Q&A with Hero’s Heart Designer Ryan Rivas
Hero’s Heart designer, Ryan Rivas shares his creative process for designing a universal symbol, explains the meaning behind the pin colors and gives background into how this program evolved.
“I think the biggest challenge became the fact that a heart is so simple and such a universal, simple visual symbol that it’s tough to come up with a new instantiation. We really wanted to make something beyond the generic heart inside of a circle with some text, or simple/generic “badge style” heart. We really set out to create a standalone mark that tells its own story as a shape itself. When you boil it down, a heart is a heart is a heart - but, we liked the idea of using symbols like hands and negative space to somehow make up the overall shape to make it more timeless, more unique.
”
As the designer of Hero’s Heart, can you tell us more about your design background?
I came to the Hero’s Heart team from the architecture world. I did interiors, and after the 2008 downturn, I left the firm I was working for and went off on my own. After I left there, I got interested in product design, which has been a background passion of mine since I picked up a pencil. Product design basically required the same digital tools I had been using before, only with a different application. With my newfound abundance of free time, I began tinkering.
After a handful of books and a few online classes, I started doing some freelance, prototype design studies/visualization work. I came across Bennett Awards (the team of people behind Hero’s Heart) on a job board. I met the owners and the rest is history. At that time, in the custom award/small format sculpture landscape, there were a handful of competitors. As requests came in, we saw an opportunity to use some of the more advanced technologies of more modern manufacturing practices. I knew that leveraging some of these processes would allow us to produce the things we designed at a much higher rate and higher quality level than some of the centuries old processes still used in the art world. I adapted 3D printing, which was basically a new concept and technology at the consumer level in 2011, and additional mechanized processes for advanced manufacturing to our small studio model. We were truly the forerunners in using 3D printing for our models/sculpts. We stood out and set ourselves apart. At the time there weren’t a lot of pure custom small-sculpture companies out there doing the things we were doing at the rate and quality we were doing them. I am still really proud of our innovative drive. Everyday I get to play with the newest manufacturing technologies that exist for our clients and that’s a cool thing.
What do you think constitutes great design for something like a recognition pin for heroes?
Really, in this context, I tried to come up with something that is universal and speaks to everybody. It needed to be something that literally anybody from every background can look at and understand right away or, at least, garner enough interest to learn more. I think the Hero’s Heart needed to be simple, easily read from 10 feet, and an “everybody” thing. I didn’t want to exclude any specific person.
Where do you find inspiration?
With design, I’ve always had a weird compulsion where I have to create things, otherwise my brain gets too loud. If I don’t let these ideas out, my brain starts yelling at me and it gets too crazy.
Everybody’s workflow is different. I always have my ear to ground as far as what’s going on in the design world. My RSS feed is a smattering of design blogs. I’ve always had a good sense of what is “in” now and what “could be” in the future, but ultimately inspiration comes from everywhere. I’ll see a shape in the world somewhere and try to relate that to the story I am trying to tell in the context of our customers' request. I try my hardest to do my research before I start sketching. I try to gather as much passive information to know what exists and what should exist.
It’s also one of those things where there’s definitely a fear that you don’t want to basically plagiarize someone else’s idea. When I have an idea in my mind, I try to do enough research where I’m not copying someone else’s stuff. (I don’t know why this still bothers me after 15 years of designing things for paying customers, but it’s still always in the back of my mind.) There was a book by Austin Kleon in 2010 - basically he says to “make it your own”, and, “if you’re not stealing you’re not trying”. As a designer you’re trying to make something evolutionary. Something that has a piece of you and screams you or what you want that piece to say, under budget and on time (also without stepping on anyone's toes). It’s a tough balance!
Can you walk us through your creative process and the specific methods you follow?
Really, it starts with what exists and what beats I am trying to hit. I start by asking, “What exists already?” “What shapes can I design around?” “How do these shapes relate to the overall story?” I think of it like a venn diagram and there’s no correct way to start (and it’s different almost every time). You start at the outsides of the circles and work your way in. It can be the literal/analytic side, starting with the shape that this object needs to be, or the feelings/creative side, starting with the emotives and how to make those relate.
