2009 40 Under Forty: David Silva
David Silva
Age: 35
Title: Creative Director
Company: Elevation Exhibits
Company location: Shrewsbury
Residence: Auburn
College: Rhode Island School of Design
Career highlights: I went to college to be an illustrator. When I got to school I discovered the industrial design department. I was always building stuff in my father’s workshop growing up, so it seemed like a good fit. While there I focused on furniture design. Out of college my options were limited to designing picture frames or diaper bags, so I moved back home to Virginia and got a job working on museum exhibits for the Smithsonian. After a few years, that evolved into designing children’s museums, and visitors centers. The development time for such large projects was much too long for my attention span, so I moved to the tradeshow industry; same type of creative design work but with a much faster turnaround.
Community involvement: At Elevation Exhibits, I am able to assist on various fundraisers or community projects. With the assistance of the owners of the company we are able to donate resources such as design time and our production facilities to help build kiosks, props or sets for a wide variety of events.
The most gratifying work to me though is teaching my children how to give back and be a part of the community. While we are really just getting started, my wife and I are working hard to involve our two young girls, Mirabelle and Vivian, in many local activities, from school fundraisers and events to supporting local farms and parks.
Biggest professional success: In 2006, I got to work on a large custom double deck exhibit for Microsoft. The initial concept was a collaboration between me and the owner of our company (also a designer), but I was in charge of the final design. It’s a great feeling to walk into a show hall, and know that you designed one of the largest booths there for one of the most successful companies in the world. The booth won “Best of Show” awards its first two times out.
Dream job: I’ve always wanted to get back into custom furniture design. I have been lucky enough to focus on custom exhibits for the last several years, but my dream would be to work for myself.
Businessperson he admires most and why: Elon Musk, originally a founder of Paypal and later Tesla Motors and SpaceX. Here is someone who made his fortune in computers and later directed his resources into not one but TWO of the most important projects in recent history: electric cars and civilian space travel. While both of these concepts seemed farfetched as few as five years ago, today thanks to people like him they are within reach of our generation.
If you weren’t doing the job you’re doing now, what would you do? Anything in film. I’ve dabbled in prosthetic makeup, set design and home movies throughout my life. I’m much more of a behind the scenes kind of person, but I always thought that if I had followed a career in filmmaking I might end up as a director.
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