ALTPICK.COM

James Tucker inherited his business savvy from his restauranteur grandfather and real estate developer father. He blended their business know-how with his natural creativity and ambition when he established his graphic and interactive design firm THUNKdesign.

See the Thunk reel (Quicktime)

In 1992 Tucker began his design career in San Diego at a graphic design firm and soon headed to Munich to travel and pursue design on an international level. He arrived in Germany only to discover that his contact for an arranged job had abandoned him. With only fifty dollars and a return ticket in his pocket, Tucker began dialing design companies asking, "Speak English?" By the end of the day he had set up interviews and begun working. "I became known as the American designer that spoke Macintosh English," Tucker recalls.

In 1995 Tucker returned to the states to continue his design career. altpick.com spoke to James Tucker about THUNKdesign, inspiration philosophy and success.

What makes your company unique?
We are the design firm of the future - with Ninja designers. We want the elements of the finished projects to be the visual equivalent of a song stuck in your head. A designer out there today has to possess a plethora of talents. I've always been a stickler for quality and we look at projects that allow us to be creative perfectionists. People are coming to us because of the consistent quality and the fast turnaround.

How has the vision of your company evolved?
My original idea of creating a ten to fifteen person design firm hasn't really changed. Opening worldwide offices of the same size is on track. It's more of a lifestyle; the people coming on board are a new hybrid of designers. I had to adapt a little in terms of the types of projects I thought I'd be taking on. It's still designed around what we want to work on as individuals and not trends in the market.

What advice would you give to someone starting a company?
Find people to help you out in areas that aren't your strongest. Really do some soul searching and figure out what you want to do. My advice is what someone handed to me a long time ago and it's really simple: "If it's not fun, it's not worth being done." Nothing is worth the amount of stress I see some of my contemporaries go through. We want to be fully charged for every project that comes in. The client also wants to be entertained and know that we are enjoying our lives and the project that they have presented to us.

How do you keep yourself inspired?
I'm volunteering in a fifth grade classroom through a program by AIGA, trying to teach kids about the creative process. We teach them about creating their own logos and have them create a company image. It's amazing how many kids it really clicks with. To inspire others is an inspiration in itself, children especially.

THUNKdesign clients include Eddie Bauer, British Airways, Inktomi, and Sonicnet.

- Contributed by Mary Beth Holland