The esteemed 10 recognises influential voices in the multidisciplinary design community in 2025. Criterion is based on approach, notable achievements and completed and anticipated projects.
This piece originally appeared in est magazine issue 55: ‘Faces of Design’.
Don Cameron
Gadigal Country / Sydney, Australia
My design work is best summed up as:
My background in directing makes me assemble interiors with a filmic vocabulary—crafting and engaging spaces that have a certain mood and ambience. Collectable and historic design are used as important reference points. My design is based on feeling and emotion.
What aspect of your work are people most curious about:
I would say sourcing. The romantic notion of travelling and research to find unique pieces, and the cultural and social aspect of my work that goes with this—the cities, the objects, the stories, the relationships. There are some things you can build or buy; others you have to search to find.
What has recently challenged the way you think about design?
Mark Manders’ first showing at Xavier Hufkens in Antwerp presenting his ongoing project ‘Self Portrait as a Building’. Manders’ first looked to find autobiographical expression through writing before moving to installations, sculpture and furniture arrangements in ‘rooms’, which together create a kind of composite identity. It was a very scenographic way to propose his varied practice and different aspects of his oeuvre as an ever-expanding self-portrait.
What person, building, product or art piece has had a lasting impact on your work?
I have always been drawn to the marginal and obscure, be it film, music, performance or architecture. When things exist outside the regular boundaries of ‘taste’, you are free to dream. I’ve always looked to built forms for their expressive potential and as a basis for inspiration.
The three words I would most like people to attribute to my work are:
Enduring, emotional, character.
"Enduring, emotional, character"
– Don Cameron
What is the one piece of advice you would share with an emerging designer?
Travel. See. Feel. You have to encounter buildings, interiors, and objects—experience them to fully understand how and why they affect you.
Where do you go to appreciate exceptional design?
Belgium and Italy.
Something you want to see more of in 2025? And less of?
Personally, I want to continually grow. To these ends, I look to build on and forge new relationships with workshops and ateliers to create my next body of work.