Artist’s Biography

Ruby Pang is a graphic design student currently enrolled at Emily Carr’s Summer Institute 2016. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and often finds herself inspired by the differences in each human life. She designs mainly in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, however she also creates work using lithography, water colours, and acrylic paints. In the future, she aspires to attend Emily Carr and then go on to design packaging, books, and album art. She has previously designed several posters for school events such as the play “The Outsiders” and music showcase “Novetus." This coming September, she will become the editor-in-chief of the Burnaby North Annual.

Photo Documenting Assignment

This is a ceramic cup I threw on the wheel a year or so. The medium is grey clay and matte green glaze. To document it, I created a seamless studio for myself by a window, used a sheet of tin foil as a reflector, and used my own hand for scale.

An Interview With Boaz Chan of Coastal Reign

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of interviewing one of the Co-Founders of Coastal Reign, Boaz Chan. Coastal Reign is a Vancouver-based custom clothing company. They specialize in both screen printed and embroidered custom clothing. This company began as a dream shared between Co-founders Boaz and Eddison, and now it has grown into a team of driven individuals. You can find Boaz and Coastal Reign at https://coastalreign.com/

What is your least favourite thing about running your own business?

Uncertainty. You can get a lot of orders one day and get no orders the day after. Unlike working for someone, your salary is not guaranteed. This however, motivates me to work harder. When you own your business, you determine your own destiny. You get what you put into it, so I try my hardest everyday to eliminate this uncertainty. 

What is something you learned that you wish you had known earlier?

Taxes and accounting. I dreaded Accounting class in 12th grade and I never paid attention. Now I realize how important accounting is when running a business. I highly recommend paying attention and taking advantage of the accounting classes in high school because it will save you lots of time and money in the future. 

What was the inspiration behind the branding/identity of your company?

Coastal is because we live on the Pacific Coast. Reign is from a Ultimate Frisbee tournament we played in called Spring Reign. The name is quite random. We wanted to undergo a name change as the name wasn't very related to the business. However, we received several objections from clients saying they liked the name because it was unique and memorable. From then on, we kept the name and chose turquoise blue as our company colour. 

progress + final result of postcard assignment

Our assignment was to capture a feeling that we associate with summer in a small postcard using photoshop. The theme I chose was when you wear shorts and sit on a surface, and then you are stuck to the surface when you get back up. A big challenge for me was conveying the message clearly, but I think it worked out quite well.

I also included a photo of the entire class' works, as I found them very exciting to look at and compare to my own!

take me out to the ball game

A small piece in my sketchbook done in pink and blue craftsmart acrylics.

I was thinking about being a little girl and the clothes I used to wear. Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind wearing a hat like this today, baseball caps are rather trendy.

textures for postcard assignment

Done with india ink + calligraphy pen, watercolour, alcohol ink marker.

I found the colourless blender very exciting to work with despite the horrible smell. This assortment of materials was unusual for me, as I usually don’t experiment with ink and markers. 

Once dry, these textures were scanned into photoshop and were used as a part of my summer-themed postcard assignment.

it's not that i don't try / it's just that i'm better on the ground

Loving this song right now.... Music has a big influence on my mood and my work and is a huge source of inspiration for me. So Sad, So Sad makes me feel sad but in a slightly hopeful and nostalgic way. I might do a piece inspired by this song someday!

fresh out of my sketchbook

Using my old markers again, thinking about makeup because I love watching those youtube makeup tutorials

a quick watercolour doodle

Done with a semi-moist watercolour set and a Sakura Koi Water Brush.

‘Robbers’ is a love song, it was originally inspired by my love of the Quentin Tarantino film ‘True Romance’, the story of an Elvis obsessed loner who falls in love and marries a prostitute. In the movie the couple run away to California after killing her pimp and stealing his drugs to start a new life financed by a once in a lifetime drug deal. It’s the sentiment behind the film that appeals to me, the hopelessly romantic notion that two people can meet and instantly fall in love, an escape story where love is the highest law and conquers all against the odds. 

a page from my sketchbook

Found some old markers and decided to do a full page in my sketchbook!

process + final result of my one-sheet autobiography assignment.

The blue portions of the sheet were made of cut paper and the headers were hand-lettered and also cut out of paper. I printed out the body text and added it afterwards.

To create the figure in the corner, I simplified a photo of me into 3 different colours. I cut each colour out seperately, then traced each shape onto coloured paper. I cut out each shape and then “rebuilt” myself.

To finish, I scanned the sheet into photoshop and adjusted the colours.