"The key thing is it has a sense of being touched by a human hand."
In a red brick mill in Salford, a standalone building is flooded with a pall of light. Inside, cutting desks, beaming Mac screens and arresting prints vie for attention with shelving stuffed with art books, design manuals and handmade zines from long ago. We’re in the DR.ME studio, where Ryan Doyle and Mark Edwards operate. They came out of the Manchester School of Art in the early ‘00s, and after a stint interning in New York with artist Mike Perry, returned to Manchester to start up a graphic design studio entitled after their own initials. 15 years later, DR.ME is a thriving practice known for its inventive collage-based media, art direction, illustration, and video. They’ve worked with everyone from Crack Magazine and Stella McCartney to Ninja Tune and the Tate, exhibited in Manchester’s HOME, and published a range of books. We caught up with them earlier this month.
We captured you guys in your Islington Mill studio. Would you be able to tell us a bit about the space and how it came about? How important is it to your practice?
Eddy: We work out of the Engine House at Islington Mill, a multi-storey studio in the grounds of a Victorian mill turned into creative studios by artists Bill Campbell and Maurice Carlin. We moved in just over 10 years ago with a host of friends. The idea was to share a space, equipment and generally have a good craic. It’s an amazing place to work with huge windows, and we’ve worked hard to make it a loving environment that encourages members to collaborate and create. Regularly we throw parties, film nights, dinner parties and exhibitions. The size is great. If you’re collating a zine, it really lends itself to that. We have a risograph printer with over 10 colours, and this is always in use for creating limited edition prints and publications. We’ve been able to do stuff like make a book about ‘90s football goalie shirts fully in-house. That’s a Keeper was completed at the studio using four-colour printing on the Riso. We even did the collating and binding; it was a lot of work but it’s super fun being able to create something like that from start to finish.
Talk us through how you work as a duo and how you find it. Is there a division of duties or specialisms? At Uskees we call it a ‘Swiss Cheese’ method. One person plugs a hole with their skill. Another person plugs a different hole with theirs, and so on. Maybe that resonates!
Eddy: We’re pretty autonomous as a studio. When a brief comes in, we’ll work on ideas separately then put them together to see what the client likes. When a client chooses a route, whoever’s work is selected leads and the other supports. We were once referred to as a ‘90s Premier League strike force. Each of us has skills that dovetail with the other to create something greater than the individual. I like that.
Ryan: Yeah, initially we worked similarly, but I think over the years we have come to understand that when a project comes in, one of us is best suited for it, and usually that person takes on the project. There are times when we’re both required, and this is when the Swiss cheese method comes into play.
Your practice feels 360 in that you’ll use analogue mediums like drawing, collage, Riso print — physical references that go beyond the same old Pinterest shots — to get digital results. Then it works the other way. Digital tools create physical forms, whether it’s a cap, book or an album cover. Where did this fluidity come from? Is it how you naturally, organically like to work, or does it tend to develop prescriptively in response to a brief?
Eddy: We’ve always leant heavily into creating things that have a physicality. We had an exhibition called Happy Accidents in New York a while back, and I think that name has always underpinned our studio practice. When you’re working digitally, it’s easy to keep on undoing what you’ve done. Making something physically creates mistakes that can give a better result than something that’s been replicated exactly as you’d imagined.
When it comes down to what’s right for a brief, of course some will say that they want a clean outcome, but we’ll almost always start by creating physically. Then we’ll use the laptop as a finishing tool. For instance, we do quite a bit of experimenting with typography. There’s often pots of water with printed type soaking in them on the studio balcony. This happens because I love the way the ink bleeds and becomes totally different to how you see it on screen.
Ryan: Yeah, our studio ethos was that analogue is king and we’d stay away from working purely digital. I think over the years that’s changed slightly and now we practice a sort of analogue x digital hybrid. The key thing is it all has a sense of being touched by a human hand.
Just in terms of physical references and the DNA that pours into your projects. Where do you draw from if not from digital resources? Maybe you could talk us through some of the books in your studio library, or past inspirations. Describe what makes a good visual cue.
