Head of her eponymous design studio for nigh on quarter of a century, Miriam (Mim) Fanning has been racking up the accolades on a regular basis since then.

Last year, she was named the recipient of the Interior Design Excellence Awards’ Gold Medal but that’s not her only experience with programs created by Niche Media(the publisher of Australian Design Review).

In 2024/2025 she joined the masthead’s 30UNDER30 program as a mentor and judge. Now, for the 2026/2027 program, she has expanded that involvement by becoming a practice partner. Here, she talks to ADR about the reasons behind that decision.

ADR: Having already been a judge and a mentor for 30UNDER30, what has been your takeaway from the program so far?

Miriam Fanning: I think the level of the cohorts was fantastic in my experience. They were so diverse in what they practised, and they all had really, really different views on where they were going, which I really liked. I also liked hearing about their journeys, their inspirations and what their aspirations were.

For me, being in the industry for such a long time, it was so good and refreshing to hear their experiences within our industry and maybe some of the things they didn’t know about it and how they cared about our industry moving forward. And that was really, really important to me from a takeaway point of view. Because I do believe when you are mentoring, you do it to help to connect, to communicate. But mentoring is a two-way street. When two people communicate, they both get something out of it and they get to enjoy each other’s stories. And I really found that that was very apparent from the program when I undertook it in 2024 and 2025.

When they talked about their experiences, were they mostly positive or did they have any horror stories?

No, I didn’t have any horror stories. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed the cohort. I enjoyed all the other mentors I was able to meet. I felt that it was a really good synergy of mentors and cohorts, who all shared experiences and all had a really good connection, particularly in that retreat.

What else did you think about the actual retreat itself rather than the rest of the program?

Thre are two answers. I left the retreat feeling inspired, open-minded and excited about things that could happen in the future for interior design. I also left the retreat feeling really connected to other mentors and connected to how good our industry is and can be in the future.

Why did you decide to grow that relationship by actually becoming a practice partner?

It’s because I fully support the integration and communication of industry practitioners. I think you go into a lot of industries and practices compete against each other and they don’t talk to each other, but I fully support communication and sharing of knowledge. So that was really important to me. And also being able to hopefully form a strong future of the industry moving forward. And people that aren’t in our industry to understand our industry and understand what we do and take a lot of care about what we do and really have the future practitioners understand what we do that’s quite special because it’s very often that you get to work a job where what starts off in your head ends up being a built form and that’s a lovely position to be in. So it is actually about making sure that everybody honours our industry and the future in a way that it should be.

You’ve talked about the wider industry, but what do you think being involved in the program means for Mim Design?

For us as a practice, it inspired us to realise that people have many different facets to the way they work. And to see that with their cohorts was really great. But I also think for our studio, it really did help us understand the importance of mentoring each other through our own studio.

I’ve had different mentors all of my life, but I feel as if it became a lost art a fair while ago. And it’s important to put emphasis on it because mentoring is sharing experience – sharing knowledge, sharing ideas – and that’s invaluable in our practice.

What else do you think a program like 30UNDER30 brings to the industry?

I think it brings solidarity, professional knowledge, experience, inspiration and two important words: trust and confidence.

How can mentors or practice partners and the cohort, how can the relationship between them be mutually beneficial?

I think to be a mentor and to have a mentor, it has to be a two-way street. You’ve got to get out of it what you’re willing to share, which comes with a level of trust. You also have to be extremely open-minded and always ask questions, whether they’re simple or complex, and to have a true connection with someone. So you can talk about some silly things, but you can talk about some really serious things too.

When you were a mentor, is that how it worked?

I’m still mentoring people, but it is really not up to the mentor to bring people together. It’s about the mentee seeking out the mentor just as much. And that’s important. If you really want to get something out of it, you need to have that confidence to seek that person out because I know when I had my mentors, I was a seeker of information.

What would you say to other potential cohort members or other practice partners considering getting involved?

The program is so fantastic. Enter it! If you don’t get in, enter it the next year. Just always give it a go, be positive, and put yourself forward. But enter it for a reason. Don’t just enter it because it’s a program that you get shortlisted for. Enter it because you really want to. Enter it with meaning.

And what about Mim Design, what is the studio working on at the moment?

We’re working around Australia. We’re working on multi-residential projects, hotels too, individual residential, and our work spans from architectural interior design to decoration, furniture, as well as art curation and furniture design.

You’re involved with the Design Institute of Australia (DIA). How does that work align with 30UNDER30?

I think it aligns with every practitioner, because in August the census is coming up and for the first time we have now been classified as a professional service. We’ve been listed as category one. So, for the first time ever, you can actually put designer with the correct terminology on the census paper and be recognised.

And that’s really important because it’s the first time as a community and practitioners, we’ve been able to actually be a professional notation on the census, which is really good.

And it was DIA advocacy that made that happen?

Yes, there has been a lot of hard work since 2019!

ADR’s 30UNDER30 program is brought to you by co-major sponsors Neolith and King, alongside partners Designer Rugs, LAUFEN, Krost, Miele, Signature Appliances powered by Miele and Tongue & Groove.

ADR is also grateful to our 30UNDER30 practice partners AJC Architects, BVN, Cera Stribley, Design by WBL, DKO, Genton, GroupGSA, Gray Puksand, Hare + Klein, Hassell, HDR, Lawless & Meyerson, Luchetti Krelle, Made For, Mim Design, Richards Stanisich, RIZEN Atelier, Rothelowman, SJB and T. Black for helping us foster the future of Australian design.

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