Some inspiring messages speak louder than others. Such are Timothy Goodman’s words. A designer, illustrator, muralist, and author, his messages are splashed on anything from magazine covers and clothes to walls and, sometimes, whole buildings.
But whether it’s a large-scale public mural on the streets of NYC, a marker scrawling on a Uniqlo t-shirt, or a post on Instagram, Goodman wants his words to pack a punch – hoping to spark dialogues surrounding difficult subjects such as heartbreak, politics, and mental health.
“I just want to create art that people can connect to,” he admitted in a candid interview with Eye on Design. “With so many of the stories I’m trying to tell, I’m trying to make things for actual people. I think sharing your personal stories is sort of activism; when you connect to other lonely people in the world, I think there’s a service involved that is really powerful. I want to continue to use my work as a vehicle for that.”
According to Godman, the greatest joy in being an artist is the ability to connect to other humans emotionally through his work and words. “If I can’t connect to someone seeing my work on an emotional level, then I don’t know why I’m doing it,” he says. “How do you interact with a great film or a great book or a great album? You’re connecting with it emotionally.”
With almost 170k followers on Instagram, people seem to be connecting. And it’s not only people who hear him out. His clients also include giants like Google, Samsung, Uniqlo, Target, Airbnb, Netflix, and The New Yorker. Take a look for yourself:
