Rhiannon Price is as creative and energetic as UAL graduates come. After completing a Bachelor of Art and Design at Central Saint Martin’s in 2004, she carved a successful digital marketing career for herself in London and Buenos Aires before moving to the USA to head up the creative agency ICHI Worldwide. There she leads a fun but hardworking team that delivers out-the-box ideas and creative concepts for blockbuster movies and video games.
This week the alumni team met with Rhiannon over email, where she chatted about work and her career journey from UAL to the USA.
Thanks for your time Rhiannon. Why did you choose to study at Central Saint Martins, UAL?
From a young age I knew I wanted to work in the arts, despite my family all following science or humanities career paths. It’s highly likely I was just rebelling, but it paid off … in the long run! During my foundation year at Weymouth College, Dorset I was encouraged by my tutor to apply to good colleges like Bristol, Brighton, Goldsmiths, but I had my mind set on Central Saint Martins. The main draw for me was the alumni and the type of work that the college was known for. It just felt like that was where everything was happening in art and design in that moment. Second to that being located in central London was a massive attraction. I remember during the first term feeling like we were in the epicentre of this bustling alive community, and everyone around us was turning out top notch awesome and weird creative work. I didn’t have that feeling at the other campuses I visited prior. Thirdly, the course I did was totally in line with my approach to my practice: there were no limits to the medium we worked in; it was just about solving problems creatively.
Image: ICHI Worldwide’s marketing for Disney / Star Wars
You’ve been living and working in Los Angeles (LA) since 2012. What do you do there and how did the opportunity arise?
I run a creative advertising agency in LA called ICHI Worldwide. We have another office in Farringdon, London which makes for nice trips back now and then! We work predominantly in entertainment marketing across video games, movies and music, and our projects span from strategy and branding through to live action trailers, motion graphics and VFX, key art creation, website design and build, digital interactions, social media, experiential: nothing is out of bounds! We are a truly integrated agency and we deal with the heart of the challenge, we are not purely focused on the deliverable medium.
The opportunity arose in the UK four years ago when a chance encounter with a former colleague led to a few too many glasses of wine and a discussion about opening an office in San Francisco (which ultimately became LA). They were working with a Californian based client who’d just commissioned a huge campaign with them for the launch of a new video game and they needed someone on the ground in the states to handle the project. When that project finished I set about making a home for ICHI in Los Angeles, and four years later here we are, with a few dozen clients and 15 members of staff.
What do you love most about your job?
The freedom and joy of running my own business, and pursuing work that we want to work on is simply amazing. In previous roles I’ve worked on products like toilet cleaner and mortgages. At ICHI we take a look at the movies and games that are coming out next year and decide which ones we want to pursue. When there is no one above you dictating budgets or protocol you really are free to work and live as real creatives: being innovative and having fun with it. No day is the same and we laugh a lot!
Image: Rhiannon Price with colleague and ‘Rockband’ artwork
Where do you find inspiration to stay ahead of the industry?
I actively seek time away from my computer in order to find inspiration. My creative partner and I regularly take walks and just chat to one another with no set agenda. Conversation and collaboration is the key to creativity in my view.
At work we all bring ideas, observations, insights to the table and we critique one another. In addition to that we keep a keen eye on the work of our peers: we regularly meet at events, shows, and award nights, and the competitive spirit is a great activator for new work that pushes the boundaries. I also trawl all the award winners work to see where we fit in and how we can improve our practice.
What wisdom do you have for creatives of the future?
Don’t think about the physical outcome. Think about the problem: dive into it and explore it as the solution will eventually come to you. And always sleep on it!
Find out more about study options at UAL here.