Business of Art with Timothy Goodman

This time we would like to highlight Timothy Goodman, designer, illustrator, and artist. His clients include Apple, Nike, Google, Samsung, MoMa, Netflix, YSL, Time, The New Yorker, and the New York Times.

His partnerships have included a global collection of clothing with Uniqlo and a Nike b-ball shoe with Kevin Durant. He regularly partners with schools to create art for communities in NYC. Timothy’s work often discusses topics such as mental health, manhood, politics, heartbreak and love.

During our interview Timothy shared how to balance commercial and passion work, how he hires team, why he never was a freelancer and why it is important to create artworks for people. 

Read our favourite highlights below and watch the full interview to hear more about how to hire team, find time for a passion and make meaningful projects. 💎


Watch the full interview to find out:

👉 How to balance passion and commercial projects
👉 How to create art and design that make impact
👉 How to find the right people for projects
👉 Timothy's unique philosophy behind creating his art

Future London Academy: "So you don't want to be like Jeff Koons, who has a team of doing his work, so he just comes up with ideas?"

Timothy Goodman: "I like the craftsmanship of it. It's really important to me. Like I said, I'm inherently a lonely person in this world. I'd like to be able to make things that with my hands, because it helps me feel connected to something"

Future London Academy: Talking about risks, were there any early risks that you had to take throughout your journey that paid off and what were they?

Timothy Goodman: "Anyone who's making a living being a creative person, just paying their rent, you're performing a miracle, I think.

And I want anyone who's watching this, listening to this – I see you. It's important because the society is not built for people to thrive in that, in that scenario. It's a very interesting thing to be a creative person because you are constantly open for critique. Your whole life from art school, design school, you're putting your wall, your work on the wall. People are critiquing it. You post it on Instagram, people are judging and critiquing it behind the scenes. You have an art director who's shooting down your work or liking your work. I have clients. Sometimes I might do something or pitch something else that they don't like. And that takes a real toll on someone's psyche."

Want to go further with your leadership journey?

Learn hands-on from leaders at Pentagram, Wolff Olins, Zaha Hadid Architects, Saatchi & Saatchi, Google, Amazon, and many more on our Design Leaders Programme 

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