 I'm delighted that Tim Gunn is here and I want to confess that we've done a little bit of a bait and switch. All of you know Tim of course from Project Runway where he's been the host for 13 seasons. 14. 14 seasons. He's also hosted several series of his own and is about to launch a brand new version of Project Runway called Project Runway Junior for high school kids. Yes 13 to 17 year olds. Yeah but I think that a lot of you might not know that Tim is at his core in Educator. 29 years. For 29 years. That's where we met. I met Tim when we were both working together at Parsons. But when was it 25 or more 27 years ago? Yes. Sorry. Thank you. Caroline was only two at the time. I was in my 20s and he was blonde. It was a long time ago. But as design and design education is something Tim is passionate about and there are a few things that are few people who know more about that than Tim. So this is a great opportunity for us to ask Tim a little bit about his career path but also at the end of this you're welcome to ask Tim any questions you want and if you want to explore the idea of design education and college pathways and things like that he's a great resource for you all and that's how we get him here year after year. So the first thing I would actually like to ask him is how he got to the place that he is now. How much time do we have? I mean what I want all of you to know is you are in such an enviable position. You have the whole world and future ahead of you and you can make of it whatever it is you decide you want to make. Whatever passion drives you, whatever calling is speaking to you and speaking for myself I was an avid, voracious, rather insatiable student. I have had as a young person and still today a tremendous curiosity about well about everything and about the world and it's certainly what drove me. When I was very little I was a huge fan of Legos and you couldn't pry me away from them. I was building things, deconstructing things and I go back to the olden days when there wasn't a prescription on the cover of the box, it was just an anonymous box of bricks and I became very passionate about architecture and that was my goal. I was going to be an architect and I studied architecture for one semester only and I'm Jurassic so it goes back to the days well before computers were even in someone's imagination. I go back to the abacus. The experience of studying architecture at that time was for me excruciating. It was a time when you had to drop India Inc into a stylus and pull it along a straight edge in order to make any sort of presentation drawing and you could work on a drawing for hours if not days and if that ink bled you had to start all over again and I thought this is a quick route to a nervous breakdown. I left architecture, I studied English literature and actually received a degree in that but I was still trying to find myself. I thought do I want to be a writer? I was always very creative and what direction would it take? Well I ended up, I will make this shorter, I ended up studying fine arts for another four years. I'm very lucky to have had supportive parents who were willing to fund a second undergraduate degree and it was during that time when I discovered sculpture and I ended up being a sculptor who works with paper and illustration board and I made work that was very architectural in reference but stepped away from that. I built architectural models for three firms in Washington D.C. for close to four years and that's how I put food on the table and then I was invited to teach and I never dreamed that I would end up being a career educator but that's exactly what happened to me. 29 years as a teacher and during many of those years I was also an administrator. I came to New York to work at Parsons School of Design in 1983 and it was a few years after that when I met Caroline and I was associate dean later in my career at Parsons and in that capacity I was a kind of Mr. Fixit. I went into places that needed fixing and in 1999-2000 our fashion design department was in a state of crisis and I was sent in a ostensibly for a year to offer up a diagnosis of what was wrong and it was largely curricular though it was also part of the whole culture of the department and then a prescription for as I say how to make it work and it was there that the it was in my role well I wasn't there for a year I ended up spending the last seven and a half years at Parsons as chair of the department of fashion design and it was there that the project runway producers found me and they were looking for a consultant my role on the show didn't exist in fact it happened at the very last minute I I believe no one's ever said this but I believe the producers were worried that the project runway designers would arrive in the work room and no one would talk they would just do their work but by sending me in or someone like me to ask them some probing questions they would be assured of some dialogue and I never dreamed there'd be a season two of the show let alone a season 14 so very briefly that's my serendipitous path and I'm always talking about life serendipitous path you never know where it's going to take you and you need to be alert for opportunities and when something is looking as though it's percolating around you you you should examine it and decide whether it's worth nurturing and developing further so I don't want you to think that your ciphers and things will just happen to you you have to accept responsibility for making things happen and to me that's very thrilling I think one of the other things I'm struck by in that path is deciding that thinking that there was something you absolutely had to do like being an architect and have that not work out for you and that was quite devastating so could you talk a little bit about how one you know takes but you then took those skills and brought them somewhere absolutely I mean I my mother hated this expression when she was still around but I use it with some frequency and that is things happen for a reason you don't always know what the reason is but it will be revealed later and that study of architecture as excruciating as I've and it's disappointing as I found it to be it was a wake-up call in a matter of speaking and I did learn skills there especially discipline and my cursive writing went away I still print the way that one does when one