Ryan: The best references are off screen and found in the real world. They can be in books, museums or on the street. I am always on the lookout for colour combinations or typographic inspirations in the wild. I am convinced that makes for the finest and most original work. Old VFX books or photographic manuals from the ‘80s and ’90 are a great resource too.
Eddy: The bookcase in our studio is important for sure. My mum Jilly Edwards is an artist and has always had a resource library not far out of reach that she works from, so I think that's where I get it from! I've got a large collection of design books by heroes like Tibor Kalman, Paula Scher, 8vo, Vaughan Oliver alongside books by friends like Braulio Amado and James Victore. Then we have hundreds of zines by small presses, if not more. They’re a great resource if you’re feeling stuck and want to put yourself in a different universe for a bit.
A bit more on briefs. How do you approach them when they come in? Do you pitch? Is it a case of ‘the plan is there is no plan’? Take them as they come? Or is there a process?
Eddy: We try not to pitch. It’s a broken system, if you ask me. If someone wants to work with us, they should want to work with us and there shouldn’t really be any other thought. We’ve had the best results when clients have come to us and said, ‘We think you’re perfect for this project’. This fosters a level of trust and belief in your practice which is a great starting point to collaborate.
You started off independently, just the two of you. How do you manage to stay independent after all this time? Creatively free. Is it a case of being selective about the kind of jobs you take? Is there a criteria for a DR.ME brief? A classic kind of work you do?
Eddy: I think our work stems from what we appreciate, whether it’s the music we listen to, the books we read, the clothes we wear. We’ve always appreciated independent creation and so I guess that speaks to the work we’ve made since we started the studio.
When we graduated from the Manchester School of Art, we both interned in New York for an illustrator named Mike Perry (If you don’t know him check his Emmy award winning animation for one of the episodes of Broad City).
Working for Mike was a really fun way for us to learn how to run a studio from the day to day of getting paid through to how to get work in. Learning that making something every day had its worth was a crazy valuable experience for us both and for the DR.ME studio as a whole. It showed us that we didn’t need to move to a big London studio to do what we wanted. We could just start and make it up as we went along.
Speaking of the music you listen to. DR.ME really shows up in dance music. Designing album covers, festival graphics, all sorts. What is it about you and the electronic music space that makes you such a good fit?
Ryan: I think the style of our work suits the genre. Sample culture, repetitive beats. I see a lot of that in our work. Doing the record cover for local artist D/R/U/G/S is sort of where we cut our teeth; it really defined the early style of our studio. Next thing you know, John Talabot notices you from Barcelona and you’re suddenly in the electronic dance scene and have built really strong connections with cultural institutions like Corsica Studios, then a T-shirt you designed ends up being worn by Fred Again and seen all over the world. One thing leads to another.
Eddy: It’s because we’re dance music fans first and foremost, so we feel invested in making artwork and designs that speak to us and would be things we’d want to see in that world. When we’re making posters for a party, it’s exciting to think that the best night of someone’s life would be inextricably linked to the artwork you’re working on.
It would be good to hear about some of your contemporary inspirations, as opposed to when you started out. Who or what gets you excited creatively today?
Eddy: Oosh, God, there’s so much. I think we both have interests outside of design and these feed in whether we realise it or not. For the last 6 years I’ve been creating a community garden in an alley behind where I live with my wife. I get a lot of inspiration from what I’m planting and the headspace it gives me. I’ve been reading and collecting Apartamento magazine for quite a while too. I love the stories and interviews in there.
Ryan: Honestly, I started out looking up to people like Mike Perry, Dash Snow, Richard Prince and Peter Saville. Now I’m more inspired by the people around me. Mostly my 6-year-old son. Watching his lightbulb moments with his drawing and painting or his Lego building is hugely inspiring to me.
You guys are proudly Manchester based. Does the local culture find its way into your work? How important is a sense of place to you?
