Ryder Ripps is pretty consistent in popping up into modern culture from his conceptual work to Kanye West shenanigans.
So, who is Ryder Ripps, and what kind of work does he do? Let’s find out!
Ryder Ripps is a New York-based artist born on July 7, 1986, to Rodney Ripps and Helene Verin.
Ripps studied media at The New School and graduated back in 2008, ready to enter the market with his own PR company OKFocus.
Notable Collaborations
Ryder Ripps’ portfolio is rich with notable collaborations, including Dump.Fm, VFiles, Marc Jacobs, Nuggs, Marvel, and Snapchat!
Quite the client list, right?
He even did an abstract “clickbait” installation in Barba Lee’s honor at the Steve Turner Gallery. The piece discusses how media consumption affects our perception of tragedies, where media numbs and desensitizes us.
However, some of his work gathered quite a bit of controversy, and these were the ones he was most known for.
Let’s take a look at four of his top artistic collaborations so far!
Ryder Ripps And Kanye West
The nature of the collaboration between Kanye West and Ripps isn’t always well defined to the public. However, his work as a creative extends beyond conceptual branding and logo design.
For instance, Ripps, as a part of the PR firm OKFocus, was behind the “prank” of Kanye’s fake whodat.biz website. Whether or not that was under Donda’s umbrella isn’t clear yet.
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol’s collaboration wasn’t with Ryder but with his father, Rodney Ripps.
Rodney Ripps and Warhol were both active artists in New York at the same time, and they often crossed paths. It came to them actually trading artwork with each other, where Ripps received a silkscreen portrait created especially for him.
Around four decades later, Ryder Ripps pushed on the collaboration between his father and Warhol further by minting the portrait as a non-fungible token or an NFT.
This wasn’t the only instance where the family built upon Rodney’s relationship with Warhol. The designer Helen Verin, Ryder Ripps’ mother, had the chance to sit for Andy Warhol back in 1980’s summer.
All that was made possible thanks to Rodney Ripps’ contacts in the art world at the time.
Ryder Ripps And Miley Cyrus
Ripps worked as a co-producer on two of Miley Cyrus’ songs in her hit album “Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz”.
The first one, “Slab of Butter,” was a production collaboration between Ripps, Jon Baken, Josh Knapp, and Fridmann Barthel.
Meanwhile, the second song, “I’m So Drunk,” was a tighter fit between Ripps, Bakenn, and Knapp.
Soylent
Soylent is a food company with products that would theoretically replace regular meals with snacks and drinks loaded with equivalent plant-based nutrients.
Ryder Ripps hit the nail on this job with very minimalistic designs that match Soylent’s vision of simplicity and sustainability.
The designs look very sleek and right to the point.
Whether the whole notion of getting a full meal in a small fun-flavored bottle will catch on or not is still up for debate, but energy drinks did succeed in a similar arena!
CIA Controversy
Some of Ripps’ fans on Instagram tend to believe that he did the CIA logo redesign project. As impressive as that would be, it’s not true.
It turns out to be another misunderstood joke by the conceptual artists through his social media.
Wrap Up
So, who is Ryder Ripps?
Ryder Ripps is a conceptual artist who challenges market norms with creative ideas and a bit of humor here and there.