studying architecture and the problem solving that was inherent and all of that became something that fueled me and helped me dissect situations as I was presented with them as life moved forward and I and I have to say I think it's I won't won't call my leaving my study of architecture is I wouldn't wouldn't call it a failure but I will say I'll repeat it was very disappointing and we learn from these experiences and when things just go swimmingly well and all the pieces come together perfectly and there's no doubt or questioning I don't know how much we learn from that I think we learn much more from taking risks and throwing the dice and seeing what happens when when we just remain in a comfortable place and stagnate a matter of speaking I don't believe that we discover anything new I believe that that stagnant state is a kind of inertia and it's important to take risks I always say I would tell my students this all the time when you feel in your core a little uneasy a little scared nervous you have anxiety something important is happening something that you really need to examine if you have just a state of ease and comfort and you're feeling well at peace with what's going on I don't believe the needles moving moving forward I will say you reach a time in your life when you want that to be the case but when you're young and you're growing and developing it's important to throw the dice and I encourage you all to do that and as a teacher what kinds of things would you want you obviously you want a student to leave your class with skills but are there you know in sort of in terms of the subject matter but are there things in terms of their of what their life skills so you wanted to make sure somebody would leave a class with yes I mean I was always will still am intent upon telling young people my students even the project runway designers the qualities of character are just as important as your conceptual abilities your technical abilities and how good you are at ex executing that work being a good citizen of the world giving back giving of yourself in any way volunteering and just being a responsible citizen of the world to me is critically critically important and I would say to my students my expectations of you are in fact great and at the bare minimum I expect you to show up and I expect you to shine actually by the end of the semester I would say just show up I don't care if you're not shining anymore so be a good citizen of the world and I have to say in my study of art and design when I was a student it taught me so many things that are well that became critically important to how I navigate the world whatever you I produce I believe must be excellent it requires a great deal of self-discipline and self-critical analytical abilities to be able to to ask myself is this good enough is it good enough to leave my hands and go out in the world it taught me how to ask questions it taught me how to listen I have to say I find that today there's a terrible erosion in listening and it's so important that we hear that we synthesize and process especially before we speak or make any kinds of judgments on some of the the things that we think are most basic to our existence are some of the things that are matters that we're not very good at so some basic things like listening when speaking it's I feel it's so important to have a good level of empathy and by that I mean ask yourself especially when you're delivering something that's criticism which I do all the time ask yourself how would I feel if these words and and the intonation with which they're being presented how would I feel if they were presented to me and I do this all the time and very frequently I I recalibrate my thinking because I know it will be that to amend it will result in it in something that's more positive right and all of us the design process we talk about all the time right yes thinking about that user being empathetic about what they need it's critical and then thinking about the way you present that work absolutely I know we have people batting down we want a couple we want some questions but I have a one one or two more questions I'd love to ask and I know we have a lot of project runway fans here good do we and I wonder if you can talk a little bit about your how teaching prepared you for mentoring the runway folks and the difference between them which we like to think that it prepared me and I did in certain in certain ways as a teacher to be perfectly blunt I could tell my students what to do and what not to do I I could say I forbid you to use this particular textile it's something that you're so used to using I want you to take risks I want you to take chances this is a this is your safety zone get away from it and I would have students over the course of 15 weeks so if something needed to be reworked needed new sources or new resources we had time to work with that on project runway there is no time I mean to be perfectly blunt when we when we said that the designers have one day for a challenge it's 10 hours it's 10 hours to conceptualize to shop to return to the workroom and to drape and draft cut so fit the model style the model and prep for the runway it's 10 hours so I need to be a blunt instrument and I don't believe in telling the designers we're talking to the designers about things that they can't change that we're not going back to mood so if this textile isn't working out for this particular design I'll ask the designer whether the whole concept should be reconceived but I'm there as a well in my mental role I'm there as a cheerleader I'm there as a truth teller I'm there as as a champion and I'm there to help support them so that they're able to achieve the highest level of work possible that's all that I want I want them to be delivering their best work under the circumstances of course and my minimum expectation is that they are a thousand percent committed to it and are working their little butts off which was the reason for my explosion last week someone was very lazy and have been the entire season and I would say as a fan of the show I want them to listen to you because it seems that the moment they don't they're like off like that's when they go off the rails well I I'd say to the designers with a good deal of frequency look it's not my work I don't own responsibility for it on the runway you need to so