An early obsession with drawing golf courses – Ryan estimates he drew over a thousand, complete with sand traps, water traps, and dark woods – pointed him to the arts. The Minnesota native took up painting and discovered that he loved to get his hands dirty, which he attributes to working in his father’s photography studio as a teenager and “going crazy” in the dark. After moving to San Diego in 1997, Ryan rediscovered painting and began to experiment with typography, curious patterns, unusual fabric, old books, and hand-made objects and started incorporating them into his designs. He enrolled in the Art Institute – San Diego and graduated with honors with a degree in Graphic Design. Working under the alias DESIGNByRDS, Ryan’s illustration and graphic design projects combine hand-drawn elements, multiple textures and found materials across a wide range of visual media.