24 October 2023

Caroline Till is a consultant, author, curator, and academic. She founded Franklin Till, along with Kate Franklin in 2010 and, since then, the future research agency has worked with the likes of international textile exhibition Heimtextil, paper giant GF Smith, Caesarstone, Tarkett, and IKEA’s former blue sky thinking agency, Space 10.

The pair has published magazines such as Viewpoint and Viewpoint Colour and co-written the influential book, Radical Matter, as well as curating Our Time on Earth, a touring exhibition about the future of the planet which started at London’s Barbican last year.  

Not only that, but for many years, Caroline headed up the Material Futures course at Central Saint Martins, which has produced a number of designers that have appeared on this podcast. She’s also a speaker who is much in demand internationally and opened the talks programme at this year’s Material Matters fair.

In this episode we talk about: being a climate optimist; why Franklin Till specialises in material and colour; her issues with trends; turning down projects; not being keen on the word ‘sustainability’; defining regenerative design; the importance of seduction; issues with capitalism; thinking of materials as systems; technology’s relationship with nature; and the benefits of studying textile design.

However, we kick off with her visceral dislike of the UK’s current Home Secretary, Suella Braverman…

Our thanks go to the headline sponsor for this series of the podcast – and the Material Matters 2023 fair – the brilliant lighting specialist, Bert Frank.

Find out more about Franklin Till


Caroline co-wrote the influential book, Radical Matter

Sabine Marcelis
David Venables
Rosa Whiteley
Claudy Jongstra
Tim Minshall
Seetal Solanki
Callum Robinson
Neil Brownsword
Zandra Rhodes
Aaron Betsky
Nicole Rycroft
Mark Hearld
Todd Bracher
Zena Holloway
Alkesh Parmar
Sanne Visser
Bharti Kher
Oliver Heath
Ernest Scheyder
Adi Toch
Jonathan Smales
Adam Yeats
Ptolemy Mann
Bas Van Abel
John Tuomey
Sara Grady and Alice Robinson
Florian Gadsby
Christien Meindertsma
Simone Brewster
Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert
Neil Thomas
Tom Lloyd and Luke Pearson
Marie Carlisle
Michael Marriott
Alice Kettle
Beatie Wolfe
Donna Wilson
Ineke Hans
Summer Islam
Keith Brymer Jones
McMillan and Fairweather
Aric Chen
Rebecca Earley
Hannah and Justin Floyd
Michael Young
Juliette Bigley
Richard McVetis
Lucy Sparrow
Sarah Wigglesworth
Jasleen Kaur
Tomas Libertiny