Ryan is a a graphic designer with over a decade of industry experience, producing work for clients of all shapes and sizes in Scotland and beyond. He founded his design practice — Rydo — in Glasgow in 2009 and has steadily built up a varied portfolio of work for a similarly eclectic client base.

Ryan believes passionately in the power of design to influence, inform and delight. His work is produced with an emphasis on clear and engaging communication, informed by a rigorous conceptual, intellectual and typographic focused approach. He is a long term member of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) and an organiser of the LongLunch (www.longlunch.com) design lecture series.

Job Nº1: Fast Eddy’s Delivery Boy

My first foray into the world of gainful employment came at the tender age of ten. Yes, you read that right… ten years old. I was living the expat childhood in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, attending a large, American-dominated international school and living on a private compound with my family, that was owned by the airline my dad was working for at the time. The compound, Saudia City, was a pretty comfortable place with many amenities: swimming pools, tennis & basketball courts, indoor rec centres (for alternative air-conditioned sporting activity like ping pong or pool) and a ‘commercial centre’ which included a supermarket, dry cleaners, chemist, donut shop, chinese restaurant and… FAST EDDY’S.

This was the place to frequent for any self-respecting Saudia City youngster. A glorious Bangladeshi-run stainless steel laden establishment serving up burgers, chicken nuggets, pizzas and a variety of other western and sub-continental delights. Job number 1 for me: Eddy’s delivery boy. Fairly self explanatory but I’ll elaborate on what the duties entailed: taking bags of hot food to a customer’s dwelling place by bicycle, for which I would be paid the princely sum of 1 Riyal (if memory serves correctly) and a tip if I was lucky. That works out at around 17p per delivery, excluding tips. The duration of my employment was very brief, I’m sorry to say. I started the job during school holidays and quickly realised that cycling around the compound in 35ºC+ heat for a pittance wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. On my fourth or fifth day on the job, the heavens opened — a rare occurrence — and I took the decision to remain indoors. I took the same decision the following day as well. In fact, I never delivered another pepper steak for Fast Eddy again.

Job Nº2: Sunday Shop Assistant & Boss of Paper Boys

Fast forward to age 14 and the considerably less sunny, more precipitous climes of Inverclyde. My aunt Joan runs a family-owned newsagents in the west end of Greenock, Hall’s, which has been in business for eons. It was always a happy place for me and my siblings when we were young pups as a visit there usually meant being supplied with a 10p mix. A joyous experience, each and every time! Imagine my delight when I was presented with the offer to step behind the counter and be the guy (/boy) who makes the 10p or 20p mixtures… and I would be paid for my trouble; £15 cash money per 9am-ish to 2.30pm Sunday shift.

So, that was my gig almost every Sunday — and sometimes a Saturday too — from the beginning of my Standard Grades through to my time as a big, gangly awkward 6th year at Greenock Academy. I learned how to drag myself out of bed on a weekend day, work a till, boss paper boys around, fill a drinks fridge, chat to old ladies about the weather and speed-read the Sunday Sport. All essential life skills, I’m sure you’d agree.

Job Nº3: Burger Flipper under The Golden Arches

Next job on the list sees a return to the world of fast food and employment with one of the most recognisable names on the planet, McDonald’s. After a few happy years in the newsagents, with only a few months of school left, I decided I needed a new challenge, in terms of my ‘career’. I had a couple of friends who had been working for one of the THREE McDonald’s in Greenock town centre and waxed lyrical about the camaraderie and ‘generous’ hourly pay on offer at the Golden Arches.

I duly applied, went through a proper job interview and was promptly supplied with blue trousers, a checked shirt, clip-on tie, apron, cap and my very own name badge. (I was disappointed not be given a red curly wig, stripy tights and size 27 yellow shoes but I think years of intense training was required before team members could make the step up to Clown.) Anyway, I spent the next six months in the Oak Mall McDonald’s kitchen, making Big Macs®, quarter pounders, sterilising shaky machines and disinfecting the ball pool. More invaluable strings added to my bow. Then, one Saturday while I was enjoying a shift on the tills away from the kitchen heat, some management bigwigs turned up, told us we were closing early, made us pull the place apart, clean everything from top to bottom and then informed us that the they ‘had to close the store’. Forever.

Job Nº4: Barman & Server of Dundee’s Finest All Day Breakfast

After the dramatic closure of my beloved McDonald’s, there is bit of a gap on my CV. To be fair, I moved from west coast to east — Greenock to Dundee — within that period and took a few months to come to terms with starting life as a first year art student in a strange new town. I had toyed with the notion of enquiring about part-time employment in McDonald’s in the city centre but my passion for Big Macs had all but disappeared by that point. After some careful consideration, I decided that pouring pints of lager was probably more my thing, now that I was a fully-fledged student and adult (technically speaking).