we're having this dialogue I'm giving you feedback and and and advice or I'm giving you feedback and what you choose to do with it is totally up up to you but I do want you to listen and to process to synthesize and then it's completely up to you and since season 8 I've been saying who knows what the judges are going to say the designers don't and I certainly don't one last question we have a lot of students here who are very interested in going to design school and thinking about it very seriously what kind of advice would you give to someone who's I've got some people in front row who are absolutely excited about it what kind of advice would you give them if this is something they're thinking about well I would say do your due diligence do your investigation and research visit schools any school you're considering I want to say this and I'm speaking for someone who was at Parsons for a quarter of a century a schools only as good as it suits your needs so forget about what your friend says what the perceived reputation of the school is it really is only as good as it as it serves your needs and needs evolve and I'm no students transfer it's not something that's permanent and I don't want to place in your heads that this is going to be like my experience one semester you're out I don't say that at all as much as your your needs may change they may evolve but the opportunity of working with people who are as good as you are and who will help push you motivate you challenge you is really an extraordinary thing and I know for me when I studied art and design and was in a conservatory like environment I felt at home I felt as though I'd been unshackled I felt as though I was with all these kid would spirits because I was and I made friends for life these are people with whom I still interact and we help each other and it's it's a life-bonding experience and it's quite extraordinary quite extraordinary I see Michelle's here with a mic and I know that a lot of kids have questions and I know I challenge the Chad kids to come up with some as well as our New York kids and the kids from Kansas so if you have a question please raise your hand and somebody with a mic will come over and I I want you all to know what I'm doing ever so rudely with this phone I want to take a selfie of all of us yeah so bear with me I'm disrupting all right got it let's do it again okay I just keep everything all right everyone let's get your questions that's done I just ruined the whole at least they're not shy no it's great everyone sit back down let's get questions if you have a question why don't actually why don't you go over to Michelle that's good and could you tell us where you what your name is and where you're from hello can everybody my name is Terence and I'm from Brooklyn and I just want to ask them do you believe in a creative block or a mental block and if so how do you deal with it I'm sorry would you mind repeating that do you believe in a creative block for a designer block yes how do you deal with it can I be honest with you I have no patience for it and I have it myself you have to make yourself work even if it's only for a half an hour a day you have to just make yourself do it because the block can become a very handy excuse when you just think oh I'm too tired I'm I'm creatively mentally spent just work through it it's like a long-distance runner just work right through the wall I would not entertain the block or indulge it in any way at all and you know the project runway designers go through this I'm always saying to them about halfway through the season well the good news is you're still here and the bad news is you're still here because they're mentally physically creatively emotionally spent and they have to rally and keep working they don't have the luxury of I mean unless they win a challenge and they have immunity but I've never seen a designer take advantage of that and just go sleep in the designers lounge they they want to win again so work through it and you know I have to tell you to living in the city I know not all of you do but you're from major metropolitan areas there's so much to inspire just riding on the subway getting here was I mean I saw a lot of don't let this happen to you but a lot that was really inspiring this museum just the city take a walk the country for that matter the countryside there's I I visited our Paris campus for Parsons at some point in the mid 1990s and well no I'm sorry it was in the 2000s I was checking up on my fashion students they were there for a year abroad and I asked them how how are you and they said oh we're so bored you're in Paris France what do you mean your board right I said get out of these work rooms and go explore the city so work through it and I think there's something to be said for this idea that although everything might not be great you'll things can always get better absolutely one of the things I was actually when I met him I taught at Parsons but I taught English I was not a designer and one of the things that always impressed me about the Parsons students is that they looked at creativity like it was a muscle that you had to use yes and not is some magic thing that would only appear to your on your shoulder you know and then would come and go but it was something that you constantly had to use that's perfect I love that it's a muscle yes and you have to use it develop it hi hi my name is Joshua for Philadelphia and my question is what has been your greatest accomplishment well I have a lot to be proud of I have to say and thank you Joshua for the question but what I believe I'm most proud of was retooling the fashion department at Parsons that was a tremendously daunting task and it required well it required that I have that I keep one thing central to me which was what is best for the students and the entire curriculum was thrown out the window Caroline helped develop the fashion history program which had not existed and it was all about what's what's best for you and we had faculty who'd been there for decades and some of them were on board and some of them were not and some of the most difficult things I did was to say to people I'm sorry if you're not on board with the change then we're gonna have to wave bye bye and that very first curricular change produced some famous designers did indeed we want to share that with the room well the