Interview with a Professional

Tim Girvin

Interviewee: Tim Girvin, Principal at GIRVIN, Inc. www.girvin.com

Talents: Designer, writer, illustrator, photographer and calligrapher.

Q: What are the elements of design?

A: Actually, you can think about design as a signature -- it's a signing: a sign-making. Like the mark that you make in creating your handwritten version of your name. Design is about that -- it's your interpretation of content -- you make an idea, an inspiration, something compelling: shine. It's about making an idea visual to someone else. The tools of your hand, your mind - will make that idea shine, in design.

Q: Can you explain what brand and story development is?

A: Brand is a very old word. It's about 1000 years old - and it means fire. But what it really means, in the present context, is the idea of a story -- perhaps an old one, perhaps a new one, that is told in a way that explains a product, an experience, or a service offering. Think about your experience of a story -- sometime that one has been told to you. Campfire storytelling -- dark -- at night in the forest, the sound of the storytelling, the scent, crackling fire, the wind in the trees. It's unforgettable. And I'm sure you can recall something like that. A brand is something that should be experienced, like a grand story, in a way that is whole. Like a great store, a grand product that you love -- something that you hold closely as something personal.

Q: You say your learning focus is itinerant can you explain how you use this in everyday work?

A: I am a person of intense curiosity. In fact, in a way, my sense of ever-present curious character of my life is about exploration. And being a designer, that is what you do -- you must be constantly learning, understanding, exploring. Be curious. It is what is expected -- if you are going to be working for a client -- then you have to understand what they do, and what they will be expecting.

Q: What was it like working with major studios, Disney, Paramount and Warner Brothers?

A: Movies are very big projects. And the mere concept of movie-making is also something that is a complex undertaking -- it's first and foremost about storytelling. A movie is inherently a story -- made live and visual. But to create a film involves writing, planning, visualizations, technology -- and the management of many people, from actors to production crews that will participate in the making of a film. Literally, there can be hundreds of people involved. What about me, what do I do? I work on the marketing of the film -- what's the story, how can it be visualized and what is the best way to represent it for the experience of the audience. It's a listening challenge, speaking with the directors, the film-makers, learning their vision -- what's the story, and what's the best way to visualize that telling.

Q: What do you like most/least about your work?

A: The best is the learning. The worst is even paying attention to money. I could work for the sheer passion of it, so consuming is that fascination. Yet, they are both there -- and perhaps the best balance is to learn, about how to approach the other side of that work: being compensated. Gotta live with that - being creative; there are two sides to the balance.

Q: I see you went to college, and if I want to go into design what path do you suggest I take?

A: College is a good place for exposure -- being exposed to ideas, inspirations, dreams. College is all about dreams -- finding them, planting seeds, developing relationships, beginning. It's what commencement means -- to commence. Get started. For design, or anything else, it's only part of the picture in learning -- gather the tools; then get out of there and hit the road. Explore -- find -- gather -- be content. And I mean that, really, in both contexts of the word.

Q: Which of your own projects are you most proud of and why?

A: What's really important? The work that makes the difference in people's lives. So that might be doing something for the Chinese Ministry of Health, Unicef, my brother Matthew Girvin -- in eliminating IDD in China. That's pretty unforgettable. As was my brother. Design has inordinate power to capture ideas -- and captivate people in telling them.

Q: Who were you influenced by, who did you study that influenced you?

A: Lloyd Reynolds at Reed College. He taught me about the idea of cross-pollinating art, history, languages, architecture, books, calligraphy, design and fine printing. It's a world. He did the same thing for another mentor -- and client -- of mine: Steve Jobs, CEO | Apple & Pixar.

Q: If you could be 18 again, what one thing might you do differently?

A: Hit the road. Get out, wander, explore the other parts of the planet. Sooner. Earlier.

Q: What are you doing when you're not working?

A: Reading, writing (http://blog.girvin.com/ and http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/index.php), drawing, travel, playing (and working) in other parts of the planet -- then, to action: squash, tennis -- any racquet sport, really,.

Q: Which movie, video, image, writing or song best describes your career?

A: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: "Scheherazade" (1888) Why? -- There's something adventuresome, mystical and surely Asian -- and Middle eastern -- in the character of that music. And the story, the stories, that are attached to it. Telling stories, to stay alive. I can relate to the power of that metaphor. But there's another allegory -- in music -- that I always found compelling, starting with my first exposure, as a child: Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. Why, you might ask? There was, and is, something mythically powerful about it -- something adventuresome. But that was long before Disney's affectations, or Francis Ford Coppola's napalm in the morning helicopter run with Apocalypse Now. What else? Brian Eno's Ambient dreaming -- Erik Satie's "Gymnopédies" (1887). Who could stop finding personal strings in music, anyway?

Q: MAC or PC?

A: Mac, since the 80s.

Thank You Mr. Girvin!

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Bio: Tim Girvin, founder of Girvin, Inc., is recognized internationally as a designer, writer, illustrator, photographer and calligrapher. He has spoken globally on strategic planning, branding, design integration, and story development. Past and present clients include Apple, Disney, Microsoft, Paramount Studios, and Warner Brothers to name a few.

Girvins' education includes The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, with additional studies and explorations at New College, the Cooper Union College of Arts & Sciences and the Imperial College in London. However, Girvin's real learning focus is itinerant. He finds people to learn from and meets with them, traveling worldwide.

His original academic path was marine biology and natural history. Girvin's lab notebooks were so elaborately designed; a professor recommended he change his course of study. This led to research in the history of art, the alphabet and architecture, type design and fine printing, calligraphy, literature and the book, and how these were culturally influenced through the millennia.