Arts is fundamental to my life.

Q:: Is Ruby Rynne your real name or is it a designer label?
Ruby::
It’s part of my real name. I actually have a double barrelled surname in the Spanish style. So I use one half for my private life and the other half for my working life.

Q:: What attracted you to become a designer?
Ruby::
Really, I’ve always done it. My first job was with an insurance office as a clerk and it was always left up to me to design adverts for the newspaper or leaflets that they wanted to give out. And it continued from there, since the day I left school, I have made my living one way or another with art and design. Whatever kind of businesses I was working in, this is what I ended up doing. I enjoy digital design particularly which led me to scrapbooking. That’s how I got into this particular market sector about 5 years ago.

Q:: Where and how do you get your inspiration?
Ruby::
Literally everywhere [laugh]. Sometimes it comes from an idea, a television show, a magazine, which is not even about a color or style but simply an idea. I will then go from there. Another time could be a particular combination of colors, like for example a few weeks ago I was in the bathroom putting out fresh towels. I realized the new towels against the old towels gave a beautiful combination of colors. Something like that could be the inspiration for the beginning of a new kit.

Q:: Where do you sell your products?
Ruby::
I currently sell at a Dutch shop called, Digital Scrap Boutique. It’s run by a very good friend of mine whom I’ve worked with in other stores in the past. After I left DSP, I wanted to do something that was just relaxed and easy, to get my breath back. She said, “why not come sell with me,” so I did and to date I'm still there. I’m only now really getting back up to speed with scrap designing.

Q:: Are you designing full time or is this part time?
Ruby::
I’m a full time artist and designer. The digital scrapbooking stuff only accounts for a part of my time. The rest of the time I might be creating art pieces or doing graphics for commercial clients. My business here in France is the creation of unique and individual craft items for sale or on commission. That’s the majority of my work.

Q:: If someone asks you what is the best thing about being a designer, what would you say?
Ruby::
I wouldn’t phrase the question that way [laugh]. It’s not what I like about being a designer, it is just what I am. It’s not a choice. It’s like saying, ‘What is the best thing about being Irish.’ It’s just what I am. Everything in my life is geared towards the arts. I’m absolutely obsessive about it. In the same way that other people can’t live without eating, can’t live without smoking, whatever, art is like that for me. It’s fundamental to my life. It’s not something I chose. It chose me.

Q:: Very interesting! What major challenges do you face as a designer?
Ruby::
The most challenging thing, I think, for me is having the confidence to do what my heart is telling me to do. You have a problem in commercial art and in designing scrapbook products as well, in that you are used to trying to provide what you think your customers want. The most challenging thing for me is to not to allow myself to be directed by that, but to actually do what comes naturally rather than trying to force it into looking the way that I think it should look.

By that I mean, for example, in a digital scrapbooking kit, you have this idea that it should have this number of frames, this number of tags, this number of buttons and ribbons. Really what I need to work on is to get away from that more and say, “No. I’m not going to prescribe what I am going to do, I’m just going to let it come.” Sometimes you get about 90% of the way and then you have to back pedal a little bit to fill in pieces that you know are missing. But you must start from the point of view that ‘I’m going to create some things and I’m not going to worry too much about the form.’ That's actually very difficult to do.