Proenza Scholar boys Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez were part of the first year of the new curriculum and I have to say that I'm hugely proud of them of course but the faculty really resisted tremendously my approving Jack and Lazaro working as a collaborative team they said no no no no everyone's a solo and I said this industry isn't a solo this industry is collaborative and if we can't foster and nurture this collaborative process here within the the safety net of the Academy who else can do this so we've had a bit we had collaborations for every year after that and they were and far too many of them were successful for it to be just a coincidence hi hi I'm huge fan thank you earlier you mentioned about the danger of being stagnant and being your comfort zone yes what advice do you have to get out of your comfort zone well it goes back to what I was saying about an opportunity that makes you feel nervous uneasy it may give you self doubts try it try it you will it may mean that if it's if it's a bad experience you'll retreat and you can go back into your comfort zone but you will be richer and broader as a person as an individual from that experience so look for those opportunities I mean help create them it may be an internship it may be a course that you are uneasy about taking it it may be just a friendship with someone who is a person the likes of which you've never interacted on but go beyond that the comfort zone is it's fine when you need a little safe haven that it can't be where you live and I'm speaking for someone who's infinitely older than all of you and I still make myself do it I make myself we have a question over there and then we have one over here hi my name is David Bermudas hi David I had a question for where are you from I'm from the High School of Art and Design and I'm good and I'm from the Bronx I wanted to ask you what do you recommend for a student who has an extreme drive and a passion for what they want to do but struggles with the idea of they might not be able to get into a certain school or not might not be able to study something because of of the circumstances that they face such as financial academic what do you recommend advice well I'll save from the onset you're very lucky to have a passion and a drive and an ambition that's that's something that's very laudable and when we have a passion and a drive it will find an outlet it will find it will find a way to work about schools I will say this any school that exists has resources for the students to take advantage of and I would say this to my own students of Parsons I am bringing about 35 to 40 percent of this learning experience into this classroom and they'd look at each I would say this the first day they look at look at each other with shock what do you mean it's that I am not the answer man I'm not going to stand here and just lecture at you for hours you are responsible for bringing 75 70 to 75 percent of the experience and into this classroom yourselves when students would ask me a question even when I knew the answer I would my response would be okay everyone research this for next week I want to hear what what your responses are and I want you to have an answer that you think no one else will have because it made them dive deeply so I believe any school can contribute to your moving forward and I have to say to most colleges and and design schools universities have very generous financial aid for students who have need so don't think I won't get in or I can't afford it just talk to admissions offices and do what your heart and your mind tell you to do don't don't self-doubt and don't think I can't try it does that help okay good good good question I'm sure it's shared by a lot of people hello hi hi my name is Asia and I'm from Philadelphia and I go to Chad excellent my question is what is your opinion on working on more than one idea like I'm not a fashion designer and in the I'm more of illustrator in the world it's I guess it's not it's common to work on more than one idea but is it different in the fashion world oh good happens no I mean the fashion world there usually are three or four seasons that are being worked on at the same time I mean go under the days when a designer and their team would work on a collection and present the collection at fashion week on a runway and then go off to the south of France and vacation for two weeks it doesn't happen anymore it's you show a collection turn on a dime and you're you're halfway through the next season's collection so that multitasking and and that ability to keep different compartments of the brain active and and interacting is critical in all the design fields it's I mean you're constantly multitasking and I'll repeat what I said earlier it's a big collaboration no one does this alone in design you're you're just you're not a solo you're working with with a lot of different people and there are so many different prongs to the process and that's what I think makes it so exciting and it's such potent problem solving I find that that that problem solving actually helps me with my life because well beyond what happens in in the design studio so I wish you much much much luck and we need good illustrators thank you we're gonna have to wrap this up that was the last question but before everybody goes because I know this will be an audience super interested in project runway junior that start project runway junior premieres November 12th and I'm timid mentioned there's already a second season so I'm guessing these designers in the room should look at the website for opportunities oh I love you to future yes my lifetime calm it's probably it's too soon for anything to be posted about the next keep looking because I'm sure but you watch me I have to tell you I thought oh we have 13 year olds and we have 17 year olds this is such an unfair the 17 year olds have such an unfair advantage you won't believe it that the age differential just evaporates and they're there each designers on their own feet and the level of the work is well it's phenomenal it's phenomenal so I have to say owing to my interaction with with you and with the teen design fair process and what I've experienced in many past years and now my experience with project runway junior thanks to all of you the future couldn't look brighter to me so congratulations everyone thank you