By Jess Linde
Anyone who has worked in the corporate world or watched one of Apple’s famous keynote speeches knows that when it comes to courting interest, the visual presentation is just as important as the product.
Dynamic presentations are often key parts in advertising the product to investors and customers, and often include memorable voice over work by industry professionals who are able to bring the product to life verbally.
One of the hardest working of such professionals today is Justin Hibbard, a Venice resident and head of Just The Voice, his own voice imaging and production company.
Born in Kansas, Hibbard got his start as a broadcast journalist for midwest divisions of NBC and CBS.
“When I was leaving that field, a friend just told me ‘Justin, you have a great voice, you should look into voiceover acting,’” Hibbard said in an interview. “So once I moved to Los Angeles I sort of dove into the profession.”
Since diving in, Hibbard has become one of the most successful voice artists in the United States, lending his voice to hundreds of promos and videos needing narration with a range of companies.
Though he often works in corporate narration and marketing, Hibbard can also be heard introducing segments on FOX, NBC, and other news channels, and doing live creative voice work for Variety. He’s also trilingual, speaking and working English, Spanish, and French.
Regarding Venice as the placement of Hibbard’s state-of-the-art home studio, where he records and edits his own work and those he works with, Hibbard prefers nowhere more than Venice.
“I travel quite a bit to record, but coming home is always great,” said Hibbard. “There’s a creative vibration in the community that inspires me to stretch myself creatively and work harder. I love Venice, and though it is changing a lot I do not think that the spirit will ever be muted.”
Hibbard also credits the friendliness and laid-back vibe of the community for allowing him to find so much joy in living and working in Venice.
As he continues to work and grow his business, Hibbard remains busy as ever, and still travels often.
Through his company Hibbard rents not only his voice but his skills in editing, translation and copywriting, as well as studio equipment.
Hibbard also collaborates with other talents, and recently lent his voice pro bono to a promo for the World Food Programme, in order to draw attention to famine in the Horn of Africa. He’s also working on several exciting future projects.
“But those I can’t really talk about without getting fired,” he said with a laugh.
For more information, visit www.justinhibbard.com.