Pretty in Pieces

During some research I was doing recently on natural beauty products from New Zealand either in the market already or about to be launched in the UK and Europe, I came across artist Rob Ryan.


A massively beneficial substance used in most of the product ranges is Manuka Honey and obviously none of the products contained preservatives or parabens. The simplicity of these products is echoed in their packaging, but only Snowberry products caught my eye. The primary colours and jagged edges of the sentimental patterns which bedeck the recycled boxes are peppered with words so striking and poignant that you wonder if Snowberry's founder Soraya Hendesi perhaps asked her emotionally over-developed 6 year old to decorate her creations.

However, a traditionally trained artist, Rob Ryan was born in Cyprus in 1962 and studied fine art at Nottingham Trent Polytechnic before going on to an MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London. Features of printmaking remain visible in his work in the patterns and repetitions, but it is clear a lifetime of experience and emotion goes into each painstakingly and passionately hand-cut design.

Ryan's work with Snowberry has not been his only foray into the beauty world. He has previously collaborated with Paul Smith, which led to this comment on the paulsmith.co.uk - "This is a body of work, which, beneath their overtly visual romance, is almost visceral in it's melancholy. "

Although some of Ryan's work reminded me of similar designs by Zakee Shariff, especially a comissioned book sleeve illustration, because of its production it is undeniably original and his work would look as equally impressive and at home on the walls of an art gallery or my grandparents kitchen.