An Interview with Tim Watson of Visual Inventor

I went to work for Visual Inventor in the fall of 2000. I was still in school and eager to get started in the graphic design field, and Tim Watson provided me with that opportunity. Tim was the owner/founder of Visual Inventor and had a knack for web design, identity, and typography in particular. I've never met a person who was more adamant about the importance of concept, iconic marks for logos and the importance of the "sketch", and thank goodness. [Aside: with the onslaught of Illustrator and Photoshop, the sketch has lost it's place with many young designers… and sadly so.]

At VI we were designing websites with creativity that very few others were doing at the time– interesting navigations, unique layouts, animations and CSS(before CSS was cool). And with that blank canvas before us, we designed some sites that were on the leading fringe of what was going on in the web design world and as creative as anything I had seen.

As a new employee to a relatively new business, I got to see the growing pains that took place as Tim endeavored to grow a small company from the ground up. As a boss, he was very hands on, demanding, and always pushing you to get better. To push your ideas farther. I remember getting frustrated on more than one occasion with his insistence that I "keep sketching" before getting going on the computer. But one thing he taught me then, that I still go back to on a daily basis, is that embellishment in itself does not produce quality design. Embellishment might enhance a concept, but a design without a well thought out concept likely won't hold up over time. And no better way to come up with a concept than… you guessed it– SKETCH!

Tim taught me an appreciation for a classic icon, the beauty in the details of typography, and a relentless love for u2. All of which I maintain to this day. 

As a small business owner now, I find myself looking back at my history, and wanting to learn from what I experienced at past jobs. What better way to look forward than to look back with an interview.

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SMALL BUSINESS

What did you name your company name:

First company name that was a flop: "Extension: From Mind to Design". It didn't roll off the tongue and was hard for people to get. After that I decided to make it something personal. I always thought I wanted to be an inventor and make things but when I got into school I discovered it was design I wanted to make and not necessarily things. So I put the two together and came up with Visual Inventor.

When did you start your small business?

Officially October 1994 while I was still in college. My thought was it takes about about a year to take flight and so I would have lost nothing if it flopped because when it would have flopped I would have just been graduated college.

How old were you when you started it?

I was 22

What spurred you to do so? Were you working somewhere else beforehand?

I was working like 4 part time jobs in college (I worked at 2 different record stores, the school newspaper and Olive Garden waiting tables) I was kind of supporting myself and loans got school taken care of. So what I made was for me to live on - so making the move to quit all the jobs and do Visual Inventor full time was a NUT job move that ended paying wonderful dividends.

How long were you up and running before you felt like you actually had a grip on what you were doing?

It was like almost a year to the day. It was sometime in October/November of 95 that things really started picking up. It was an awesome blessing because after I gradated in the summer it was rough. I had just gotten married and was living off my wife's salary. It was a ramen noodle type of affair.

How long until you were turning a decent profit?

To make a living that was descent it was like 3 years. Then after 5 years I hired talented youngsters like yourself that taught me a slew of whole new things. One of which being having employees was hard. Harder than I anticipated. Don't get me wrong the talented folks I worked with were incredible and gracious with my missteps but I was learning as I went and made mistakes. I don't regret them because I became better from them but there are times I wish I had a time machine.

What "Hat" did you hate wearing the most?

A. Technician/Designer

B. Manager

C. Accountant

D. Marketer/Salesman

E. Entrepreneur (Big Idea Guy)

F. HR

D. The schmoozer sales guy. I'm just not very much that way. I'd rather have you choose us for our work not because you like my shoes.

What "hat" did you love wearing the most? And if not designer, was that a surprise?

A. Technician/Designer

B. Manager

C. Accountant

D. Marketer/Salesman

E. Entrepreneur (Big Idea Guy)

F. HR

A. Always design was the first love. Entrepreneur having the big ideas was in there as well.  After that managing a large project was after probably.

What is/was the most-challenging area running your business? (Non-design related)

Keeping the sales coming in the door. Chasing your food as I call it. I abhor that. So much so I just stopped wanted to do the business because of it.

What was the single most important rule that you run/ran your business by? Personal "laws" that you would not break no matter what?

What was the best/most effective practice/system that you put into place?

It was probably T.O.M. our office management system. That thing kept the whole shop running along. It was a beast of a website that we fed our time into and it spit our estimates and a whole slew of other things. It was wonderful and antiquated and a behemoth but it worked.

Any systems that you care to divulge that were particularly effective that might help other small design business owners out there?

