Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Feerer.
Ryan, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up a son of a preacher in the small Texas panhandle city where every Sunday, I would draw during church or create paper sculptures using prayer request cards. The process of creating always kept me entertained, focused, and happy. While studying at ACU for my undergrad, I began to nerd out on typography and new that design fun way to make a living. That interest soon turned into an obsession. All I wanted to do was create. I would redesign terrible logos from local businesses, make posters for my friend’s rock band, and just taking every opportunity I could. If it didn’t pay, it didn’t matter, because I knew that I would be doing it for fun anyway.
After graduating from ACU, I moved to NYC and joined the School of Visual Art’s MFA Design program, lead by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico. It was an incredible experience for me. I had the unique opportunity to learn from some of the best in our field, including Milton Glaser (I “Heart’ NY), Stefan Sagmeister, Gail Anderson, Scott Stowell, and so many more. During that time, I had a mentorship with Milton Glaser and did a lot of work on the side. Upon graduation, I took a job at Funny Garbage (interactive/animation) and did a lot of illustration and design work for a lot of entertainment clients.
During that time, I also worked with Red Hot, Funny Garbage sister company and aids benefit organizations that fought aids through popular couture, specifically music. One of the most memorable projects during that time was doing the design work for the indie compilation Dark Was The Night, which included 21 songs from my favorite musicians ever. I was star-struck. Pretty soon after the release, Red Hot put on a live show at Radio City Music Hall. I was going to practices and hanging around The National, Bon Iver, Dirty Projectors, and David Byrne. It was insane and figured this would be the height of my career at age 26.
Along the way, I would explore other types of businesses. Most of those businesses were failures, including a music label and a restaurant. Sometimes life was beautiful, but oftentimes it was full of anxiety and uncertainty. However, I learned some major life lessons. I was able to reevaluate my priorities. Ultimately I decided that I should be focusing on my teaching and design/illustration practice. I haven’t been this happy in a very long time.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have had many ups and downs in my career. Some more extreme than others. Often I am learning things the hard way, but that’s okay. Watching good ideas die a slow and hard death can be hard to handle sometimes. The restaurant and music label are good examples. Being a part of something like that or the music label with little to no experience was a recipe for some really tough times.
Experiencing new things and getting out of my comfort zone is something that I seem to do often. I will constantly pitch ideas to clients that I have no idea how to execute. However, I know that I have the drive and dedication to figure out how to make that thing work. I always encourage my students to put themselves out there. Of course, there are risks involved, but you never know what may come of an opportunity. At the very least, you grow as an individual and learn about what not to do, and learn about their limitations.
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
More recently, Chad Zellner (amazing photographer and friend) and I started a collaboration called The Good Things (nobadthings.com because the goodthings.com was already taken). We want to be an intimate one-stop-shop for a select number of businesses. We want to take on the projects we are passionate about and not ones to just pay the bills. Our primary focus has been identity design and branding projects. We also do our fair share of interactive, illustration, photography, and recently more packaging design. As long as we are happy and having fun creating together, that is success to me. Making money is nice and important, but that isn’t our goal. I also continue to run my practice, where I’ve been fortunate to do work for some incredible brands.
One thing I have learned is that what I have always planned for my future hardly turns out the way I expected. I think we will continue to go with the flow and see what opportunities come up. Currently, we are trying to focus on being our client and have a few products of our own we are working on now. One fun one is Abilene Surf Co, which is basically a line of Texas-themed surf wear. The idea is totally odd but has been to see how the community is responding to it.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
This is a great question, but a really difficult one to answer. Some of my failures have caused me and those close to me a lot of heartaches. But, because of those things, I have grown a lot and become a better human, husband, and father. Sometimes you have to experience hard times to put everything into perspective and appreciate everything around you. Although I would love to have some of the years back, I am better because I had weathered those storms.
Contact Info:
- Website: nobadthings.co and feerer.co
- Email: hello@nobadthings.co and hello@ryanfeerer.com
- Instagram: @nobadthings.co @ryanfeerer @abilenesurfco
- Twitter: @ryanfeerer
Image Credit:
Nil Santana: Pappy Slokum and Abi-Haus. Chad Zellner: PR_Animated
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