Ruth Ansel

RUTH “Look at things differently” Tips from designer Ruth Ansel

ANSEL

Early Life B

orn in 1938 in New York City, Ruth Ansel was always an artist. She attended Alfred University with a degree in ceramic design, she married American illustrator and graphic designer Bob Gill. Her marriage ended after a few years, but there was one thing she took from that time: her interest in graphic design. With no prior background in graphic design, she risked it all and applied to be an assistant to Marvin Israel: the art director for Harper’s Bazaar. This bold leap to apply for the position worked in her favor and she was hired due to her lack of design knowledge cliches.

Ruth Ansel and Hiro in Paris, 1967.

Bea Feitler and Ruth Ansel with photographer Bill King in New York, 1965.

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“I believe in simple design that appears effortless, but it takes a lot of work to achieve,” Ruth Ansel

Harper’s Bazaar Covers designed by Ruth Ansel

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Design Work

Story Teller, Art Direction by Ruth Ansel- Photographs by Tim Walker

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n the early 1990s, she formed her own studio, designing monographs for Leibovitz, Richard Avedon, and Peter Beard as well as campaigns for Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, and Club Monaco. She also began a highly productive collaboration with the photographer Tim Walker and designed the wall graphics for a 2012 London exhibition organized around the publication of his book, Storyteller, that she also designed.

Story Teller, Art Direction by Ruth Ansel

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Inside of Story Teller, Typography by Ruth Ansel

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Design Principals Four rules

Provoke: “Something new is off-putting,” she says. “The first human instinct is to reject it. A talented design director or photographer has to keep looking for it.”

Inside spread designed by Ruth Ansel

Inform: A good and critical eye is more than picking fonts and grids. It’s about being sensitive to social changes and then bringing those observations to your work.“It’s a conscious act to change and evolve your thinking,”she says.

Interior spread of GraceLand for Elvis Prwesley- Concept- Ruth Ansel

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Entertain: “You’re always trying to create a magazine that’s as much about style and substance as it is about unexpected juxtapositions,” she says. “It’s up to the art director to encourage, surprise, shock, and have their finger on the pulse of the next thing.”

Cover art by Ruth Ansel

Inspire: Sometimes, she says,you have to get out of the way and encourage “a general sense of direction to those talented people you have the opportunity to discover, nurture, and offer a place for them to show their best selves.”

Vanity Fair cover- Creative direction by Ruth Ansel

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“Being a magazine designer is a little like being an orchestra conductor�

- Ruth Ansel