Meet Ryan Ward

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ryan Ward and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started working in the arts really young, at like 6 maybe, re-drawing horror film posters as an incessant and almost disturbing pass-time, felt pen and paper in hand almost constantly, trying to figure out how to draw tastefully and representationally in some way. It’s funny I now spend a lot of creative energy on design and merchandise for The Mystic Museum in Burbank, spooking the neighborhood with guerrilla-style retro horror experiences and ephemera.

With a strong background in fine arts as opposed to graphic design, I started meagerly at Michigan State University, etching and drawing my way out of the state. I did pick up one out-of-the-box experience while enrolled — the opportunity to art direct and design the massive daily undertaking which was the The State News, MSU’s student newspaper which allowed me to cut my teeth on the type of work, in the type of environments that I would unknowingly find myself in again in the near future. But my ticket to the big city finally came after my master’s study at Cranbrook Academy, when I caught the eye of creative director and punk rock-icon John Curry, who quickly enlisted me in helping him revitalize the visual language of the LA Weekly in it’s heyday in the early 00’s. Swept up in the world of the LA underground of entertainment, fashion, music and arts, I quickly felt much more steady on my feet in this daunting metropolis of ours. I secretly felt like I had one of the keys to it actually, so when it was time for the nest step in my ‘career’ I took it swiftly.

For some reason breaching the entertainment underbelly of Hollywood was closer than I thought in my path, and what I thought might be a good move professionally turned out to be expectedly unsavory. I mean I worked for TMZ for almost 2 years as their digital creative director. So with the Warner Bros. pay check comes complacency and stagnation for me quickly and my gut begins to turn in the mornings when wake to face the days and foolish premises that I put all my creativity into. But a learning experience nonetheless, and a an opportunity to reposition myself into a better, more positive venture, or so I thought.

So in trying to remove myself from the entertainment side of a seemingly journalistic-rooted career I had fashioned for myself, I held brief stints in creative director and art director roles at Hautelook (Nordstrom) in fashion marketing, as well as Boingo Wireless, coalescing their brand’s reach across an enormous worldwide platform of users.

Not that that initially sounds boring, but bear in mind I came here to be a musician. Oh did I mention that? Sorry, so along the way I’ve been avidly playing the guitar until my fingers bled (since about 13 years of age), so I added yet another set of creative hours to my days, with the formation of a band I was heavily involved in, My Satellite. I lovingly produced our visual and sonic brand from shirts to stage performances, and through our promotion I found that I could turn heads and draw audience with my artistic sensibilities without an umbrella entity and it’s sometimes deficient management pulling my creative strings. But exhausted I definitely was, and feeling somewhat trapped in the onslaught of responsibilities. That’s when the universe stepped in and corrected my outlook, though painfully.

After I stumbled out of the haze of a near-death bought with alcohol, somewhat caused by the seemingly endless onslaught of work and city strains, and ultimately the text-book earth-shattering divorce. Through it I’ve somehow morphed into a thousand times more focused, driven and productive in my purpose and practice.

I decided to take fallback on one other media outlet to provide my services for and it turned out to be just what I needed to make my decision to work for myself for now, and try to align myself with projects servicing tastes more parallel to my own, and for god sake, help strengthen the voice of artists and entrepreneurs that I choose to support. The thing that really gets in the way of your progress is yourself is stagnancy, so I regret very little in the fact I’ve seemingly jumped around a lot thus far here in my career here in Los Angeles, it’s led to many advantageous networking opportunities…

Now I find I don’t really even need to involve myself with an agency or corporation, and am able to work independently on a much more varied scope of projects and styles — I can be simultaneously working on store signage for a local business’ brick-and-mortar, and an email campaign for MovieMaker magazine (yes, I still keep the door open the ‘right’ industry projects). Over the past 3 years I have looked to my years of friendships and network of peers to serve as my lifeline for both creative impetus and livelihood — a comforting and rewarding mental space under which to develop and complete work. Many of my clients today are friends over business associates, those that have been in my orbit for 20= years.

With the freedom to be my own project manager I’ve allowed myself to pace my workflow at my comfort level, and work during the hours of when I’m actually inspired to create something. In that scenario, I’m able to step away in a cathartic rhythm, which enables me to pursue more songwriting and musicianship, as well as provide the necessary emotional support for myself and those near me. As I grow my name in the art/design world I intend to continue my withdrawal from commercial-based work altogether and redirect my focus on a personal exploration of thematics in the fine arts realm, ideally leading to showcasing on the gallery circuit and possibly continued musical endeavors.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
You have to realize the dark and the light of this town. I wouldn’t be the most welcoming of tour guides, but I could definitely serve as one of the most honest. As you can do things like surf and ski all in one day, there are a few more crucial and immediate aspects of the city necessary to be realized by said guest. I would scope a plan to package the LA experience with a bit broader scope of the cultural as well as physical ingredients that need mapped out.

More than institutional landmarks I think overarching architectural morays through the vast micro-network of cultural/ethnic enclaves that weave together in such an eloquently random way. The way some of the best culinary adventures you’d take would be in the most unassuming history-laden dives. How air in the Valley is always hotter and more still. How Rivers of homeless encampments can somehow crash into expensive gentrified neighborhoods and somehow continue to churn out the hustle and bustle of modern consumerism. How the snakes of traffic seem to never end while conversations overheard at deli’s at 3am conjure dreams of small town singers, writers and starry eyed YouTube content creators.

An important part about assimilation here seems to be listening — or moreover keeping an ear to the ground, from the loudest guitar at the Greek Theater, to the most volatile unrest, to the most peaceful chant in Topanga canyon, all under always tangled network of opportunity and risks to be taken and avoided.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My indoctrination into the colorful world of the LA Weekly was huge pivot point in my life both artistically and culturally. My mission there to open it’s pages to a more magazine-like design scheme, was more than garnished with the constant revolving door cast of writers, editors, photogs and musicians that made up the motley crew of the publication’s contributors. It’s unglamorous veracity in tongue coupled with it’s star-splanged roster of intellects, still guide my vision life in Los Angeles, as well as life as an artist who ultimately wants to use an honest hand.

My Satellite was my first foray into working with a traditional band, a pursuit I chose to follow late in life at the age of 31. Through our almost decade long stint as a musical entity we got much more I attention than I ever expected, but something even more surprising — a real relationship with 4 strangers. I’ve learned from them more than how to stay in the pocket, watched develop and prosper as musicians, and continue love and rely on to this day. It’s a true Hollywood story, couldn’t write it better. And no one died.

Above all the 3 mothers that I was so privelaged to have found in my birth mother Cheryl, grandmother Dorothy and Aunt Sandra, with whom I spent my formative years in Michigan. They instilled in me the ability to see that obstacles in life, love and career were coarse but calcuable but to be explored passionately, and the father to serve as the gravity of reality and steadfastness in my decisions.

Website: www.ryanwardcreative.com

Instagram: @the.mission.room

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ryandward

Facebook: www.facebook.com/rward77

Other: Hear my music: The Mission Room: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the-mission-room/1402896845 My Satellite: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/my-satellite/373048158

Image Credits
Marlena Gabriella Miller