interview :: rob ryan - confessions of a design geek

This article was published 12 years

I have been a Rob Ryan fan since his entire studio decamped to Somerset House for the very first Pick Me Up, a graphic art exhibition now in its fourth year. So I was very excited to finally get the chance to interview the man himself…

What’s the most important thing to know about you?

Say what?! God knows! I don’t know about important, but I have two brothers and we were all born in World Cup years: 62, 58, 54.

Your artwork often features very moving words – where do these come from? What inspires them?

This is easy – my imagination, and inspiration is from anything and everything.

How did you first get into paper cutting?

I felt like doing something a bit different, with no words in it. My first papercuts were folded in two, then cut and folded to display perfect symmetry.

What is it about the combination of words and intricate images that appeals to you? Do the words come first or the pictures?

Theres no fixed rule. It could be one or the other that comes first. I enjoy weaving them together to create something new.

Talk me through your design and making process from initial inspiration to final product?

I go to the studio, drink some tea, look in my sketchbooks, drink more tea, try and find something from pages and pages of notes that could make a new picture, drink more tea, start putting stuff together, tea(!), throw out ideas, add new ones, draw, tea, redraw, tea, start again and try to finally get it right.