Eddy: I think Manchester probably is an influence, but without us trying to let it be. We’re not trying to shoehorn in Simply Red lyrics or barm cakes into our work. I think the city’s influence is much more ambient. It’s a beautiful place that I find myself exploring over and over again. It’s always fun walking through town with friends that are visiting and seeing it through fresh eyes, or just revisiting areas to see what’s new. It’s exciting to go to a Kurdish place I’ve not been to in Rusholme or to a gallery in Cheetham Hill. Manchester is a city that changes constantly, and while the press tends to hark back to yesteryear and all the talking heads will go on and on about things that don’t exist anymore, the beauty of the place lies in its future and its potential. I feel like regardless of whether it’s someone born and raised in Manchester, or whether someone’s moved here, they all have a similar energy fostered in them, and that energy is to create. I’m not sure if it’s the inclement weather forcing people to go indoors and make something, but I’ve lost count of the amount of people here who say they’re going to start a club, open a bookshop, form a band, whatever, then they’ve actually gone and done it.
Ryan: Yeah for me, I don’t think Manchester is an influence at all to be honest. I think being lucky enough to have seen different corners of different cultures around the world probably feeds way more into my work.
What do you like most about what you do? What do you find fulfilling about it?
Eddy: Getting to help people is right up there, so is making connections. We also love breaking that rule of ‘never working with friends’. For over 5 years now some friends of mine from where I grew up in Kendal in the Lake District have been working on Gam Yam Brewery. It’s been a real joy to work with them all the way from them brewing on a tiny little stove top brew kit to them now having a pretty successful brewery, which in this climate is no mean feat. They give us so much freedom; it's a very edifying relationship.
Ryan: All my childhood I wanted to be a cartoonist, and every day of my adult life I achieved it, albeit not an actual full time cartoonist, but a version of it. That is fulfillment to me.
Finally, what does the future hold for DR.ME and the industry in general? Where do you see graphic design going, and does this tally with your approach? Do you see yourself having to adapt?
Eddy: I hope to continue to be surprised by the heights we can reach. Every year there are new people we work with, and that’s super exciting as it feels like a bit of an indication of how far we’ve come. Whether it’s A24, Manchester United or Mini, there’s a real validation in working with household names and getting to collaborate on projects where they’ve come to us because of the way we work.
We’re currently putting the finishing touches on a book based on a project called Accidental Collage that started around 6 or 7 years ago. It’ll be really exciting to get that into the world!
Ryan: Yeah, I still think graphic design and graphic designers are safe from the infiltration of AI that has been threatening to destroy the industry for years now. I think it’s obvious when you look at 85% of signage or business that have chosen to just do any design with AI that it all looks shit and it all looks the same. I think that will only get worse, so there will always be work for designers out there and we’ll be the ones working with clients and people who respect the craft.
This last part is where we ask you to send some cultural inspiration out into the world, recommending 5 Good Things and the reasons why you chose them.
A restaurant or cafe you like in your city
Eddy: I am going for Al Zain in Rusholme, my favourite shawarma in the city. I recommend the full mix on samoon with everything!
Ryan: The Third Eye in Didsbury has the best butter chicken in Manchester.
A film everyone should watch
Eddy: Beautiful Losers is a documentary about a lot of really interesting artists like Geoff McFetridge, Harmony Korine, Deanna & Ed Templeton, Margaret Kilgallen and their various journeys. All coming through around the same time, and how their careers progressed to the next level. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to go out and do something for themselves.
Ryan: Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger. I watched this when I was 19 after being introduced to it by some friends, and it stuck with me ever since. It’s a really trippy ride with mad editing throughout.
A book everyone should read
Eddy: Currently reading Finding Albion by Zakia Sewell so for recency bias maybe this!
Ryan: Symbols Sourcebook by Henry Dreyfuss. It’s just a mad encyclopaedia of every graphic symbol you could ever imagine. A great source of inspiration
A musical album or artist who means something to you
Eddy: Finis Africae - A Last Discovery: The Essential Recordings, 1984-2001
Ryan: WU LYF - A Wave That Will Never Break. This is the new album from my closest friends aside from Eddy. It’s released 15 years after their first album. I manage these guys too.
Where you’d send someone if they were visiting your city or hometown for the first time
Eddy: I’d send them to Platt Fields Market Garden, which is a brilliant community garden built on an old bowling green. It’s been going for around 8 years, and it is a beautiful and calming space.
Ryan: The Theatre of Dreams
You can find out more about DR.ME and their practice here.
5 Good Things - DR.ME - Manchester
"The key thing is it has a sense of being touched by a human hand."
