Wow! What a Ride!

Frankie Ratford is a world renowned graphic design leader, educator and community builder and most recently, you would have seen her on TV with Alan Carr designing interiors.

After quitting her dream design job at Frost* in Sydney, she built The Design Kids into a global platform supporting over 500,000 emerging graphic designers as they transition from study to work. Along the way, she spent six years traveling the world—living in 72 cities, interviewing leading designers, speaking at universities, and running workshops for graduates.

If you think this was an organised professional tour, sleeping in hotels and making zoom calls, think again. Most was done without wifi, as she hitchhiked across New Zealand, slept in bushes, and even stayed with the Prime Minister. She flew to work as a design lecturer the first year to fund her roadtrip (while on said roadtrip), had seven questionable vans which all broke down constantly, washed her hair with a bucket and then quit everything to live in a tent for five months and hike across America. At 42, she reinvented herself by creating an entirely new career—one that eventually led to being on TV with Alan Carr for BBC1’s Interior Design Masters. Frankie is not one to fear change.

Her story is a reminder that you can design not just your work, but your life—and give yourself full permission to make it fun, unconventional, and entirely your own.

Join Frankie on a bold, exhilarating journey as she leaps into the unknown again and again, chasing the dream of designing a life that truly fits. You’ll leave buzzing with fresh energy, optimism, excitement, and real change in your own design career. Consider this your nudge to take that risk—because it might just transform everything.