Rob Draper
Bio
Rob is an artist and designer based in the UK who specialises in hand lettering.
Rob has worked with a range of worldwide clients including The Golden Globes, Gap, Nike, Penguin Random House, Bartle Bogle & Hegarty, Pentagram, Harper & Collins, WWF, Sustrans, The Washington Post & Faucet Face.
He has had work featured in worldwide press from IdN International Designers Network, Design Taxi, UC Quarterly, Thames & Hudsons 'Typography' title, The Design Museum London, The ‘Expressive Type’ book, The Daily Mail, Shutterstock and have been featured on numerous design/style/art/creativity blogs.
After facing redundancy from a role he loved as an Art Director for a large fashion brand, Rob had no idea what to do so decided to go it alone. Robs truly bizarre story is how with no budget, no idea and by bringing together aspects of his past he loved he managed to reinvent himself and end up with the client base of his dreams.
Session
Everything it takes
Today i’ll be telling 2 stories. The first is how I got here - How did I end up doing this and why do I draw on things? Its a peculiar story that I wouldn’t believe unless it had happened to me. After unexpected redundancy of my perfect job I felt I was at a junction - leave behind a 20+ year design career and re-train or go it alone, not turn anything down, try new things and see what happens.
That approach left me setting up a cycling brand, working in a high security prison and spending my spare time drawing on coffee cups. The second story is how once finally some of my dreams came true they nearly all fell to pieces. I found myself watching the worlds biggest film stars walk past my animations on the red carpet at the Golden Globes while I had no studio, no office and ‘home’ was living on a camp bed in my Sisters front room next to my 11 year old Son and how this has shaped me, my work and my outlook.
I suppose its basically a story of relentlessly pursuing dreams when the odds are stacked against you and how sometimes that goes right, sometimes it goes wrong but its what you learn and take forward that matters…