I went about asking every bar that I walked past if they needed staff and filled in loads of application forms. I got a call from O’Neill’s, the Irish chain pub, and invited to attend an interview which proved to be more of an audition. Three hours on a Monday night telling jokes, role playing, designing posters for imaginary events and downing bottles of a disgusting alcopop known as Reef. There were 25 people in attendance and there were four jobs on offer. ‘What a waste of time’, I thought to myself after, but… I got the call the next day informing me that I’d made the grade! The next four years were spent pouring perfect pints of Guinness, clearing up broken glass off the floor on St Patrick’s night and chatting to old dudes about football. (I also managed to read design books on the quiet Sunday shifts, which no doubt ensured that I passed my dissertation in fourth year.)

Job Nº5: Sender of Facsimiles at the Royal Bank of Scotland Mortgage Centre

Last on my First Five Jobs list, and most definitely the least, was my stint working for the good old Royal Bank over two summers while I was still a student. I had an ‘in’ through my cousin, who had been working at the Mortgage Centre in Greenock for a few years and was delighted to get a taste of my first ‘proper’ job, wearing a shirt and tie and working in an office. No fries, no burgers, no all day breakfasts, no pints of Guinness, no broken glass; I was moving up in the world!

My enthusiasm proved to be short lived. On day one, I was asked if I minded sending some faxes to lawyers and estate agents around the UK to confirm mortgage offers. I was given a pile and quickly shown the fundamentals of the office fax machine. I dispatched the initial pages in good time and felt pretty pleased with myself. ‘Oh good,’ remarked one of my erstwhile superiors, ‘here’s some more for you to do after lunch time.’ The next day, I was presented with another great heaving pile of faxes to send, which again took up the duration of my shift. This was repeated ad infinitum for three months… and it was exactly the same the next year I did that job.

It was absolutely mind numbing. However, it filled me with a sense of determination to work really hard when I went back to art school in Dundee and try to make a success of being a graphic designer. I didn’t want to spend hours on end sending faxes in a carpet-tiled, strip lit office and I didn’t want to wear a shirt and tie everyday.

So, I don’t.

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I am the Senior Designer at Animade where I work on projects big and small, as well as looking after our brand identity, and I help out on some front-end development as well. I studied Graphic Design at Camberwell College of Arts, and am a self-taught web-developer. I also curate content for our digital design inspiration blog Hover States.

1. Burger King — 2 days in 2004
When I was a teen I worked in Burger King for 2 days. It wasn’t for me.

2. Office – Part-time 2008-2010
Living off a student maintenance loan in London doesn’t get you that far, so part-time work was essential, so I worked as a sales assistant selling shoes. It wasn’t for me.

3. INT Works (It’s Nice That) Intern — Late 2011
I joined INT Works as an intern for 3 months in 2011, just after graduating from Camberwell College of Arts that summer. It was meant to be only a few weeks at first, but they wanted to keep me on for an extended period, which turned into a short freelancing stint. This was the first job which started my “career” as it is now.

4. Freelance — Early 2012
After It’s Nice That I freelanced for a few months, and worked on projects with my fellow It’s Nice That intern James Cartwright under the moniker ‘Official Business’.

5. Animade — 2012-Present
In June 2012 I joined Animade, known then as Chambers Judd. I saw their job posting which read “If you like design and the internet, then come work for us”, which bluntly described me. I also wanted to work somewhere which was small and growing, so Animade was perfect. Since then it has grown from 4 of us to 15 which has been a great experience for me being one of their first employees and watching it grow. My most recent project here has been leading our rebrand, which we handled all in-house. This included refreshing the visual identity and designing the new website, and other internal tools and stationery.

Connect with Mike on Twitter here.

Photo credit: Alex Harley

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We’ve asked professionals in creative industries what jobs they have had in the past to get their foot through the door (or at least pay the rent). For more in the “My First 5 Jobs” series look here.

Viaggio di carta by Sofia Sita

Job Match by Sofia Sita

Brightly coloured illustrations with a comment on Society from Italian painter and graphic designer Sofia Sita.

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Gregor Muir is a freelance graphic designer, based in Glasgow. Here he talks about his new travel zine, anecdote.

anecdote is a travel zine about journeys and trips taken all around the world, long or short, big or small, far and wide. Primarily anecdote is classed as a travel/photo zine with some written content throughout.

Every issue is about a journey I, the creator, has taken or about a trip another fellow traveler has been on. The design of each issue circulates around the nature of the trip taken. Issue one was a very personal trip which encompassed many different cultures and countries therefore many different design styles, paper choices and treatments are included within the same issue, whereas issue 2 circulated around a quick trip taken over the course of 4 days on the Isle of Arran. It has more of a consistent style and was produced as an easy read, something relaxing and fun, much like the trip, so it was printed on newsprint to gave that “Sunday newspaper” feel.

