Why Creative People in Design and Build Are Undervalued and Underpaid - Rob Venice - EP 37

Rob Venice is the founder of Motive, a creative collective bringing together artists, project managers and marketeers to design workspaces that actually make people feel something when they walk in. Before founding Motive in 2022, Rob spent a decade at the sharp end of office design and build. He came up through Denton, became Creative Director at Thirdway, and co-founded product design firm Kaelo alongside his day job. He has led teams through some of the most ambitious workspace pitches in London and knows better than most what it takes to win work on the strength of a creative vision. In this episode, Rob is honest about what that world actually looks like from the inside. We explore: - Why designers are the engine behind every great pitch but rarely see the recognition or reward that follows - How value engineering consistently strips out the creative work first and why that never gets challenged - The problem with rewarding designers when there is no clean metric for what they actually contribute - Why Rob hit the ceiling at every company he worked for before deciding to build something of his own. Rob is one of those guests who has clearly thought hard about the gap between what the industry produces and what it could produce. This is a conversation about creativity, recognition and what happens when the person with the vision finally stops working for someone else. If you work in design and build, this one will hit close to home.