In a red brick mill in Salford, a standalone building is flooded with a pall of light. Inside, cutting desks, beaming Mac screens and arresting prints vie for attention with shelving stuffed with art books, design manuals and handmade zines from long ago. We’re in the DR.ME studio, where Ryan Doyle and Mark Edwards operate. They came out of the Manchester School of Art in the early ‘00s, and after a stint interning in New York with artist Mike Perry, returned to Manchester to start up a graphic design studio entitled after their own initials. 15 years later, DR.ME is a thriving practice known for its inventive collage-based media, art direction, illustration, and video. They’ve worked with everyone from Crack Magazine and Stella McCartney to Ninja Tune and the Tate, exhibited in Manchester’s HOME, and published a range of books. We caught up with them earlier this month.
We captured you guys in your Islington Mill studio. Would you be able to tell us a bit about the space and how it came about? How important is it to your practice?
Eddy: We work out of the Engine House at Islington Mill, a multi-storey studio in the grounds of a Victorian mill turned into creative studios by artists Bill Campbell and Maurice Carlin. We moved in just over 10 years ago with a host of friends. The idea was to share a space, equipment and generally have a good craic. It’s an amazing place to work with huge windows, and we’ve worked hard to make it a loving environment that encourages members to collaborate and create. Regularly we throw parties, film nights, dinner parties and exhibitions. The size is great. If you’re collating a zine, it really lends itself to that. We have a risograph printer with over 10 colours, and this is always in use for creating limited edition prints and publications. We’ve been able to do stuff like make a book about ‘90s football goalie shirts fully in-house. That’s a Keeper was completed at the studio using four-colour printing on the Riso. We even did the collating and binding; it was a lot of work but it’s super fun being able to create something like that from start to finish.
Talk us through how you work as a duo and how you find it. Is there a division of duties or specialisms? At Uskees we call it a ‘Swiss Cheese’ method. One person plugs a hole with their skill. Another person plugs a different hole with theirs, and so on. Maybe that resonates!
Eddy: We’re pretty autonomous as a studio. When a brief comes in, we’ll work on ideas separately then put them together to see what the client likes. When a client chooses a route, whoever’s work is selected leads and the other supports. We were once referred to as a ‘90s Premier League strike force. Each of us has skills that dovetail with the other to create something greater than the individual. I like that.
Ryan: Yeah, initially we worked similarly, but I think over the years we have come to understand that when a project comes in, one of us is best suited for it, and usually that person takes on the project. There are times when we’re both required, and this is when the Swiss cheese method comes into play.
Your practice feels 360 in that you’ll use analogue mediums like drawing, collage, Riso print — physical references that go beyond the same old Pinterest shots — to get digital results. Then it works the other way. Digital tools create physical forms, whether it’s a cap, book or an album cover. Where did this fluidity come from? Is it how you naturally, organically like to work, or does it tend to develop prescriptively in response to a brief?
Eddy: We’ve always leant heavily into creating things that have a physicality. We had an exhibition called Happy Accidents in New York a while back, and I think that name has always underpinned our studio practice. When you’re working digitally, it’s easy to keep on undoing what you’ve done. Making something physically creates mistakes that can give a better result than something that’s been replicated exactly as you’d imagined.
When it comes down to what’s right for a brief, of course some will say that they want a clean outcome, but we’ll almost always start by creating physically. Then we’ll use the laptop as a finishing tool. For instance, we do quite a bit of experimenting with typography. There’s often pots of water with printed type soaking in them on the studio balcony. This happens because I love the way the ink bleeds and becomes totally different to how you see it on screen.
Ryan: Yeah, our studio ethos was that analogue is king and we’d stay away from working purely digital. I think over the years that’s changed slightly and now we practice a sort of analogue x digital hybrid. The key thing is it all has a sense of being touched by a human hand.
Just in terms of physical references and the DNA that pours into your projects. Where do you draw from if not from digital resources? Maybe you could talk us through some of the books in your studio library, or past inspirations. Describe what makes a good visual cue.
