#372 - SIMON JAMES, Partner at Wylan James Development
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design are joined by Simon James, Partner at Wylan James Development to discuss his background; interning at Smashbox; becoming a creative director; building their cosmetics line; leading a large team; transitioning into architecture, design and development; first projects; the importance of budget; reflecting on his career; and more. Enjoy!
ABOUT SIMON
Simon has been in the creative world for more than 20 years. As the global head of creative for Smash box he led the in-house team for global store design and branding. Simon owns one of the hottest boutique clothing stores in the world. He has been designing and building homes for over a decade and his strong love of design and architecture led him into the world of real estate development.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Background in photography.
(11:27) Journey with Smashbox.
“You can use the studios whenever you want and equipment for free… Talk about going to the best real-life college you could ever go to for photography. This was it. The biggest photographers in the world were coming through here.” (13:08)
(28:50) Transition into leadership.
“I want them to feel like they’re part of this brand. I don't want them to feel like I am dictating. And I will say it was difficult because, I'm a very specific person and I like to be involved in everything. So I found that sometimes if someone wasn't doing what I was envisioning, what was in my head, I would kind of take the project back and I would do it myself. I quickly realized that that was disempowering my team.” (31:17)
(34:39) Moving into design and architecture.
“Whether it's good or bad, I think that that's almost like immersive art in a way. It's like this vision that you've had, you’ve thought about and you’ve painstakingly made revisions to, is coming to life. I don’t know anything that compares to it.” (40:08)
(45:30) First project.
(01:01:30) About Wylan James Development.
“My philosophy, coming from the corporate world, is that you live and die by your budget. When you set that budget, you have to stick to it. And sometimes that's harder than other times and sometimes you have to make concessions. But oftentimes, you don’t if you are really smart with where you spend and you hire the right team and you build the right thing.” (01:17:38)
(01:18:01) Process.
(01:29:40) Budget.
(01:34:26) Growth of office.
“Going back to my past life, I saw what happened. We were this really cool, nimble, creative company and we grew into this big, massive corporate brand and we sort of lost our profitability… We want to grow. We want to continue to grow. How big that is, I don't know.” (01:34:40)
(01:37:43) Reflecting on career.
(01:44:24) In-house architect.
“My gut reaction to that question is probably not, because I really enjoy discovering new architects. I feel that our style has kind of changed a little bit, for the better over time, to get more refined, a little bit better, and a little bit more solidified into what we want to do and build.” (01:45:00)
