The Book

Limited edition of 100 books were made.. only a few left now! Email gen@genevieveryan.eu to get your hands on one!

Ryan Thompson

Tell us about your strawberry fields:
Engelbert Humperdinck.

What materials do you like to use?
My Mac, typography, traditional printing processes and my brain.

Where are you based, do you have a studio?
Based in Glasgow, working from my home office / studio / bedroom at the moment.

Describe a typical working day:
Sleep in, make a cup of tea, check emails, check 'to do' list, weed out priority 'to do' items. If there's a design / artworking job on the go, I'll work solidly until hunger consumes me and I can't work anymore. I will punctuate this with some more email checking & answering, surfing the web and tea drinking.

How do you stay motivated and where do you get your insiration?
Looking at other great design (or art, photography and the rest) helps in terms of providing motivation to produce work that’s – hopefully – as good as that which inspires in the first place. I also get together frequently with friends from different disciplines to swap stories, have some food & drink and a bit of a laugh.

Ultimately, it's about producing work that answers your client’s brief and helps them to communicate whatever message they want to get out there. This is always a motivational factor!

Have you ever collaborated before? (If yes, can you give some info and whether you'd recommend it)
As a graphic designer, almost every project you take in involves a level of collaboration. Whether this is directly with the client, another designer in your team, a printer or a web programmer.

What else do you like to do?
I like to pretend I’m Bruce Springsteen.

Where would you like to be in five years and what would you like to be doing?
Having recently established my own practice, I am really enjoying the freedom and control which working for yourself brings. In five years time I’ll be delighted if I have achieved a level of success which brings recognition for my work both from clients and other designers / artists. Having some beer money in my pocket would be good too.

If someone offered you a dream project tomorrow, what would it be?
I really don’t know. Most people get into graphic design because they want to make album covers – or club flyers! I guess it would be cool to do a project for a musician or artist I really admire… not necessarily an album / CD cover though – maybe a nice book.

http://www.rydo.co.uk/

Katie Thomas

Tell us about your strawberry fields:
With this piece I wanted to capture the texture of the diverse and quirky sound of The Beatles, through using playful typography and a bold colour scheme.

What materials do you like to use?
I guess it depends on what the brief is asking for. While at college I spent a lot of time venturing into different departments to experiment with techniques from glass to working in the print workshop. I enjoy working in 3D exploring; textures, materials and shapes before taking an idea onto the computer.

Where are you based, do you have a studio?
I’m currently based in the quiet country town of Cirencester. I’m hoping to get back into a buzzing city environment as soon as money allows.

Describe a typical working day:
Since graduating I’ve taken the time to work on a number of personal projects and client led briefs, that have ranged from logo designs to illustrations; I suppose my workload and goals vary from day to day.

How do you stay motivated and where do you get your inspiration?
I’ve dedicated a whole wall of my workspace to a giant inspiration board. It’s made up of all things design related. I’m inspired by architecture, adverts, posters, found objects, layouts that I see and craft items. And in amongst all these are notes and sketches of my own ideas that I haven’t yet got around to creating, but don’t want to forget about.

What else do you like to do?
Recently I’ve found myself going to the cinema and watching a lot of kids films. I’m intrigued by the production and art direction of animations and films with bizarre and unusual sets. I also enjoy mooching around charity shops and vintage fairs and have taken up sewing and perfecting my cake baking skills.

Where would you like to be in five years and what would you like to be doing?
I’d like to be working alongside other Creatives as part of a diverse team. I enjoy working with people from other disciplines and learning from their skills and combining them with my own. I think then that you tend to come up with a more unique solution to a design problem.

If someone offered you a dream project tomorrow, what would it be?
There are so many possible answers to this question! I guess my dream job would be to work on a large scale installation piece where I can experiment with lots of materials to create a 3D environment. As this would actualize my interest in set design, model making and window displays.

www.katiesianthomas.com

The Exhibition is now Open!

Strawberry Fields opened on Friday! The show is on until 21st Feb, come and see!

Welcome Home

We are busy planning Strawberry Fields exhibition and thought you might like to know a bit about the venue... Welcome Home is a multidisciplinary gallery and concept store with an on site studio space for production, artist in residence schemes, exhibitions, events and workshops. Focused on making art, design and craft accessible to all, it provides a constantly evolving space for new designers and members of the public to create, learn, educate and collaborate. The site sources unique and interesting work from local, established and emerging artists and designers, as well as bringing new talent to Scotland from elsewhere. Everything you’ll find in Welcome Home will have its own story and be all the more special for it. Welcome Home was opened by designer Mhari McMullan on 3rd October 2009 with the idea to have everything under one roof in an open, creative and inspiring space. The Strawberry Fields project fits in perfectly with the aims of Welcome Home to provide a platform to showcase new work and collaborate with others.

About Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields is a collaborative project to showcase work by emerging and established artists, based on the theme of Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles.

The aim of this project is to produce a publication which captures the creative magic of more than 25 artists from a range of disciplines. Each of the illustrators, graphic designers and photographers has created a very individual response to the groundbreaking record.

The project is also running as part of collaboration month on Central Station, an online network for artists and designers. Central Station provided funding towards this project and was the platform upon which many of the people involved in Strawberry Fields came together. Strawberry Fields will showcase many fresh, new talents alongside more established artists and provide them with the kind of unique promotional opportunity that can be difficult for emerging artists to create alone. The collected work will be published and sold across the UK in galleries, online and in specialist book shops. The original works for the publication will also be exhibited at Welcome Home in Glasgow. The exhibition opens on Friday 5th February and is open to the public from 6th to 21st February.

Strawberry Fields is being organised by Genevieve Ryan, assisted by curators Mhari McMullan and Janie Nicoll, with overall design of the publication by Ryan R Thompson.

Welcome to our Strawberry Fields

This lovely work is by Katie Thomas, check out her other work here