[Photo: The view from Tim's window of the Hudson River and New Jersey skyline.]What are your upcoming projects right now?So we are building a new restaurant called Antonioni's. It’s going to be on Christie and Rivington. We have a video series right now with Garance Dore - I think she's one of the interesting voices in fashion. We have three episodes out and we’re going to Paris to make more. That’s really exciting. We have the magazine which is quaterly, and I’m doing a pop-up shop in LA in April. We're trying to help PeaceFirst launch the Peace Prize, a sort of Nobel Peace Prize for kids. We're working on book with photographer Marlene Marino. And we're launching a new concept with French partners called Ctzar which brings together all the opinion leaders and influencers we're connected with around the world.Like the one you did one in Miami? Yeah, the Webster, two years ago. And I’m doing the same kind of thing in LA, with Urban Outfitters. It’s like a gallery space and we’re getting a bunch of artists and we’re making boards, etc. Danny Fuller and Adrian Gaut are submitting work, Kelly Slater's new line will be presented. Surfing is my drug.So your spectrum is pretty wide. Yeah. I mean that’s the way we work, with my brother, is that we have our main business, where we work with big corporate brands, like we work a lot with Apple, Estee Lauder, Sony Pictures. We do creative direction, we do strategic branding, we do consulting, and we re-invest our energy into our own projects. We’ll do records, we’ll do restaurants or clubs. We’ll do those kinds of things. And lastly, we try to re-invest our resources in to non-profits. We work with a non-profit called Peace First, which helps kids in public schools in LA, Boston, and New York. That’s kind of the system we work in. So if we make a little bit of money from our projects we re-invest in exhibitions, books, records, hospitality things. The hospitality thing started when I met Luc of Gitane. Then Sean came up with the Jane Hotel, so we started the Gitane there. Then Le Baron started from there...You basically just do these really cool things and then re-invest your money...We’re really fortunate with our client roster because we’ve been working for a really long time and we’ve worked hard to stay independent. I do think that having many different clients allows us to do these things. We can produce our own projects. We have very little infrastructure: eight people and two offices. We are a really flexible. Whenever we make any kind of profit, we just re-invest in our projects, and that’s self-sustaining. Things like the Gainsbourg record really started off as kind of a fun project and we ended up selling it in 20 countries. We come from a generation of producers that do things with much less money than most people. We just partner up with the right people, like minds and stuff, so we don’t have to spend as much money because we leverage ideas and creativity. Things are just much easier and much quicker. When we do a magazine, when we do a record, anything, we just use the same ressources.[Photo: Hanging out with his sister as kids.]I mean, it sounds interesting. I can’t imagine you ever get bored with your job.Yeah, we’re really, really privileged. But it has its price. We’re really fortunate, me and my brother. We re-invested all of our time and ressources into traveling, developing clients, and all those things. So when I ended up going to California and pairing up with Apple, the motivation was to discover new territories... It’s just worked out. The challenge is to moderate yourself. We feel really privileged. We meet great people... and we stay around motivated people, hiring my brother and my sister, and hiring good people around us. Making money is never really a good motivation, being around stuff we like is.What’s your favorite city?New York, for sure.Would you call it your home base?Yeah, for sure. It’s funny because I moved back here 3 or 4 years ago and like I had just gotten divorced and I was like where do I want to live? I came back here knowing a lot of things here are much easier here than they are in France. I initially moved back here because the people I love most are here, the people that have that need for independence and creative integrity. A lot of people I identify with in France ended up moving out of France because I think it’s hard in France to stay independent. It’s really hard to be on your own, doing many different things. People in France like to have one place, one box. For me, New York is the one place where you can have many hats, whereas in France, you can’t. New York feels much more like home than Paris. I can surf in the morning, do a fashion shoot and produce music in the afternoon and help build a hang-out in the evening. Paris is too corporate and aristocratic. I think it's time for the old guard to move and I like to challenge old models. I don’t care for titles, structures, or affiliations. I like to bounce around... And, more importantly, the woman I love is here.You work a lot in Tokyo and Moscow as well. How is doing projects there different? I love Tokyo and Japanese people, but Japan has taken such a huge hit over the years, financial crisis, consumerism, tsunami, etc. The thing is that Japan is run by 75-year-olds. Like in France, if people over 60 are running businesses they don’t keep up with emerging trends. That’s what’s happening in France right now. That’s why people like me try different things, having failures and successes, leave France, because France doesn’t let you try. Both France and Japan can be very avant-garde at times but they're also extremely conservative. That young energy is being drained out of France and is going to Asia. The idea is if the market place is bigger the more likely it will sustain. That’s the thing with those countries. They have young, motivated kids who are hungry for information. And in France they work slowly. They’re like, ‘let’s have coffee.' That’s why I like New York. Everyone is crazy and searching for more. This is home.
Check out a clip of his latest project "Pardon My French" with Garance Dore below:
[Photo: The view from Tim's window of the Hudson River and New Jersey skyline.]