Ryan: The best references are off screen and found in the real world. They can be in books, museums or on the street. I am always on the lookout for colour combinations or typographic inspirations in the wild. I am convinced that makes for the finest and most original work. Old VFX books or photographic manuals from the ‘80s and ’90 are a great resource too.
Eddy: The bookcase in our studio is important for sure. My mum Jilly Edwards is an artist and has always had a resource library not far out of reach that she works from, so I think that's where I get it from! I've got a large collection of design books by heroes like Tibor Kalman, Paula Scher, 8vo, Vaughan Oliver alongside books by friends like Braulio Amado and James Victore. Then we have hundreds of zines by small presses, if not more. They’re a great resource if you’re feeling stuck and want to put yourself in a different universe for a bit.
A bit more on briefs. How do you approach them when they come in? Do you pitch? Is it a case of ‘the plan is there is no plan’? Take them as they come? Or is there a process?
Eddy: We try not to pitch. It’s a broken system, if you ask me. If someone wants to work with us, they should want to work with us and there shouldn’t really be any other thought. We’ve had the best results when clients have come to us and said, ‘We think you’re perfect for this project’. This fosters a level of trust and belief in your practice which is a great starting point to collaborate.
You started off independently, just the two of you. How do you manage to stay independent after all this time? Creatively free. Is it a case of being selective about the kind of jobs you take? Is there a criteria for a DR.ME brief? A classic kind of work you do?
Eddy: I think our work stems from what we appreciate, whether it’s the music we listen to, the books we read, the clothes we wear. We’ve always appreciated independent creation and so I guess that speaks to the work we’ve made since we started the studio.
When we graduated from the Manchester School of Art, we both interned in New York for an illustrator named Mike Perry (If you don’t know him check his Emmy award winning animation for one of the episodes of Broad City).
Working for Mike was a really fun way for us to learn how to run a studio from the day to day of getting paid through to how to get work in. Learning that making something every day had its worth was a crazy valuable experience for us both and for the DR.ME studio as a whole. It showed us that we didn’t need to move to a big London studio to do what we wanted. We could just start and make it up as we went along.
Speaking of the music you listen to. DR.ME really shows up in dance music. Designing album covers, festival graphics, all sorts. What is it about you and the electronic music space that makes you such a good fit?
Ryan: I think the style of our work suits the genre. Sample culture, repetitive beats. I see a lot of that in our work. Doing the record cover for local artist D/R/U/G/S is sort of where we cut our teeth; it really defined the early style of our studio. Next thing you know, John Talabot notices you from Barcelona and you’re suddenly in the electronic dance scene and have built really strong connections with cultural institutions like Corsica Studios, then a T-shirt you designed ends up being worn by Fred Again and seen all over the world. One thing leads to another.
Eddy: It’s because we’re dance music fans first and foremost, so we feel invested in making artwork and designs that speak to us and would be things we’d want to see in that world. When we’re making posters for a party, it’s exciting to think that the best night of someone’s life would be inextricably linked to the artwork you’re working on.
It would be good to hear about some of your contemporary inspirations, as opposed to when you started out. Who or what gets you excited creatively today?
Eddy: Oosh, God, there’s so much. I think we both have interests outside of design and these feed in whether we realise it or not. For the last 6 years I’ve been creating a community garden in an alley behind where I live with my wife. I get a lot of inspiration from what I’m planting and the headspace it gives me. I’ve been reading and collecting Apartamento magazine for quite a while too. I love the stories and interviews in there.
Ryan: Honestly, I started out looking up to people like Mike Perry, Dash Snow, Richard Prince and Peter Saville. Now I’m more inspired by the people around me. Mostly my 6-year-old son. Watching his lightbulb moments with his drawing and painting or his Lego building is hugely inspiring to me.
You guys are proudly Manchester based. Does the local culture find its way into your work? How important is a sense of place to you?
