Today we are delighted to share with you an interview with Ruth Lazerson of Ruthie L. Designs in Australia who is a graduate of The Ultimate Portfolio Builder which she took in September 2015.
When did your interest in design first start and how did that come about?
I’ve always loved art and design but worked in the business side of art rather than actually making it because I never thought I was good enough! After a health scare in 2013 I realised that what I really wanted to do was to design and make beautiful things and whether I was good enough or not I was going to do it!
What steps did you take to get to where you are now as a designer?
I initially enrolled in a short colour course here in Sydney. That led to a diploma course in design and then the follow on to that for me was a no brainer when I chose surface pattern design!
When that surface design course was finished I took another year and completed Rachael Taylor’s Make in in Design Modules 1-3, finishing with The Ultimate Portfolio Builder. I took Rachael’s advice to “gift” ourselves time after the course to really hone in and develop our signature style. That was the hard part – actually just creating and designing for the sole purpose of discovering my signature style! This was honestly one of the best years of my life – it was life changing in so many ways for me.
Once I felt confident of my style I started having some of my designs made up into cards, wallpaper, fabric, wrapping paper and wall art… and I haven’t stopped! I’m now selling my wall art through interior designers and my first rug is being produced in India.
How would you describe your style?
My style is mostly inspired by nature and the patterns around me. It is very organic, free-flowing and highly textural. It is quite bold yet my intention is always to maintain a refined and elegant feeling in my work. It is often abstract and even identifiable things like flowers are created in an abstract and highly textured way. I work mainly in Photoshop from paintings, drawings and photographs. I often use neutral colours but I also love using complimentary colours.
What kind of designer do you want to be known as?
A rug designer!
What are you working on currently?
I am currently working on a high-end rug collection. The first rug is almost complete and the second and third will start production in March. I will be visiting India in early April.
While designing and finishing the rug collection, I am also producing a catalogue of both the rug and wall art collection which I will be able to provide to my clients.
What advice would you give emerging designers wanting to build their portfolios?
Do The Ultimate Portfolio Builder! It is a brilliant and very solid grounding and you can only work upwards to success from it. The review, the online community and the expert tutorials were invaluable.
What would be your dream design gig?
I think, if I’m completely honest, I’m doing my dream design gig! Initially I thought I would like to design rugs for a rug producer but now that I’m doing it for myself and building such amazing relationships with manufacturers and suppliers both locally and overseas, I’m pretty much living my dream!
Looking ahead what are your major goals for the next couple of years?
My goal is to design and produce both a rug and a wall art collection every year. I would also love to collaborate with some of the amazing artists I’ve met these past few years and produce some additional collections. In addition to doing some Australian trade shows, I would also like to do some international trade shows but that is still a few years away!
If you were a pattern what kind of a pattern would you be and why?
I’d be a bold, elegant, beautiful and very harmonious swirl pattern with amazing complimentary colours!
Thoughts on The Ultimate Portfolio Builder
What was the most important lesson you took away from The Ultimate Portfolio Builder?
I learned so much from the UPB. I think the most important lesson I took away would have been that in fact I can do anything I set my mind to. The UPB pushed me so far out of my comfort zone and enabled me to create patterns I would never normally even try to do like buildings and rocket ships and I loved doing them! It was an amazing sense of achievement!
What difference did it make to have a supportive community of fellow students and how important do you think that will be going forward?
It made a huge difference. It was supportive and very encouraging. It was and still is great to be able to post a question and get some helpful and honest feedback from like-minded and understanding people. I think the online community will always be a great source of support for me.
Please tell us about your experience of the live briefs and student work reviews.
The live briefs were a wonderful opportunity to create a varied range of designs for varied markets. As they all came quite close together at the end of the course and the deadlines were not far off from each other, it was also a good experience to design and work for different clients under pressure. Not all the briefs were suitable for me so I focused on those that resonated with me. The Printsource brief was a great “real life” opportunity to design an on trend collection for a specific client and I learned so much while doing that brief.
The student work reviews were all brilliant. Khristin A. Howell reviewed my work and it was extremely helpful and encouraging to get feedback from an industry professional. She was honest, open and had some great suggestions for me. It was also really useful and very interesting to hear the other student reviews. I really learned a lot from listening to them too.
After graduating many years ago with an honours degree in Art History, Ruth went on to study art at Sotheby’s in London. She worked mainly in art research and curating in Europe, Israel, South Africa and more recently Australia. Her work experience has always been in the business side of art, but what she always wanted to do was actually make the art.
A few years ago Ruth went back to study part time and completed a diploma in Surface Design in Sydney. Following that she completed modules 1-3 of the Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design and finally The Ultimate Portfolio Builder.
She is currently producing her own collection of high-end rugs which are being manufactured in India and also designing and producing a collection of wall art.
Website | Facebook | Instagram
Amazed by what you see above from our talented students? Join our latest class of The Ultimate Portfolio Builder starting March 21, 2016.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.