What if your job was to create something no one had ever seen before? Not just new, but completely unprecedented. That was the charge Steve and Elaine Wynn gave Roger Thomas when designing Wynn Las Vegas, and it changed everything.
Roger Thomas is the legendary designer behind Bellagio, Wynn, and Encore—spaces that redefined luxury in America. For 40 years, he partnered exclusively with Steve and Elaine Wynn to create resort destinations that feel less like hotels and more like living inside the best movie of your life. Roger calls his approach EVOC architecture—evocative architecture—where every design decision starts with a question: How will this make the guest feel?
Roger talks about inventing an entirely new design vocabulary because nothing in the marketplace could be used if it had been seen before. He explains how he and his team would walk into design meetings asking: How do we create drama? Romance? Surprise? Joy? And then work backwards from emotion to materiality, using female curves for romance, high contrast for drama, and Matisse's palette for pure joy.
But the most powerful part of Roger's story isn't about color theory or custom chandeliers. It's about authenticity. Roger opens up about coming out in his late thirties, quitting drinking, and realizing that surviving his greatest fear gave him the courage to take creative risks he'd never taken before. When he stopped hiding who he was, he stopped playing it safe in his work. That's when the real genius emerged.
Roger wraps with his famous sketchbooks—decades of observations, color combinations, and inventions that he draws back on when tasked with the impossible. And he shares what's next: helping build the Las Vegas Museum of Art, a project 45 years in the making.
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What is The Market Makers?
Every creative professional knows the power of a before and after. It’s a classic transformation arc - whether it’s a renovation, glow up, or an old-fashioned make over. But reinvention doesn’t just apply to products or spaces. It also holds true for our lives and our careers. The sketch on the napkin that becomes a collection. The risk that changes everything. The work that turns a brand into a lasting presence.
The Market Makers is a weekly podcast from ANDMORE, home to markets that have been the stage for so many of these transformations. Hosted by CEO, Jon Pertchik, each episode pulls back the curtain on the lives of creative professionals across design, furniture, home, lifestyle and beyond.
From industry icons like Thom Filicia to leaders at heritage brands like Bassett Furniture, guests share the moments that shaped them, not just the before and after, but the process in between.
Whether it’s finding your aesthetic, carving out a niche, scaling a business, or turning a side hustle into a lasting brand, The Market Makers goes beyond the showrooms and into the creative lives of the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.
Follow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every week.