What are your upcoming projects right now?
So we are building a new restaurant called Antonioni's. It’s going to be on Christie and Rivington. We have a video series right now with Garance Dore - I think she's one of the interesting voices in fashion. We have three episodes out and we’re going to Paris to make more. That’s really exciting. We have the magazine which is quaterly, and I’m doing a pop-up shop in LA in April. We're trying to help PeaceFirst launch the Peace Prize, a sort of Nobel Peace Prize for kids. We're working on book with photographer Marlene Marino. And we're launching a new concept with French partners called Ctzar which brings together all the opinion leaders and influencers we're connected with around the world.
Like the one you did one in Miami?
Yeah, the Webster, two years ago. And I’m doing the same kind of thing in LA, with Urban Outfitters. It’s like a gallery space and we’re getting a bunch of artists and we’re making boards, etc. Danny Fuller and Adrian Gaut are submitting work, Kelly Slater's new line will be presented. Surfing is my drug.
So your spectrum is pretty wide.
Yeah. I mean that’s the way we work, with my brother, is that we have our main business, where we work with big corporate brands, like we work a lot with Apple, Estee Lauder, Sony Pictures. We do creative direction, we do strategic branding, we do consulting, and we re-invest our energy into our own projects. We’ll do records, we’ll do restaurants or clubs. We’ll do those kinds of things. And lastly, we try to re-invest our resources in to non-profits. We work with a non-profit called Peace First, which helps kids in public schools in LA, Boston, and New York. That’s kind of the system we work in. So if we make a little bit of money from our projects we re-invest in exhibitions, books, records, hospitality things. The hospitality thing started when I met Luc of Gitane. Then Sean came up with the Jane Hotel, so we started the Gitane there. Then Le Baron started from there...
You basically just do these really cool things and then re-invest your money...
We’re really fortunate with our client roster because we’ve been working for a really long time and we’ve worked hard to stay independent. I do think that having many different clients allows us to do these things. We can produce our own projects. We have very little infrastructure: eight people and two offices. We are a really flexible. Whenever we make any kind of profit, we just re-invest in our projects, and that’s self-sustaining. Things like the Gainsbourg record really started off as kind of a fun project and we ended up selling it in 20 countries. We come from a generation of producers that do things with much less money than most people. We just partner up with the right people, like minds and stuff, so we don’t have to spend as much money because we leverage ideas and creativity. Things are just much easier and much quicker. When we do a magazine, when we do a record, anything, we just use the same ressources.
[Photo: Hanging out with his sister as kids.]
I mean, it sounds interesting. I can’t imagine you ever get bored with your job.
Yeah, we’re really, really privileged. But it has its price. We’re really fortunate, me and my brother. We re-invested all of our time and ressources into traveling, developing clients, and all those things. So when I ended up going to California and pairing up with Apple, the motivation was to discover new territories... It’s just worked out. The challenge is to moderate yourself. We feel really privileged. We meet great people... and we stay around motivated people, hiring my brother and my sister, and hiring good people around us. Making money is never really a good motivation, being around stuff we like is.
What’s your favorite city?
New York, for sure.
Would you call it your home base?
Yeah, for sure. It’s funny because I moved back here 3 or 4 years ago and like I had just gotten divorced and I was like where do I want to live? I came back here knowing a lot of things here are much easier here than they are in France. I initially moved back here because the people I love most are here, the people that have that need for independence and creative integrity. A lot of people I identify with in France ended up moving out of France because I think it’s hard in France to stay independent. It’s really hard to be on your own, doing many different things. People in France like to have one place, one box. For me, New York is the one place where you can have many hats, whereas in France, you can’t. New York feels much more like home than Paris. I can surf in the morning, do a fashion shoot and produce music in the afternoon and help build a hang-out in the evening. Paris is too corporate and aristocratic. I think it's time for the old guard to move and I like to challenge old models. I don’t care for titles, structures, or affiliations. I like to bounce around... And, more importantly, the woman I love is here.
You work a lot in Tokyo and Moscow as well. How is doing projects there different?
I love Tokyo and Japanese people, but Japan has taken such a huge hit over the years, financial crisis, consumerism, tsunami, etc. The thing is that Japan is run by 75-year-olds. Like in France, if people over 60 are running businesses they don’t keep up with emerging trends. That’s what’s happening in France right now. That’s why people like me try different things, having failures and successes, leave France, because France doesn’t let you try. Both France and Japan can be very avant-garde at times but they're also extremely conservative.
That young energy is being drained out of France and is going to Asia. The idea is if the market place is bigger the more likely it will sustain. That’s the thing with those countries. They have young, motivated kids who are hungry for information. And in France they work slowly. They’re like, ‘let’s have coffee.' That’s why I like New York. Everyone is crazy and searching for more. This is home.
Check out a clip of his latest project "Pardon My French" with Garance Dore below:
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