RYAN RIEGNER

I recently applied for the James “Rhio” O’Connor Memorial Scholarship Essay Contest in which I was asked to create an introspective investigation into what I would do if I was diagnosed with cancer, in terms of how I would best approach treatment options. The following essay was my response, and this post serves as my application for the contest. Thanks Cancer Monthly for this rare and worthwhile opportunity. James was a great man.

What is the cure for cancer? This simple question has for centuries mystified humanity, as one the single largest ongoing goals of the medical community. Cancer in its various forms is an extremely complicated biological abnormality. The top cancer experts in the world have attempted to understand it, and have only been able to with various forms of marginally effective treatments. As a result, many diagnosed cancer patients simply lose hope and faith in the possibility of overcoming their prognosis and relinquish any effort to fight to survive. However, James Rhio O’Conner did the exact opposite of most people when he was diagnosed with cancer. He decided to take his treatment into his own hands, determined to overcome his illness and live a long and happy life. He serves as an inspirational example to the possibilities of how anyone can properly create their own cure for cancer and outlive their prognosis in light of this daunting disease.
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Recently, through Zago I was given an amazing opportunity to work with the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conferance that ran earlier in December. The event was the largest international political conference held in Denmark, with 192 countries represented, and over 15,000 participants engaged in an open dialogue about the global climate crisis. The conference focused on the current misuse of global fossil fuels, with the goal to develop and implement an immediate course of action to redirect climate change. As a designer, I found it engaging to become part of the dialogue in relaying this message of urgency and hope for the future of our planet.

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Today at my internship at Zago, we finally received the D’apostrophe portfolio book project from the printers with a lot of anticipation. The offset printed final copies had only marginal errors, which was not only exhilarating, but highly uncommon. This limited edition print run of 50 copies was completed for our client, Francis D’heane, a New York based Interior Designer originally from Belgium. It serves as the firm’s collective portfolio with projects ranging from apartments to offices and commercial stores. I find his work to be a marvelous fresh breath of color, material and composition. He has also has an expectational ability to integrate original artwork from artists such as Takashi Murakami and Matthew Barney into his conceptual layouts, accentuating them rather than overpowering them with MoMA friendly bells and whistles. Unfortunately, this book will only be available for client promotions, so low res, web safe jpg that I took today will have to do unless we can convince him to send it off to publishers.

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In the beginning of the new year, myself and Alex Levin, a good friend and savy business partner will be opening a design studio in New York City. We’ve rightly named the company ALBINO RHINO by combining the first syllables of each of our first names, and the resulting logo is a reflection of the metaphor of our partnership. We’re currently in the process of turning this new identity into a corporate brand, and have been brainstorming promotions and organizing legal documentation before the launch in January. With that said, we’re both extremely excited and ready for a massive learning curve of experiencing first hand what it means to run and operate a design firm within New York City. I’m expecting a lot of hard lessons and long nights, but I am also looking forward to pushing my limits as a designer and businessman in terms of honesty and innovation within the wonderful sphere of graphic design. Here’s the guts of our identity system that we’ve been developing.

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Some time ago I began a sketchbook in which I wanted to conduct a series of illustrative experiments, both conceptually and materially. It was a really fun experiment to engage on, and I found inspiration from many unexpected avenues. The main focus of the book was derived from ready-made materials and observations around me, and the sketchbook took on a very handmade, sporadic scrapbook type of feel by the time it was completed. It has probably been my most fun and freeing personal project to date. Please enjoy some of the selected spreads. Who knows what the next book will hold!

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Tasmania, the southern island appendage off the coast of Australia is one of the most beautiful places in the world, with a rich diversity of wildlife, and an even more breathtaking mix of landscapes. I recently took a trip around the island, in an 8 day adventure, in which myself and a couple friends covered 1616 km in a car, and 62 km by foot. The island is pretty small, roughly the same size of Ireland or West Virginia back in the States. But where it lacks in size, it makes up with diversity. On the course of one 6km hike, you could go from environments of Amazon-like subtropical rain forests, to planes of barren gum trees that mimic landscapes in Africa, to rolling green hills that resemble those in Scotland, to jagged cliff faces and rocky mountain summits that remind me of the Himalayas. With only a population density of only 500,000, most of which is compacted into two small cities, the country is mostly landscape with scattered winding roads that test the skills of any German driver.

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Back in 1999, my father, Robert Riegner spent a solid year sentence in prison for multiple D.U.I. charges. Originally sentenced to 1-3 years at State Correctional Facility: Camp Hill, he was exposed to the harsh reality of the challenges of an inmate in the prison system. Throughout the process, he kept a daily journal of the account, describing his challenges with overcoming his addiction to alcohol. He explored the dangers and cunning needed for survival amidst dangerous convicts, and he exposed much of the corruption of the prison system. The journal was his way to maintain sanity and keep his goals in focus. Afterwords, he took the collected legal papers and created a manuscript over the next 8 years, which I have now put into a novel form.

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This alternative Gulp Corporate Identity project recently made an appearance on the home page of Logopond, and since I’ve been getting such great feedback on the logo concept, it seems only necessary to add it to my collection of logo designs. I’m overall pleased the humor of this logo, and find it to be a pleasing twist on the play of words. Anyone interested in purchasing this identity package, please contact me via email.

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Write it, Buy it, Eat it, Enjoy it is a handy (possibly even tasty) book loaded with fifty blank grocery lists for every smart shopper. Album bound with twisty ties and hand transferred onto recycled paper. Pen not included.

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The WaterBlock Type Specimen book, my first designed font, is the prime example of the possibilities of even the simplest of printmaking and bookbinding processes. Created by watercolor mono printing onto Arches Rives BFK in a snake book format with Ochre hardback covers, I have decided upon the snake format to be the most useful for displaying a typeface, both as individual elemntal characters, and as a set.

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