Ruairi is a designer fascinated by motion design, 3D design and crafting innovative visual identity systems. His work is clever, creative and really amazes us. We caught up with him about his recent project gloom, which was commended in the IDI awards and the Global Design Graduate Show in collaboration with Gucci earlier this year, his process when creating visual identity and his influences.
I take inspiration from so many different places – whether its music, illustration, literature, travel, sculpture, graphic design, games, art history – its a fairly long list! What inspires me most often changes, and I regularly find new inspirations, or re-discover older inspirations that now speak to me in a different way as I develop my craft.
Currently some of my big visual inspirations are 3D artists like Vincent Schwenk, Laurie Rowan, Raman Djafari, Joseph Melhuish and Khyati Trehan. I’m also a big fan of contemporary sculpture artists like Frode Belhuis, Paolo Puck and ceramic artist En Iwamara. Some old illustration favourites I always return to are Moebius, Jamie Hewlett, Katsuhiro Otomo and James Jean. Design-wise, my current favourite designers / studios include Studio Feixen, Braulio Amado, Buck, Spin Studio and The Designers Republic. Again, I could list design, music and other inspirations all day!
I think motion and 3D can bring a concept, story or brand to life in a way that is immediate and incredibly engaging. I also think there’s a certain magic for me personally in seeing something I’ve imagined in my sketchbook come to life in a way that would be difficult to replicate in a static image or 2D illustration. Adding things like real world lighting, materials, movement and physics to your ideas elevates the stories you can tell, and the design possibilities you can create. I think this quality of making the imaginary feel real and tangible can capture people’s attention unlike any other medium.
Yeah I think that was probably one of the biggest design challenges with gloom. I think what helped was that pretty much everything started out as a sketch on paper, meaning I had some idea how things could translate over both 2D and 3D, which was important as this project had outputs that included digital, print and even physical packaging.
A nerdy design answer is that I think a foundation of a good typographic system can definitely help bridge the gap between the varied and diverse outputs of a project like gloom! Controlling elements like the use of colour and lighting can also massively help in making everything feel like it belongs together cohesively.
The first step for me is usually research, but I like to start working on visual ideas at the same time to avoid being overly influenced by what others have already created. I think research should definitely also include a deep dive into the subject matter, whether this is reading articles and research that might be relevant, understanding where a brand might fit in the market, or finding new visual and aesthetic ideas for the brand. I find mind maps super useful in the early stages of a project.
The next phase is design iteration, where I will try to refine maybe two or three different stylistic options. I think brands are increasingly seeing how valuable motion and even 3D is to their identity, so I think it should be a consideration, even at this early stage.
Finally the last stage comes when a visual option is chosen, and now the process becomes about refinement, execution and implementation. I like identities I create to be flexible and to work across many different formats and mediums, so I do like to spend time making sure the identity is robust and works nicely in lots of different contexts.
I can tend to be a bit critical of my own work, so the answer is generally whatever I am currently working on that is exciting and creatively fulfilling. This could be a doodle in my sketchbook, a poster, a brand identity, an animation, 3D modelling, whatever! I think the process and challenge of coming up with ideas, and the actual joy of creating something I find cool or trying out new tools and techniques is what appeals to me most, possibly more so than the finished product in a lot of cases.
If I had to pick one work that I was particularly proud of though it would be gloom. This project was a massive challenge in its concept and scope, and I credit this project with really igniting a passion in me for 3D design and illustration. It also helps that I do still really enjoy the outcome for this one, especially how the animations and illustrations came out!