Get a good start to finish flow that works for you is my suggestion. For us it was TOM for someone else it might be basecamp. Allow tools to help you do better business.

What has been/was your biggest mistake in relation to running your business?

Renting office space for as long as I did. I'd get a real space paid out right next time.

Were there any break-through moments that you had? If so, care to name one or two?

All of them ... had learning points in them. I spent many a night baby sitting web servers when I should have been with my family - I regret that.

A break through for me on the positive side personally was doing my first website in '96 and realizing there was something there I liked about trying to break those rules. That was a great moment.

What's the one greatest life-lesson you learned from running a small business?

The time to do something is when others say you shouldn't. ... And snarl like Billy Idol after bad client phone calls.

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DESIGN:

Favorite Font(s):

Publicate - my own design

Favorite Designer or Inspiration:

Neville Brody, Tobias Frere-Jones

I remember once you said that you never met a person who was "punny (a lover of puns)" that wasn't a good designer. Why do you think that is?

I don't know but I love that you reminded me of that. Humorous people make for good design maybe? I wonder how many other nuggets you have that I have forgotten. I wish my memory were better.

How important is sketching in your process?

Still is insanely important. I love the sketch. There is something that only lives in the sketch that once you capture in the machine has a 50/50 chance of being lost or taking flight. I like seeing the 50% that takes flight.

Favorite to Design: Identity, Print, Music, Web/Multimedia, Environmental?

I love a wonderfully simplistic icon. I also always love seeing my stuff ginormous but I love a site that has tons of traffic so I'd say web, identity/logo and environmental are all tied. I get a different kind of kick out of doing each of them.

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MISC:

Top 3 Bands/Musical Artist?

1. U2

2. - has changed - Pixies

3. R.E.M.

If you could do anything (besides design) as a career, what would it be?

Professional typographer or design teacher.

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My special thanks and sincere gratitude to Tim Watson for taking the time to do this interview, and for the inspiration. 

Tim can be found on twitter @wittmason

Creativity getting in the way of Business or vice versa.

I'm finding more and more these days, that my focus is and will likely always be torn between 2 different worlds. 

The Creative world is the one where I'm constantly out there thinking up new ideas: I really need to start shooting, I should try to start a photography thing on the side; my new website needs to be cool... not just okay, but really amazing, or I'm not going to get any "cred"; screw all this mindless corporate design, I need to be illustrating in blood, dumpster-diving on the weekends, stop showering so much... okay well that might be pushing it, but you get the idea. 

The Business world as I'm going to call it for now, is the one in which I'm no longer concerned with what I'm working on creatively, because what I really want to do is grow my business. To be successful in a business sense to in my personal time I can do creative things, like paint, shoot, whatever. So all my focus is on productivity, getting things done, being as efficient as possible, making the money, client relations, keeping good books, etc. All good things, but for a creative person somewhat unfulfilling. 

Don't get me wrong, there is something creative about writing a business model that you can believe in and has a shot at success. If you take care with it anyway. 

So it begs the question, where's the balance? If anyone knows exactly, let me know, I'd like to patent your answer. I think all we can do is to nurture both sides, realizing there is room for both, and in the creative field it is important to have some of each. But too much of either will put you with one leg in the boat and one on the dock when the boat's leaving. Instead, enjoy your time abroad in creative thought while you are there... (I've begun blocking time to do so... sounds forced, more about this later). But when it's time to come back ashore, and resupply as it were, remember that this is the life you chose, and your creative respites will not be so serene if you don't get your business done when you need to. 

Conditioning your mind to be creative on command. 

I mentioned that I've begun blocking out time each week to allow myself to be all artsy and creative and out of touch with reality. Just don't email clients during this time. 

This is guaranteed to feel awkward at first. But try it for a month. Depending on how much time you to get in the zone, block out 2-3 hours a week to go there. Do it at either the end of the day, mid-week (or whenever you are likely to have fewer deadlines. If possible, do take a break, stop your work completely, and allow yourself that time to just do whatever feels creative. Work on your own stuff, redesign your website, blog, paint, shoot, browse your favorite designers or illustrators, brainstorm new self-promotion campaigns, whatever it is. But don't expect to get anything done during this time. This will keep you fresh emotionally and creatively and it will keep you sane the other 37-57 hours of your week. 

If running your own business is wearing a million different hats at any given time, the creative hat is that one that you bought on a whim and only wear on a rare occasions, but gets you the most compliments when you do wear it. It might be weird or a little out there, but in the right company, it sets you apart from others.