April 3, 2017

Meet Gary Gibson of GIBSON in Mid Wilshire

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Gibson.

Gary, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started as a painter out of school, after a couple of years I met an Interior Designer, who encouraged me to go to UCLA to study Interior Design, which I did. After having a successful Interior Design firm for some 35 years, about 20 years ago I started Gibson Studio which is our furniture collection that we show here and in NY. Gibson the store came about 15 years ago. This is sheer passion and love for me, it houses our interior design firm, but it houses the vintage, Gibson Studio, and purchased production furniture, objects, and general goods that I love.

The thing that makes Gibson work is for several reasons, it is all things I love, and not necessarily anything that has a provenance, it can be the simplest thing, based on its patina, texture, scale, volume, how it was made, meaning a box that was made 75 years ago, by the owner to accommodate his tools of his trade for instance. People like a story and can relate to something they have or their grandfather had, it is something that touches the soul.

I also think that we curate all our objects, furniture, and art in a way that is not overly cluttered. I try and make it so that people can relate to their own lives and how they would use in their environments. We are always on the hunt for the unusual and functional, but we do our best to think out of the box, on how objects of the past can be used in today’s environments. We do this on our Interior Design projects, like I said before it gives the home a soul, and an Identity that represents the homeowner. The other thing I like about Gibson and what we do here is the fascinating people that we get to meet in our shop, from the entertainment world, movies studios, production designers, stylist, interior designers, and the general public.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
For the most part the journey has been pretty smooth! Fortunately for me I have the Interior Design business and the furniture business. Now this being said of course there is ebbs and flows to business on many levels. There is always the issues of cash flow, product, and in our case finding cool vintage is a big challenge anymore.

I think the important thing is that this is my passion and what I love doing, so the challenges are not a big obstacle. I tend to live in a bubble as far as our shop, meaning that when we are designing interiors or furniture we have this amazing space to work in with all this amazing things to enjoy and inspire.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the GIBSON story. Tell us more about the business.
Gibson the store is what makes my creative juices flow, like I have said previously I get to work in an environment that is my studio, and as well I get to work with great guys Holt and Robb. We do High End Residential Interiors all over the country which I love, because it is so personal and many of our clients I have worked with for years on multiple homes. Gibson the shop is my baby though! I have always collected things since I was 10 years old, I had a wall of cubicles where I could all my different collections. Then of course with the interior design business, we are always installing whole houses and putting together items of the clients but things that we find to enhance the interior and give it the soul that I was speaking of to represent the client’s personality.

Gibson is probably knowing for our small vintage objects, people will come in and love a whole table of objects, books, art, etc. based on how we have curated the pieces and want the whole thing. Also we have so many of the art and design community support us because of the great objects that we have that do not break the bank.

We do a big business with movies, production designers, and stylus because we have so many great objects and props that they can rent, and makes their life easier for their projects.

Since I really live in the moment this kind of question tends to throw me, but I guess that after 15 years. First off we are still here as a brick and mortar location and that people from around the world are constantly coming in and you have established friendship with these people, but they like what we are doing here. The thing is everything here I have put in here, and curated exactly how I see it, and it is about the eye and how you put it together. But people love it! And that makes me happy that there are like-minded people that get what I do here.

What sets Gibson apart, well I think we have really great things here that are shown in a way that people want to have it, and they enjoy their time here in the shop. We are a really friendly group here and give really good service and love what we do and want to share with people.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck, is funny to me! I think it is more about passion and hard work! What is that expression? “If you love what you do, you don’t work a day in your life!” I live by that, I have think I have been extremely fortunate to a have a very close knit and supportive family, amazing friends, and hopefully some talent! I think for me it’s having personality with talent, and being at the right place at the right time! It is more about what it is about! If that is luck, then I am a very lucky guy!

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