While I’m away on any journey I write postcards to myself of what I’ve done each day or at each location. This is the basis and foundation of each issue and is used to keep each issue consistent and give a true account of what I’ve done each place. An authentic anecdote.

It is solely produced by myself (the first two issues anyway). I do the design, production, art direction, photography (occasional contribution via people I may have traveled with) and writing. I do it on the side of my main job.

Overall you could describe anecdote as an experimental zine as the design, format and production of each issue should change dependent on the location and journey. It should evoke a reflection of the content and represent the journey taken and the unique experiences or adventures witnessed by the traveler/s.

It’s not a travel guide or ‘how to travel’ document but an insight into someone else’s journey, with notes and quotes from experiences they have had. It’s more a personal reflection.

Only two issue have been released so far. Issue one, which has sold out, was based on a three week trip inter-railing around Central Europe. Issue two is based on a long weekend away on the Isle of Arran.

In future issues, I’m hoping to collaborate with more people and feature more journeys and trips taken by other people who love travel and adventures.

You can buy anecdote via its website here or on Etsy. For more from Gregor, see his showcased work here.

More: Website | Twitter

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Movies in Color is a Los Angles based blog which features film stills and their colour palettes. Brainchild of graphic designer Roxy Radulescu, the site was inspired by the colours in Bond film, Skyfall. As the blog continues to develop, her goal is for it to function as a learning tool and a form of inspiration.

“The blog has not only been an aesthetic pursuit but also an educational pursuit that showcases the relationship between color, cinematography, set design, and production design. Overall, it is a study of color in films, but has other uses and applications. One of the goals is to give artists color palettes they can use in paintings, films, videos, graphic design, and other pursuits.”
Roxy Radulescu

For more about Radulescu’s selection process, read her Shutterstock feature. Find more movies in colour here. 

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For more creative delights we’ve Spotted on the web take a look here.

Glasgow based Liverpudlian and graphic designer Geraldine Traynor tells us about her work…

I’m from Liverpool, originally, and I came to Glasgow in 2007 (via Barcelona) with a view to getting back into education and to pursue a more creative career. In 2011 I left Cardonald College, (at 29) with my HND and an Advanced Diploma in Visual Communication, then went straight into full-time work as a Graphic Designer.

In my spare time, I rent a space in MANY studios in Merchant City. I try to get in there a few times a week to get some ‘illustrations’ done. At present, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of what I do and where I want my work to go. I get distracted at home really easily so having a studio space has really helped me. Recently, I’ve found that I’m able to experiment more freely and I’m finishing work much faster. By nature I’m averse to any kind of routine so my process (and thought pattern) can be, sometimes, chaotic. Having somewhere to go, to sit with a specific purpose, has helped me to improve my discipline drastically.

I guess what I do could be described as a combination of Graphic Design and Textile Design, though I wouldn’t say it’s that complicated. I’ve no clue what to call what I do, I just do what I enjoy and that’s simply stitching into cardboard. I take something cold, and two-dimensional, and add texture. I find I’m drawn to making straight, hard-edged things look and feel more organic. I like giving my subjects a tactile quality. This then makes them more accessible to me. If I see an object, a phrase, or a word (or even someone else’s work) that I like I have to bring it out of the page so I can touch it. It’s almost like Braille. That probably seems odd but I just feel that if you can interact with something by touch, it makes it more real.

Before my HND, I did an Access to Design course. I loved it. Part of the course was a Design Process for Fashion and Textiles. During this time I learnt different methods of drawing that I’d never considered before, like continuous line or using my other hand. This really loosened me up and opened my eyes to different ways of looking at form and line. This is the base for all of my projects. If my subject can’t be simplified into lined shapes, I won’t stitch it. Filling in blocks of colour with thread is more like embroidery and that’s not what I’m trying to do, I feel that would overcomplicate my work. I’ve never been interested in the end result of garment construction either, only the mechanics of the process.

As well as giving something texture, I like to simplify it with colour. As a rule, I generally don’t tend to use more than two colours for most of my work. I like to keep things looking clean, lots of white space, because I don’t like anything distracting from the stitches. I’ve been experimenting with very contrasting colours, layering card and cutting out sections with a scalpel. It seems to give my work an added dimension. This also helps to cleanly fill in blocks of colour instead of having just stitched outlines. I recently acquired a mountain of old card and paper samples from work, so I’ve been able to try some new things like incorporating slightly different textures of card. I like to scan my work at very high resolutions and zoom in on details, showing the differences in the card as well as the different stitches.

