Vince Frost is feeling reflective. The designer is in the middle of a long overdue visit to London when CR catches up with him, in what is one of his first trips since the onset of the pandemic and Australia’s decision to close its borders to the rest of the world. It also happens to be approaching 20 years since his decision to swap the city in which he first made a name for himself for a new life in Sydney, where he is the founder, CEO and executive creative director of Frost*collective.
“Walking around Clerkenwell, walking past my old studio and just seeing people around that I know, it feels really nice and reassuring. And I think that in a time when things are tough in the world, there are still opportunities and connections and value that you can add to the world,” he says.
Frost has always had a slight outsider’s perspective on his surroundings. Born in Brighton, he was just 18 months old when his family moved to Canada. He returned to the UK when he was 16, along with his new “funny accent”, and ended up studying design at West Sussex College of Art. “I went to design school because I was shit at everything else,” he laughs. A decade later, he would become Pentagram’s youngest ever associate director at the age of 27 before starting his own studio, Frost* Design, in 1994.
Frost’s decision to move to the other side of the world in 2004 came as a surprise to many in the design community at the time. “I can’t deny that it wasn’t incredibly hard, moving countries is hard, especially with a family. A lot of people were questioning why I was doing it,” he says. Part of the reason was personal, with his now ex-wife originally being from Melbourne, but the clincher was Clemenger Group’s proposition to bring his eponymous brand over and become the joint creative director of Emery Frost. “Being an optimistic person, I really saw potential with the clients because it was kind of a new world compared to the UK, where design was very much understood and appreciated. And I love the sun and the lifestyle.”
Two years after moving to Sydney, the designer was able to buy the business outright, and Frost*collective was born. Today, it is one of Australia’s leading independent creative agencies, straddling strategy, design, branding, advertising, environmental graphics and digital. Clients include big Australian brands like Qantas and Woolworths, along with major international businesses such as American Express and the Four Seasons. Frost still functions as the agency’s CEO and ECD, heading up a team of 45 along with his partners, Carlo Giannasca and Ant Donovan. Plus, studio dogs Ralph and Baxter.
Given the trajectory of Frost’s career over the last three decades, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was ready-made to run a successful design business. In fact, he admits, it took years for him to understand how the two elements of ‘design’ and ‘business’ are intrinsically linked. “What I didn’t do for a long time was focus on profit,” he explains. “I was always the owner of the business and I was always the creative director of the business, but I was 99% the creative director of the business. So for a long time I was just getting through the work, and it kept hitting me, sideswiping, knocking me over, and putting the business in a vulnerable situation.”
At first, Frost’s solution was to outsource the responsibility to what became a rotating door of CEOs and managing directors. “Every time I brought somebody in to run the business it ended in a disaster, because they got fucked off, I got fucked off, and we lost further money,” he says. “I was still busy inside the business working on all the projects with my team and didn’t prioritise the importance of either stepping up myself and owning it as a CEO, or spending time and energy integrating them into the business.”
It was only after he started seeing a career coach called Lesley Ann Grimoldby that his mindset slowly began to change. “She kept saying, ‘I’m going to help you shift from working in the business to working on the business’. And for a long time I was like, ‘what the fuck does that mean?’ Everything she said, I kind of fought her, and we’d end up in arguments. But she taught me about business structure, having a vision, having a purpose, having values, having clear job descriptions, and creating a business that was absolutely focused on success and focused on achieving a goal,” says Frost.
“My real objective was to create a business where you didn’t have to be working on every single project and it flourishes without you. You actually create a place and an environment and a culture for other people to thrive. Once I started working on that and seeing that happen, it was so exciting. The business has never been in a better place than it is now.”
The most significant change has been going from the craziness to a form of stability and continuity, and knowing that you don’t have to kill yourself every time you do a job
The enlightening experience of transforming his business also led Frost to look at the rest of his life through a different lens. Born out of a talk he did at the Apple Store in Sydney in 2013, Design Your Life is a theory rooted in design principles and thinking but applied to our day-to-day existences. “Over the past 19 years, for me the most significant change has been going from the craziness to a form of stability and continuity, and knowing that you don’t have to kill yourself every time you do a job, which is how I used to be. You almost have to cure yourself of working late nights, you’d leave it to the last minute to have an idea, and you’d be an absolute wreck when you were presenting.”
Design Your Life has since spawned a book deal with Penguin Lantern and the designer’s hugely popular podcast series, where he discusses the theory with design visionaries and entrepreneurs from across the globe. “What I love about doing the podcast and talking to people of all walks of life is that we’re all just human beings trying to do our best,” he says. “Nobody is an expert really; we eat the wrong stuff, we get in the wrong relationships, we’re working against ourselves so much. It’s through trial and error and listening to how others are navigating their lives.”
Frost’s focus as a designer these days is on finding joy in his work. This ranges from doing smaller, self-initiated projects, such as his recent collaboration with artisanal fragrance house The Raconteur on a multi-layered candle, to longer-term ambitions such as Frost*collective’s now certified B Corp status. “I’ve felt this for a long time now, I don’t want to create shit,” he says. “I don’t want to create stuff that is going to manipulate people or just sell more shit we don’t need. All the projects we work on are about people, planet and profit, and profit doesn’t have to be sacrificed by doing the other two things.
Starting a business is never easy; 60% of new companies fail within the first three years on average. For those mad enough to want to, Frost’s advice is to make sure that you’re going into business for the right reasons. “I remember when I was starting my business some people saying to me, why are you going to do that? I think if I knew how hard it was I probably wouldn’t have done it. There is no magic, easy way of doing it. Sometimes people do something that opens up an abundance of opportunities but the majority of us have to keep plugging away at it,” he says.
Thinking about your business in the wider context of your life is vital though, he adds. “So many people I know have never sat down and had a vision for their life and what they want to do with it. I always say to them, don’t only see your business or your career as your life. You can think about your whole life, your relationship with your kids, or whatever it is. I think also, just be aware that what goes around comes around. Be good to people, be nice, be genuine, make time and effort, don’t abuse people, don’t be nasty, don’t be egotistic, don’t be selfish, do good.”
Almost three decades into his own journey as a design business owner, Frost remains resolutely optimistic about what the future holds. “It’s almost 30 years of Frost* in 2024,” he says. “I remember the very first day of starting Frost* Design in London to now, and it doesn’t feel like a very long period of time. One’s career feels incredibly short but I’ve still got a lot more to do, and I’m more excited than ever before about design and the difference that it makes to people.”
