Julia Prell is among Australian Design Review’s 30UNDER30 Interior and Product Designers for 2024/2025. Here, we speak with SJB senior interior designer about her formative experiences in Copenhagen, the importance of timelessness, transcending trends and overcoming impostor syndrome.

Australian Design Review: What has been a highlight in your career so far?

Julia Prell: A very early highlight, but one that really shaped the way I think about design, was my study in Copenhagen. Towards the end of my studies, I spent nine months in Denmark under Jan Ghel and further developing my graduation thesis, which focused on the ‘Psychology of Architecture’.

Copenhagen is a city where considered design is everywhere you turn. Living and learning in a city so steeped in design highlighted that well-considered details can make a huge difference in someone’s experience of a space, even if they are imperceivable. This experience shaped my core values as a designer and it was a highlight living in a city that places so much value on design.

ADR: If you could work with any designer, artist or other creative – living or dead – who would it be and why?

JP: I can’t go past Patricia Urquiola when I get asked this question. Her impact on design seems to be boundless and her breadth of influence spans so many facets of design. Her work is playful yet practical, bringing an emotional quality to spaces while maintaining a strong focus on functionality, a value I strive to capture within my design process. I would love to just understand how her brain works.

How Urquiola can continually conceptualise so many new and unique ideas across such a range of design formats is tiring to even think about! She brings a lightness and joy to her projects and products that I admire. Positive energy is an amazing quality in this industry that can sometimes take itself a little too seriously. 

ADR: What do you do to kickstart your creativity when you’re in a rut?

JP: Always back to basics! It can be easy to get ‘creatively lost’ through the design development process as projects begin to take shape. I believe it’s always key to go back to the ‘who’ and the ‘why’ if the creative juices aren’t flowing. Who is using the space and what is the intention of the project?

By using these core foundations to inform design principles, I find that it becomes a clearer process to inform a design. It’s this process of re-grounding that allows me to cut through mental blocks and refine the design with purpose. It’s a bit like hitting the reset button – once I remind myself of the bigger picture, things start to fall into place.

Manon Brasserie by H&E Architects. Photo: Nikki To.

ADR: What guiding values drive you and what kind of impact do you hope to make through your work?

JP: I value a pragmatic approach to design and try to focus on how form follows function. We work in an intensely trend-driven design landscape because of the influence of social media and the aspiration to live an aesthetic lifestyle.

There are great benefits to that, with people being more interested and engaged with design, but equally, it’s important to balance both the aesthetic nature of a space with a design that directly responds to the way people engage and use their environment. A successful design can be both beautiful and utilitarian, and in order to create meaningful spaces, I believe that considering the end user is at the core of what we do.

ADR: How did it feel to make it into Australian Design Review’s 30UNDER30?

JP: It is an incredibly exciting and humbling feeling to be included in this year’s 30UNDER30 cohort and I am so thrilled to share it with such an amazing group of designers. I can definitely be guilty of letting impostor syndrome creep in as a young designer. Receiving this recognition is a great reminder that growth and development come when you put yourself out there and get a bit uncomfortable. 

I am really looking forward to the opportunities ahead through the program and the experiences and knowledge to be gained from both the mentors and my peers.

Photography supplied.

ADR’s 30UNDER30 Interior and Product Designers stream is brought to you by major sponsor Neolith, alongside Krost, Miele, Interface and Tongue & Groove. The program is also supported by practice partners Arent&Pyke, BLP, BVN, Cera Stribley, COX Architecture, GroupGSA, Hassell, HDR, Richards Stanisich, Rothelowman, SJB and Williams Burton Leopardi. To find out more about the final 30, head to the winners page.