Being raised in Colorado and later transplanted to the Chicago lakefront, I am influenced by both coastal and mountainous lifestyles. I’m drawn to colors and textures with a history behind them. During my walks around town, I seek items such as metals with patina or weathered barn doors with its former layers of paint appearing through its cracks and chips. The quality of a hand sewn stitch has the ability to unknowingly carry a room. In my contemporary settings, I’m drawn to orderly and functional layouts, minimal furnishings with maximum impact.

With degrees in design, I’ve been able to incorporate my ideals as an award winning product developer, trend forecaster and have managed large corporate design teams.  In the beginning of my career, I was on a product development team; there were twelve of us sitting at large conference table. At the time, we were all pitching ideas, which were all small failures until the team leader came in and threw river rock on the table and told us to design a line around them.  To this day, I think of that moment and realize how design manifests into something greater than one item; it creates a lifestyle.

Feel free to contact me at anytime at:

michael@michaelryandesign.com