Eddy: I think Manchester probably is an influence, but without us trying to let it be. We’re not trying to shoehorn in Simply Red lyrics or barm cakes into our work. I think the city’s influence is much more ambient. It’s a beautiful place that I find myself exploring over and over again. It’s always fun walking through town with friends that are visiting and seeing it through fresh eyes, or just revisiting areas to see what’s new. It’s exciting to go to a Kurdish place I’ve not been to in Rusholme or to a gallery in Cheetham Hill. Manchester is a city that changes constantly, and while the press tends to hark back to yesteryear and all the talking heads will go on and on about things that don’t exist anymore, the beauty of the place lies in its future and its potential. I feel like regardless of whether it’s someone born and raised in Manchester, or whether someone’s moved here, they all have a similar energy fostered in them, and that energy is to create. I’m not sure if it’s the inclement weather forcing people to go indoors and make something, but I’ve lost count of the amount of people here who say they’re going to start a club, open a bookshop, form a band, whatever, then they’ve actually gone and done it.
Ryan: Yeah for me, I don’t think Manchester is an influence at all to be honest. I think being lucky enough to have seen different corners of different cultures around the world probably feeds way more into my work.
What do you like most about what you do? What do you find fulfilling about it?
Eddy: Getting to help people is right up there, so is making connections. We also love breaking that rule of ‘never working with friends’. For over 5 years now some friends of mine from where I grew up in Kendal in the Lake District have been working on Gam Yam Brewery. It’s been a real joy to work with them all the way from them brewing on a tiny little stove top brew kit to them now having a pretty successful brewery, which in this climate is no mean feat. They give us so much freedom; it's a very edifying relationship.
Ryan: All my childhood I wanted to be a cartoonist, and every day of my adult life I achieved it, albeit not an actual full time cartoonist, but a version of it. That is fulfillment to me.
Finally, what does the future hold for DR.ME and the industry in general? Where do you see graphic design going, and does this tally with your approach? Do you see yourself having to adapt?
Eddy: I hope to continue to be surprised by the heights we can reach. Every year there are new people we work with, and that’s super exciting as it feels like a bit of an indication of how far we’ve come. Whether it’s A24, Manchester United or Mini, there’s a real validation in working with household names and getting to collaborate on projects where they’ve come to us because of the way we work.
We’re currently putting the finishing touches on a book based on a project called Accidental Collage that started around 6 or 7 years ago. It’ll be really exciting to get that into the world!
Ryan: Yeah, I still think graphic design and graphic designers are safe from the infiltration of AI that has been threatening to destroy the industry for years now. I think it’s obvious when you look at 85% of signage or business that have chosen to just do any design with AI that it all looks shit and it all looks the same. I think that will only get worse, so there will always be work for designers out there and we’ll be the ones working with clients and people who respect the craft.
This last part is where we ask you to send some cultural inspiration out into the world, recommending 5 Good Things and the reasons why you chose them.
A restaurant or cafe you like in your city
Eddy: I am going for Al Zain in Rusholme, my favourite shawarma in the city. I recommend the full mix on samoon with everything!
Ryan: The Third Eye in Didsbury has the best butter chicken in Manchester.
A film everyone should watch
Eddy: Beautiful Losers is a documentary about a lot of really interesting artists like Geoff McFetridge, Harmony Korine, Deanna & Ed Templeton, Margaret Kilgallen and their various journeys. All coming through around the same time, and how their careers progressed to the next level. I’d recommend this to anyone wanting to go out and do something for themselves.
Ryan: Lucifer Rising by Kenneth Anger. I watched this when I was 19 after being introduced to it by some friends, and it stuck with me ever since. It’s a really trippy ride with mad editing throughout.
A book everyone should read
Eddy: Currently reading Finding Albion by Zakia Sewell so for recency bias maybe this!
Ryan: Symbols Sourcebook by Henry Dreyfuss. It’s just a mad encyclopaedia of every graphic symbol you could ever imagine. A great source of inspiration
A musical album or artist who means something to you
Eddy: Finis Africae - A Last Discovery: The Essential Recordings, 1984-2001
Ryan: WU LYF - A Wave That Will Never Break. This is the new album from my closest friends aside from Eddy. It’s released 15 years after their first album. I manage these guys too.
Where you’d send someone if they were visiting your city or hometown for the first time
Eddy: I’d send them to Platt Fields Market Garden, which is a brilliant community garden built on an old bowling green. It’s been going for around 8 years, and it is a beautiful and calming space.
Ryan: The Theatre of Dreams
You can find out more about DR.ME and their practice here.