
THOMAS SUBREVILLE
Director ILL-STUDIO
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On Freedom, Fiction, and the Discipline to Think for Yourself
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Thomas Subreville is director of ILL-STUDIO, a post-disciplinary practice based in Paris working between art, architecture, and fashion. Over the past two decades, he has collaborated with global brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Nike, and Mercedes-Benz, shaping the cultural codes of contemporary design. Rooted in research, narrative, and experimentation, Thomas explores how perception, fiction, and freedom intersect — creating work that blurs the boundaries between disciplines, industries, and ways of thinking.
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In this conversation, Thomas speaks about unlearning conventions, valuing time over deliverables, and building a studio that thinks as much as it creates. He reflects on freedom as a form of discipline, the need for chaos within structure, and the importance of curiosity as a lifelong skill. We discuss his early years in magazines and skate culture, his project on neurodivergence, and how running and travel fuel his creative process. A dialogue about independence, attention, and the courage to think for yourself — and how fiction, in the end, can often reveal more truth than function.
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THOMAS SUBREVILLE
Director ILL-STUDIO
27
27
02
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On Freedom, Fiction, and the Discipline to Think for Yourself
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Thomas Subreville is director of ILL-STUDIO, a post-disciplinary practice based in Paris working between art, architecture, and fashion. Over the past two decades, he has collaborated with global brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Nike, and Mercedes-Benz, shaping the cultural codes of contemporary design. Rooted in research, narrative, and experimentation, Thomas explores how perception, fiction, and freedom intersect — creating work that blurs the boundaries between disciplines, industries, and ways of thinking.
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In this conversation, Thomas speaks about unlearning conventions, valuing time over deliverables, and building a studio that thinks as much as it creates. He reflects on freedom as a form of discipline, the need for chaos within structure, and the importance of curiosity as a lifelong skill. We discuss his early years in magazines and skate culture, his project on neurodivergence, and how running and travel fuel his creative process. A dialogue about independence, attention, and the courage to think for yourself — and how fiction, in the end, can often reveal more truth than function.
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WHY I ASKED THIS GUEST
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Today I'm joined by Peter Adolf, a visionary garden designer whose work has transformed how we experience landscapes known for projects like a eyeliner in New York and Ry Garden in Chicago. Peter spent decades redefining the relationship between plant spaces and emotion.
In this episode, we dive into his early challenges and creative breakthroughs. He shares how taking risks shape his craftsmanship career, and what the vital role is of intuition in great design.
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LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
RECOMMENDED CLIPS
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DO OR DIE / A OR B
Are you more rational or emotional?
Piet: Both.
Practical or romantic?
Both.
Structure or color, both controlled the narrative or let the garden tell its own story?
A little bit of both.
Cherish the process or cherish the result.
Result and process.
Your work primarily recognized for its ecological impact or its aesthetic beauty.
Both.
Design one final, groundbreaking garden or curate and refine all your previous works?
I would like to have a new project and I think the gardeners that don't work well or refine my own gardens will take a lifetime again to get them where they were. 'cause gardeners have their own life, and also they need to have their own life to change the right way for the legacy.
The gardens will be taken care of, the gardeners. And is there a wish from you that it's maintained the same way or just let it go?
Let it grow into the future. I would say so. Let it grow by the good hands of bareness and into something that still is good and especially beautiful because you can imagine and trees grow up with the plants underneath, don't like it that or and years. So you have to change your plans. And if I look back to all the plants of what I've done and no garden looks the same anymore, and you can just rip it out and put it all over from your original design. So that's it.
Focus on mentoring young designers or document your life's work?
Both.
Your gardens and your true maintenance or wild and natural growth?
Wild and natural growth doesn't exist because then our garden ends up in metals and BLEs. So, it's always gardens, our gardens and garden. I'll say it's a place where you feel good in and it's extruded from nature, a place for yourself. So you have to treat it, you know, like, you treat yourself and in the best way. So environmentally, right, ecologically, right. And that just wildlife allowed, I see that in that sense. So it's not, Corning is about control. You cannot let it go.
ONE REQUEST
If this conversation resonates, can you please do one thing?
Follow the podcast. And share it with one person in your world who needs it right now.
That’s how these stories travel. That’s how we scale creative impact.
Attracting more listeners, guests, collaborators and sponsors.
Thanks for considering.
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Creative Direction & Identity
Architecture & Spatial Culture
Product, Fashion & Industrial Design
Cultural Strategy & Curation
Innovation & Systems Thinking
SEASON
02
EPISODE
34

On Building the Fenix Museum: Leadership, Loss, and the Making of a New Cultural Landmark
SPACE
Anne Kremers is the director of FENIX, the new migration museum in Rotterdam. Her career moved from becoming the Netherlands’ youngest museum director at 24, to several years in Hong Kong, and eventually back to Rotterdam. Today, she leads a museum that merges contemporary art, architecture, public space, and personal histories into one evolving institution. Anne speaks about leadership under pressure, the emotional stretch of parenthood and grief, the impatience that drives her, and what it means to carry the responsibility of a story that belongs to many. She reflects on confidence, doubt, resilience, and how a museum only becomes real the moment its doors open, and people step inside.
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SEASON
02
EPISODE
33

On Creative Identity, Pressure, and Rebuilding Confidence
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Ben Wright is the founder and creative director of Pretty Soon, working across brand, culture, music, and sport. His path moves from Perth’s tight-knit creative scene to New York’s intensity, and by moments that opened doors, including collaborations with brands and people like Nike, Puma, Under Armour and ASAP Rocky. He speaks openly about confidence, anxiety, and what happens when ambition outgrows your ability to cope.
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SEASON
02
EPISODE
32

On Values, Pressure, and the Cost of Ambition
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Tim Hooijmans is a light designer whose work sits at the crossroads of craft, manufacturing, and culture. From a small workspace in Utrecht he builds custom lighting pieces for brands such as Stone Island, Off-White, and On Running, always starting from light itself rather than from form. Tim speaks openly about resilience, burnout, and the physical toll of caring so deeply about your craft. He explains why his process begins with light rather than objects, why he refuses to compromise on values, and why manufacturing is inseparable from design. And how to keep believing in yourself.
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SEASON
02
EPISODE
31

On Time, Transformation, and Redefining Ambitions
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Chiara Tomassi is an architect and designer based between Milan and Rome. Her career spans some of Europe’s most ambitious cultural and fashion projects, from MVRDV, AL_A, and MCA Architects to the Victoria & Albert Museum, Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and Nike EMEA Campus. Today, at 2050+, she focuses on transformation over new construction, creating meaning through restraint, awareness, and time.
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SEASON
02
EPISODE
30
