Making your way: Interview with Ryan Rutherford

1) What was the path that led you to your current job or role?

I don't even know where to start, neither of my parents worked as artists or designers but they both always had crafting projects like cross stitch or woodworking. So, I've always enjoyed being creative and working with my hands and I've always had a job. I started delivering newspapers when I was kid, then pushing shopping carts and eventually I found my way into more creative jobs like working in the visual department at Macy's and I knew I liked the creative jobs the most. As a teenager I got into punk rock and played in some bands. I always enjoyed making merch more than I enjoyed making music, but the community and DIY ethic of that scene really had a lasting impact on me. It taught me that if I wanted to do something, I could just do it, there's no rules about what you can participate in if you just do it yourself. I didn't do well in school but managed to get into Pratt based on a portfolio I cobbled together of photography, painting and some crude "functional sculptures". I started Pratt as a painting major but during my freshman year a childhood friend who was also there took me on a tour of the ID department and it was everything I never knew I was looking for.

2) You seem to have created different avenues for your design career to achieve different things and have different creative outlets. What was your reasoning?

Again, I've always had a job, so it made sense for me to find a corporate gig. Teams, structure, bosses, office politics are all just a normal part of life so that's the path I pursued after graduation. Despite my looks I actually fit in well in a corporate environment and have been successful climbing that ladder from entry level designer to Creative Executive. All of that work is about analyzing the business, its needs and solving those problems with a creative system or marketable product but my brain never takes a break, and I can't help but apply the design process to everything I think of. When I have a new fun idea that I can't shake, I'll visualize it, run it through the CAD process, prototype it and then figure out how to make more. I love buying tools and I figure if I can turn an idea into a product that I can sell, then it's a wash, the project pays for new tools. At this point in my career, I've been really fortunate that the personal stuff has gotten enough attention that it attracts corporate partnerships that want that type of work, and my corporate experience has given me the knowledge and insight to make the most of those opportunities.

3) Can you talk about your design process? Has it changed over the years?

I think the steps in my process have always been the same: start with a problem to solve or some unshakeable nugget of inspiration, internalize it and think about it obsessively, start sketching and looking for the hook, the joke, the special sauce, that thing that makes it worth working on it more. Then refine and polish it until I'm ready to share it with the world for feedback. Sometimes this stage is a loop and sometimes I don't care what the world thinks, and I know I'm right. Then I get down to business and figure out the nerdy details of design for manufacturing because I'm a control freak and want to be the one to make every decision from concept through production right up until it's in the customer's hand.

What has changed is my own knowledge and experience, my skills have improved, and I've gotten better at knowing when to trust myself and when to listen to other people. I've also become better about bringing other people into my process and letting them apply their expertise without needing to control it.

4) What was something you were naive to the design world or business world about as a student?  

Good design and Creative solutions are important, but systems and process are what keeps a business moving and systems and process are just people agreeing to have discipline and work together in a prescribed way. As a young designer I expected that once you reached a certain sized business that the systems and process would just work, because they're supposed to. I was not prepared for all the politics required to navigate professional relationships and actually have an impact and make progress. Be flexible, put your ego aside and build relationships with all the people and teams needed to keep the business moving because everyone has some influence, and they can use it to help you or... you know... they can use it to frustrate you. Also, as a newcomer anywhere... you don't know what you don't know, find the people with tribal knowledge, the people that seem to be involved in solving every problem big or small, make friends with them and learn from them.

5) What is a standard piece of advice given to students or young designers that you don't agree with?

Specifically, within industrial design education, I think there is a lack of discussion of what a successful career could look like.

Work for an agency, work in-house, focus on social issues, car designer, toy designer, these are all specific possibilities, but they paint a very narrow picture. There are so many places that a design education can be applied that aren't these archetypes.

6) Is there a specific practice (like a design practice or business practice) that if adopted you think would create meaningful change?

Discipline!

7) Did you want to be a designer (or something similar) growing up or did you change courses at some point in your life?

As a kid I wanted to be a mailman, because they could wear shorts on the job.  As a teenager I found Punk rock and it showed me that I needed a meaningful creative outlet, art school gave me discipline and direction.

8) Did you feel like a designer (by that I mean capable) when you graduated, or did it take time?

I grew up doing crafts and working with my hands alongside my parents, working in a woodshop with my dad, baking with my mom (a kitchen is a just a different shop). The only high school classes I ever did well in were art or shop classes although I was still thrown out of a few of them. I started college as an Artist, and I didn't understand what design was or could be until my freshman year at Pratt. I usually tell new students on the first day that I meet them that they are designers, and I will speak to them as their design director because I believe it's a decision. If you want to be a designer and you are taking steps to advance your career as a designer, then you are a designer. You just have to work on being better at it and that never stops.

9) How do you think the field will change in the next 5-10 years?  How can new designers get ahead of the curve?

You can't get ahead of the curve, you either lead it, follow it, or reject it

10) Do you think personal branding is important?

I think being recognized and remembered for the quality of your work, work ethic and personality is important, and branding can help that but it's way more complicated than a social media handle, logo and font choice.  Those are all fun exercises to do that can lead to cool stuff but it's also important to just produce volume and find yourself in it so you can see the meaningful details emerge that can then be used for branding.

11) What is something that turned out to be important in your career that would have surprised you as a student?

My own personality and perspective of the world. In college and my early career, I tried really hard to reinvent myself as a SERIOUS designer. I was furiously consuming information about design and designers and adopting whatever profound philosophies inspired me. In reality I've always been a total goofball just looking for a reason to laugh. I don't make any attempt to minimize or avoid all the terrible things that exist in life. I just choose levity whenever possible, because it's more fun AND it's fun to let that influence my work. Turns out it's also helped in my success.

12) When did you feel like you “arrived” as a designer?

There’re a couple really meaningful moments to me.

When my parents sent me their first picture of them posing with my products in a store.

When someone sent me a picture of one of my products washed down a NYC storm drain.

When I saw a stranger with a tattoo of one of my products.

13) Which is better: Jack of all trades or master of one?

An interest in all the trades that apply to your work.

14) If you could give a ted talk what would the topic be?

Oh No, I wouldn't do that. I need questions and engagement to keep talking. If you leave me to my own devices, I'd probably just do a shitty stand-up routine about designers.

15) Was there a question I didn't ask that you wish I had?

What's your favorite movie?

The Goonies