Mar 2011 — Now
Commercial Artist & Designer · The Studio of Ryan Hamrick
For over a decade, I have been designing strong identities, crafting hand-lettered commercial artwork, teaching others how to do the same, and speaking about working in the design industry and living a creative life.
Through self-educating to a level of mastery in typography and design, I learned what I needed to know to build an independent design studio crafting innovative creative work for numerous Fortune 100 companies and small, scrappy startups alike in less than ten years—all from home while raising two young kids.
Select Clients:
AARP, Adobe, AIGA, Amazon, American Express, American Greetings, Angel’s Envy, Apple, Austin Home Magazine, AWAY Travel, Basil Hayden’s, Capital One, Coach, Facebook, Florrie, Fonts.com, Geographer, Google, Goose Island, Hallmark, Harper Collins, Hershey, Intercom, Jameson Whiskey, Johnson & Johnson, LaCroix, Lululemon, M&M’s, Miller Lite, Penguin Books, Pequity, R.M. Williams, Russell Stover, Samsung, Sienna Mercato, SignNow, Sports Illustrated, Squatters Beers, State Bicycle Co., SXSW, Target, TaskRabbit, Texas Highways Magazine, The Academy of Country Music, TypeCon, and more
Highlights:
• Invited to be the keynote speaker and conduct a workshop at the Typism lettering & type conference in Australia
• Invited to speak at American Greetings HQ and conduct workshops for its in-house lettering team
• Invited to speak at Under Consideration’s First Round conference in Austin
• Invited to conduct an iPad Lettering workshop at TypeCon 2017 in Boston
• Packed up my family of four and hit the road for a fully self-planned and organized 40-day, 15-city workshop tour around the entire country
• Invited to be one of 50 people in the US to join Samsung’s Imagelogger program, testing all the new hardware and shooting photos during its foray into mirrorless cameras
Feb 2018 — Apr 2019
I worked in the Apple Store at The Domain in Austin, conducting workshops with retail customers on everything from iCloud and how to get the most out of their devices, to how to draw, shoot photos & videos, and make music.
I also did daily demonstrations and performances at the massive video wall in front of hundreds of people, showing the power and magic of Apple devices for things like digital illustration, making music, and pro-level photography.
Occasionally, we’d even write, produce, and film things like full music videos to share with the rest of the retail team, to show them the kinds of things that were possible with just the tools and apps available for free with their customers’ devices, to help better arm them with knowledge and real-life examples to use in their conversations on the sales floor.