I do everything by hand because using a machine disconnects me from my work. If all of the stitches were uniform, it wouldn’t look or feel like I had worked on it. Those imperfections are important because I feel that they make my work unique and individual to me. I’ll always have the compulsion to do this it’s something that comes very natural to me, even if everything goes in a bag and no one ever sees it, it’s something that keeps me happy.

See Geraldine’s showcased work on Central Station here.

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The Profile Book – right, where do I start? From the start would be best!

The publication was born from the initial platform that David Sinnet (Founder) had created. The pair of us were determined to create a platform that would help creatives share and promote their work with confidence and ease.

Within a short period of time we had a number of submissions, which was great however we still had a long way to go.

As my final year at Southampton University was coming to an end, this meant one thing – Final Major Project.

For me a number of emotions went through my head. The obvious one being that I had one last chance to really do something that I would enjoy, before the end of my uni-career.

As I have passion and a general interest in meeting new creatives, I thought it would be a great idea to combine my freelance work on Profile with my FMP.

Before the publication came along, I actually worked on a range of concepts for Profile’s existing site at the time. Whilst creating the concepts, the idea of creating a publication that would work in coherent with the online platform was something that I was keen to embrace. Within my line of work I am a firm believer that print and digital should compliment each other when possible.

So with a few weeks to go until the deadline, I decided to embark on this venture of creating a publication. In the past I worked on a publication titled, Plog Magazine with a small team of creatives, so using what I learned, I was able to put that into practice and create Profile’s first-ever publication.

The publication consists of 27 completely different artists and designers internationally, to whom I had the privilege of speaking to via email and Skype. I was also keen to get a special feature within the print. Whoever I chose I knew that I wanted the reader to be inspired by, and I had the perfect guys in mind!

Happy Accident Collective, are a lovely, yet cheeky, screen-printing duo based in Scotland. I conducted an interview with them, which gave the reader an insight into their work ethic. I wanted to keep the interview very lighthearted, and not too serious. The way I see it, we’re in the creative sector of the world so nothing should be taken too seriously.

In terms of inspiration for the publication, I have a massive collection of magazines and book, which I spent hours reading through. Also Pinterest is another great tool for inspiration, and especially in terms of Editorial Design.

I did face a number of difficulties within the process of the publication. One obvious factor being, funding! The one word that designers dread to hear.

Despite having a number of exciting thoughts and ideas, I had to be very conscious of how much everything would be. Right from the paper stock down to producing mock ups of the publication.

Luckily I came across a lovely set of printers based in Eastleigh called ImageWise. I lost count of how many times I drove down there for a talk with Patrick to discuss financial issues with print. What a top bloke!

Without a doubt ImageWise are a great company to work with. They even gave me two extra publications, which was lovely of them, and despite the cost not being cheap (which was to be expected), they did a smashing job.

Once the publication was done and dusted it was exhibited at my degree show in Winchester. A few who were featured came down, and I was able to grab a few snaps – It was a great day!

So what’s next?

Well David and I are also working alongside the brilliant minds of Nicola Manuel (Editor) and Sarah Benson (Online Editor) who work on Profile’s online presence, and what a great job they have been doing.

The website is growing nicely with nearly 300 submissions on the platform, Profile is moving in the right direction.

The team and I are focusing on two major things – creating a stronger platform for creatives, and perfecting the publication. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up-to-date with any recent posts or news.

You can read The Profile Book online here.

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Typographic Fanzine by Irvine based Graphic Design student, Andrew MacNeil.

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Lu Sisi is one of five creatives to have recently been awarded the £30k Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund (run in partnership with IdeasTap). Here, he gives us a brief insight into his winning project idea…

I’m a digital artist originally from China, I graduated in Visual Communications at the Glasgow School of Art in 2011. I have been working in different areas between visuals, sound and live performance.

Since I graduated from GSA, I have been a London based freelancer working in different areas, such as moving image, composing and graphic design. The reason I applied for the Sky Arts Ignition: Futures Fund is because I want to keep focusing on my own projects rather then doing commercial work everyday.

The project is called The Age of Digital/Analogue, the basic premise allows me to travel throughout the UK, going to different locations to observe old analogue industrial machines, I then record the sounds and videos from each of them, the footage and sound are used to produce an album with a live set performance. The outcome will present itself as a body of work that is part-digital part – analogue. I see this as a combination of film clips (digital) that becomes a part of a live performance (analogue). My approach is one that could be described as a hybrid of various disciplines, whereby I design the visuals, the music and the atmosphere.

I can’t wait wait to start the project! You can follow its progress here.

Take a look at Sisi’s showcased work from last year on Central Station here.

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Norway Infographic by Edinburgh based Graphic Designer, Connor Campbell. The design was burned onto plywood using a laser-cutter.

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