Then you’re just trying to refine it until you reach that intersection. The closer you can get to that intersection in the middle, the better the final product is, and the more the clients usually love it. For me, it really is just a matter of whittling down ideas until you get as close to that intersection as possible. Sometimes you don’t know when to stop. You don’t know when it’s good. You have to teach yourself how to stop and how to get feedback.
What was your biggest design challenge with creating a pin to recognize heroes?
I think the biggest challenge became the fact that a heart is so simple and such a universal, simple visual symbol that it’s tough to come up with a new instantiation. We really wanted to make something beyond the generic heart inside of a circle with some text, or simple/generic “badge style” heart. We really set out to create a standalone mark that tells its own story as a shape itself. When you boil it down, a heart is a heart is a heart - but, we liked the idea of using symbols like hands and negative space to somehow make up the overall shape to make it more timeless, more unique.
We wanted to allude to the fact that the people who are using their hands are the people who are keeping us going. Ultimately, their hands are what enables humanity to survive during Covid-19 and beyond. They are using their hands to work and to care for people. The hands really were the driver. Creating a physically actionable symbol was extra credit. It was really the idea of the hands that we wanted to exemplify. I also wanted to touch on the idea of the negative space. In this symbol, the outer shape is the hands, the inner shape is the heart. When the pin is worn, the negative space through the pin is meant to symbolize the person wearing it. It’s meant to symbolize that you are the heart, you are the change, and you are the people that we are grateful for.
What is the meaning of the colors for the Hero’s Heart pins?
I thought yellow seemed right for the yellow pencils of school and educators. Then we thought, “What’s the largest group that we could tackle for the providers?” We were thinking farmers are associated with green. Blue is the color of nurses and healers. White was an idea of the fireman and protectors. There was this idea that they are a guardian angel, which made sense for a color of white. And the red was part of the Hero’s Heart branding, it just seemed to be the primary color of heroes. You can kind of wash it down to red being the color of our own heart, and also Superman’s cape. A lot of superheroes have red because it’s this idea that it’s a heroic color throughout history.
Do you have any design heroes?
Not really. Well, after that downturn, I took a year to live off of savings. I spent some time in the South of France and I stayed in this little town that Picasso lived in for the last few years of his life. You can tour his house. I studied his life and the way he created things. I saw this parallel and the way it seemed like he had to create things or he was going to die. I kind of felt like that sometimes and really connected to him and his stuff. That’s probably the only parallel that we share, but it was just so interesting being there at his house at the time that I went and it felt kinda cosmic. That was what spurred me to try some other areas of design.
Then you take the designer Jony Ive, the guy who revolutionized everything we do as far as computational objects go. Influenced by Dieter Rams’ (and his 10 rules), his designs really changed the world and made design thinking a standard. They really designed the aesthetic of the future. Its hard not to respect what he has done for design and its reproducibility.
Dieter Rams came up with the aesthetic that Jony lived out. I’ve studied him profusely when I started out in product design. He has a minimal aesthetic. He was the one who put out the idea that, if it doesn’t need to be in there, it shouldn’t be in there. “Good design is as little design as possible,” I really love that idea.
What is your hope for Hero’s Heart?
Well, like anything, when we first started this, we wanted to do something to help others. We wanted to find a way to give back somehow. We came up with this idea, talking through it all, and it just snowballed into what it is. Ultimately, the core of it all is that we want to create a vehicle where people can both get the recognition they deserve for doing things that are extraordinary during this crazy time, and at the same time donate the profits to the people who need it the most during this time.
We are trying to come up with something where we can do both of these things at the same time and reach the most people while sharing the most goodwill. We’re trying to do good throughout this whole thing, remaining cognizant of trying not to profiteer while using our tool set of what we can do to make a positive impact in the world. It takes a little bit of time to build something like that, but if nothing else happens, we did our best to make a positive contribution.