As often as I can, I’m going to be writing about people who’ve inspired, taught, or influenced me in one way or another. Some of these people I know personally, others I’ve just read about or admired over the years.
Richard Bird runs R.BIRD, a brand and package design firm in New York. He’s been in the industry for over 35 years and his design business has been around for nearly 30 years.
I met Richard because he was a customer of mine. Back in mid 90s I wrote some FileMaker Pro-based organizing products. One was called Audiofile. It let you organize your music collection. Richard was an avid music collector so Audiofile was perfect for him. I think he found it in the file sections on AOL.
I don’t remember how we struck up a friendship, but we’ve kept in touch for years. For the last few years we’ve talked by IM nearly every weekday. As business owners we shoot the shit about business, talk about the industry, share interesting links related to design, ideas, writing, advertising, and politics. We often start our days with a quick “morning” IM to one another.
I admire Richard for many reasons. For one, he’s a survivor. It’s not easy running a design firm for 30 years. Things in that business change fast, and he’s managed to thrive and survive through it all. He’s seen a lot and been through a lot. There have been many times when they were on the brink of closing shop, but he always found a way to keep it together. I have deep respect for that.
Another thing I admire about Richard is that he’s one of those guys who just knows what’s right in a situation. If I’m struggling with a tough decision, I’ll often run it by him first. Inevitably he gives me sage advice. Never sensational, always respectful and thoughtful and objective. I always know that when I ask him a question I’ll get his honest opinion back. That’s rare – many people sugarcoat their thoughts. We don’t always agree, but I always consider his perspective.
I’ve learned a lot from Richard and I look forward to learning a lot more.
Check out R.BIRD to find out more about his business. One of my favorite things they do is their Patterns series where they visit retail stores to photograph and observe product packaging on shelf in search of common design threads and competitive opportunities. If you’re interested in brand packaging, retailing, and trends, Patterns is a fascinating read.
Don Schenck
on 10 Jun 11I’ll be anxious for your post about me here.
COUGH
Melanie
on 10 Jun 11Hey, that’s a great story. Mentors appear in our lives often unexpectedly and sometimes their role is unacknowledged. Yet on reflection they provide so much growth, development and wisdom. It’s wonderful to let them know the value they hold fir you and how much they helped. This is a novel way to do that. Well done!
Al Pittampalli
on 10 Jun 11Sounds like a great mentor. His Tempurpedic work is beautiful. Thanks for sharing, Jason.
Beth
on 10 Jun 11I was just thinking about this the other day….I thought it would be cool to have a social site that just listed your name, brief bio and a section with mentors you know personally and below that a section for mentors you don’t know but who have inspired your work.
Aryanpour
on 11 Jun 11Great, Thanks for sharing Jason.
Gurpreet Singh
on 11 Jun 11There is no story here. When you spoke about the ‘objective advice’ he gives you, I thought you will include some interesting anecdotes or two. But none.
Sorry but, three minutes wasted (in reading this) :)
Bob
on 11 Jun 11(OT) Where did the Brewdog post go?
Christdoper
on 12 Jun 11Great. His work is beautiful. Thanks for sharing .
Paul
on 12 Jun 11Brewdog post?
Bob
on 12 Jun 11Paul: There was a post on this blog about Brewdog, a Scottish brewing company. It was a regurgitated press-release and received some negative comments. It has since been removed.
JaySchu
on 12 Jun 11Oh wow, I didn’t even notice that until you pointed it out Bob. That’s really odd…
Paul
on 12 Jun 11Realise that Bob, was asking the same question…....
Anonymous Coward
on 12 Jun 11It’s not odd, it’s damage control.
ML
on 13 Jun 11Update: I removed the BrewDog post in order to give the founders of BrewDog an opportunity to respond to the claims made against them in the comments. It is now back up again with a response from one of the founders.
Let’s keep the comments here on topic. Thanks guys.
This discussion is closed.