘Voice of’ Pitfalls, and Co-Define 41:00 What Makes It ‘Design’: Materiality, Abduction, and Imagining Futures 54:00 Responses, Not Solutions: Strengths-Based Practice and Community Capacity 63:00 Caring for the Carer: Trust, Nourishing Relationships, and the Hug KPI - ❤️‍🔥 Please like, share and follow so we can grow more careers in Australia’s for-purpose design community

Designer and facilitator Diletta Legowo joins Jessica Watson to unpack how to design for “home”, the conditions that help people feel safe, dignified and empowered, across multicultural, power-aware collaborations. We explore facilitating yourself first, meeting people where they are, and why naming power and positionality matters. Bonus! Rituals that keep facilitators present (walks, yoga, meditation, retreats), and a provocation for designers to choose creation over consumption. ❤️‍🔥 Follow us on Instagram: @thefeelingdesigner 👉 See more resources: thefeelingdesigner.com.au Find Diletta at: @smallandscale References in this episode: ❤️‍🔥 Nongkrong Festival — Indonesian diaspora, identity, roots & routes ❤️‍🔥 The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker ❤️‍🔥 Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen (capabilities & human freedoms) ❤️‍🔥 Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities (ten central human capabilities) ❤️‍🔥 The Systems School / School of System Change — power & systems courses ❤️‍🔥 Emma Blomkamp / New Know How — co-design resources ❤️‍🔥 adrienne maree brown — Pleasure Activism 00:00 Welcome, Country acknowledgment, and the arc of the episode 02:00 The wiggly path: from fine art to social innovation 09:00 Home as a design lens: freedom, dignity, and outcomes 15:00 Making co-design culturally safe: meet people where they are and facilitate thyself 21:00 Joy, suffering, and the inner work that ripples through systems 26:00 Challenging the industry: hustle, Western defaults, and owning positionality 31:00 Designing for emergence: practical tactics and the power of cross-silo connection 40:00 What makes workshops work: start with deep understanding 41:00 Rituals, embodiment, and resilience: how she sustains her practice 45:30 Whole selves and authentic safety: beyond token gestures 48:30 Designers’ responsibility, creation over consumption, and a compassionate call-in - ❤️‍🔥 Please like, share and follow so we can grow more careers in Australia’s for-purpose design community

Somatic embodiment coach and designer Celine Waters joins Jessica Watson to explore how body-based practices can transform design work in complex, trauma-touched contexts. We unpack the window of tolerance, safety, belonging and dignity as practical design inputs, and how facilitators can use centring, breath and invitational language to go slow to go fast. Celine traces her path from biochemistry and computer science to service design, sharing lessons from adult development coaching and why co-regulation and presence matter more than polished decks. We discuss colonisation, community care, and what it means to be an embodied designer creating inclusive, place-based experiences in Australia. ❤️‍🔥 Follow us on Instagram: @thefeelingdesigner 👉 See more resources: thefeelingdesigner.com.au You can find out more about Celine at: therightrelationshipproject.com References & resources mentioned: ❤️‍🔥 Window of Tolerance overview (concept by Dr Dan Siegel) ❤️‍🔥 Service blueprint origins (G. Lynn Shostack, HBR) ❤️‍🔥 Adult development (Robert Kegan) and Growth Edge Coaching (Jennifer Garvey Berger) ❤️‍🔥 HeartMath Institute on heart–brain coherence ❤️‍🔥 Eduardo Galeano quote: “The Church says the body is a sin… The Body says: I am a fiesta,” Bessel van der Kolk and The Body Keeps the Score ❤️‍🔥 Sites of Shaping / Sites of Change (Strozzi / generative somatics lineage) ❤️‍🔥 Limbic resonance (co-regulation primer) ❤️‍🔥 Margaret Wheatley, “Warriors for the Human Spirit” 00:00 From Biochemistry to Blueprint: A Non‑Linear Path 06:00 Breaking Down to Break Through: Discovering Somatics 11:00 Rethinking Design Under Capitalism: Slow to Go Fast in Complexity 19:00 Unlearning Expertise: From Ego to Vessel 24:00 The Biology of Burnout: Cortisol, Breath, and the Window of Tolerance 34:00 Expanding Capacity: Safety, Belonging, Dignity and Daily Centring 41:00 Trauma‑Informed Co‑Design: Presence, Pace, and Invitational Language 50:00 The Craft of Holding Space: Reading States, Grounding, and Energy 70:00 Vision‑Led and Decolonized Design: Community, Country, and Ecosystems 77:00 Politicised Somatics and Everyday Colonisation 80:00 Caring for Feelings: Soft Heart, Strong Boundary 87:00 The Feeling Designer: A Call for Warriors of the Human Spirit - ❤️‍🔥 Please like, share and follow so we can grow more careers in Australia’s for-purpose design community

Jessica Watson introduces The Feeling Designer, a podcast about empathy-led, place-based, co-designed practice. From London and Shanghai to TACSI, Jess unpacks the method and mindset behind designing for belonging, care and cultural respect, and why Australia needs a new design identity grounded in Country and community. Featuring lessons from brand strategy, experience masterplanning, social innovation and reflective practice. ❤️‍🔥 Follow us on Instagram: @thefeelingdesigner 👉 See more resources: thefeelingdesigner.com.au Jessica Watson: @jessicaclairewatsondesign 00:00 Welcome, Acknowledgement of Country and Episode Intent 01:05 Education and the Spark for Strategy 03:55 Early Career: Bringing Strategy into Property and Place 06:00 Shanghai Years: Multidisciplinary Place-Making at Speed 08:05 Returning Home: FreeState and Designing a Collaborative Practice 10:55 From Consultant to Community: Study on Country and TACSI 11:55 Naming the Feeling Designer: A Noun and a Verb 13:10 Why This Podcast: Slowing Down, Looking Local, Co-Creating 16:10 From Silos to Systems: A Feeling-First Methodology and Vision 18:50 Season One Preview: Traits of a Feeling Designer 26:10 Closing the Loop: Join the Movement - ❤️‍🔥 Please like, share and follow so we can grow more careers in Australia’s for-purpose design community