5 Things We Learned... George Gottl

If you don’t have a mentor…get a mentor. And preferably one as savvy and generous with time as George Gottl. I met George in 2018 on a visit to his stylish offices at UXUS, where he’s Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder. I’m incredibly lucky to count him as a friend and mentor who has been an integral part of advising on and motivating the growth of Culture A as we start our third year. His company UXUS is a leading strategic global design consultancy. It’s been in the business of creating groundbreaking experiential design before the industry even started to push that terminology. George’s teams dominate in producing dynamic consumer experience environments for clients such as InterContinental Hotels Group, McDonald’s, NIKE, Bloomingdale’s, Sephora, H&M, and Tate Modern, among others. They design with a psychological and emotive approach, for example, looking at the role of social media as it affects brand experience. The creative market is driven by “shareable moments”, which UXUS nurtures in order to drive engagement and interaction from services to interiors.

Prior to UXUS, George was the Creative Director at Nike and the Global Creative Director at Mandarina Duck. He is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and was awarded a Silver Thimble for design excellence.

Here are 5 Things We Learned about George.

What made you...you?

Curiosity. It’s the constant pursuit of “why” that drives my life and has made me who I am. I live to discover and understand, and that has brought me a wonderfully rich life that I am very grateful for. As a creative, discovering the reason for why something exists or why producing something a certain way is important, has helped me create not only successful products as a fashion designer, but also UXUS, the company that I have now.

When are you happiest?

When I am making something….that can mean anything from the design of a space to building an international company.

Would you rather have a muse or be a muse?

The world is my muse, so who needs to be one!?

Who do you admire?

I admire people who are brave and follow their hearts. Those are the people that change the world because they are not constrained by what others think.

What is important?

Being authentic to who you are and being brave enough to live that life.