Graphic designer, book publisher and visual artist Ryan Thompson moved to Powell River from Victoria just over two years ago with his girlfriend Caitlin McDonagh, also a local artist. Since then, Thompson has taken his experience promoting art shows, publishing books and doing graphic design and has applied it to a new company called Leaven Agency. A multidisciplinary studio, Leaven produces everything from corporate websites to public art installations.
How did you get into the creative design field?
It started in Victoria putting on arts shows with friends. For every art show, we would do books with all of the art from the show in them, so I would do the design for those. That slowly turned into an art book publishing company, and from there we needed websites and other design material to promote the art shows and sell the books.
At what point did you launch Leaven Agency?
That was just earlier this year, after I went through Community Futures’ small business development program. After 15 years of doing freelance, I made the leap to start a company.
What is it like turning art into a business?
Design can be easier than art, because there is a definite goal and function to it. With art, it is so open, so other people may not clue in to what you are doing, but if you are designing something for a client it has a purpose and has to answer questions, where art often asks questions.
How do you balance doing design for a client with your own visual art?
That’s the hardest part about design and it separates good designers from bad designers. Designers could make these beautiful things that look like art, but at the end of the day if it doesn’t actually serve the company it could confuse people. So there’s a fine line, and it’s hard to do both.
When you do your own artwork now, is it different than before?
Having my own business I don’t really have the time to do art anymore, but when I do, it is awesome. It’s a break and fuels ideas I can use in design. So it’s a good tool for translating ideas into functioning designs that will work for a company. It’s like a work vacation, I guess.
What do you say to people who say design work isn’t art?
You can look at any corporate logo and say it’s a piece of art. It’s all perspective. I look at the FedEx logo and see the hidden arrow in it and that’s really smart. It says something to me like art can, but at the end of the day it was created to sell things.
For more information, go to leaven.agency.
