Volker Haug's story starts with a spark (quite literally)! As a kid, he was so captivated by light that he'd made his first light fitting by the age of ten, and somewhere along the way managed to accidentally electrocute himself. This early obsession never really left him, even as he built a first career behind the chair as a hairdresser. In this episode, we trace his journey from the salon to founding one of Australia's most distinctive lighting studios. And along the way he shares the calling that pulled Volker toward lighting design, the mentors who shaped how he thinks, and the very humble beginnings of his business: a garage converted into a workshop that grew, organically, into the studio it is today.
From there the conversation opens right up. Volker gets into why collaboration makes both design and business healthier, how travel keeps his creativity alive, and the role our senses play in memory and making – plus the strange overstimulation of modern life and how he finds calm inside it. He's a firm believer that creativity is a universal human trait, that desperate situations often spark the best of it, and that his years in hairdressing taught him more about people than any design course could.
Find Volker's work at volkerhaug.com and follow the studio on Instagram at @volkerhaug
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Creative or Dead is hosted by Aleesha Callahan and David Constantine. Aleesha is the founder of About Futures, an independent publication on the future of sustainable design. David is a creative business builder and leader with more than two decades across branding, strategy and social impact, and sits on the board of the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
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