Ryder Ripps
Ryder Ripps (born July 7, 1986) is an American conceptual artist, programmer, and creative director based in New York City, recognized for pioneering internet-based projects, digital agency work, and provocative commentary on online culture through art and design.[1][2][3] Born to designer Helene Verin and painter Rodney Ripps, he earned a BA from The New School in 2008 and early on founded dump.fm, an influential real-time image-sharing platform that fostered online art communities.[4][5][6] As creative director of OKFocus, a digital marketing agency, Ripps has collaborated with musicians including co-producing tracks for Miley Cyrus's Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz in 2015 and contributing to Kanye West's Donda creative team starting in 2018, while also developing branding for products like Soylent meal replacement.[2][7] Ripps's artistic output often critiques digital aesthetics and consumer imagery, as seen in projects like the "Ho" series of oil paintings derived from digitally altered Instagram photos of model Adrianne Ho, which explored sex, advertising, and female portrayal, sparking debate and threats.[8][9] He has exhibited at venues including Postmasters Gallery and participated in events at MoMA PS1 and the New Museum.[10] A defining controversy arose in 2022 when Ripps alleged that Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs by Yuga Labs contained embedded racist and neo-Nazi symbols, launching the RR/BAYC mint—a collection mirroring BAYC images—to highlight these claims as conceptual art and commentary.[11][12] Yuga Labs sued Ripps and associate Jeremy Cahen for trademark infringement and false advertising, rejecting the parody defense; a federal court ruled against them in 2023, awarding Yuga over $1.6 million initially and escalating to nearly $9 million in total damages, profits disgorgement, and fees by 2024, a decision upheld by the Ninth Circuit in July 2025 affirming NFTs' trademark eligibility.[13][14][15]Early life
Family background and influences
Ryder Ripps was born on July 7, 1986, in New York City to the painter Rodney Ripps and the designer Helene Verin.[16][1] His parents' artistic professions immersed him in creative environments from a young age, with Rodney Ripps working as a visual artist and Helene Verin contributing to design and academia.[16][17] Both parents were depicted in portraits by Andy Warhol, underscoring their connections to mid-20th-century art circles that likely shaped Ripps' early aesthetic sensibilities.[18] This exposure to traditional creative practices contrasted with Ripps' later pivot toward digital and conceptual media, yet it provided foundational influences in blending analog artistry with emerging technologies.[16] Ripps' family background emphasized interdisciplinary creativity, as his mother's design work and father's painting encouraged experimentation across mediums, informing his eventual focus on internet-based art and programming.[3] No public records detail additional familial relocations or siblings, but the New York artistic milieu of his upbringing fostered his trajectory into conceptual projects.[16]Education and formative experiences
Ripps attended City As School, a progressive high school in New York City that emphasizes experiential learning through internships and real-world projects rather than traditional coursework.[1] This environment allowed him to pursue early interests in digital media and technology, aligning with his self-directed exploration of online spaces. From 2004 to 2008, Ripps studied at The New School in New York, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in media studies.[16] His coursework integrated artistic practice with technical skills, including programming, which informed his later conceptual approaches to internet-based art and design.[3] Born in 1986 to painter Rodney Ripps and designer Helene Verin, Ripps grew up immersed in creative environments that fostered his multidisciplinary interests.[4] As part of the first digitally native generation, he engaged early with Web 1.0 culture, learning HTML at a computer camp, building personal websites, and participating in AOL chat rooms and video game forums.[16] These experiences shaped his understanding of online communities and DIY digital aesthetics, precursors to his professional work in conceptual art and web design.[6]Early career
Launch of dump.fm
Dump.fm, an image-based real-time chat platform, was founded in November 2009 by Ryder Ripps in collaboration with Tim Baker of Delicious and Scott Ostler of MIT Exhibit.[19][20] The site allowed users to share images sourced from the web, local hard drives, or webcams, emphasizing spontaneous, collaborative visual communication over text.[20] Ripps envisioned it as a modern evolution of early internet chat rooms like those on AOL, where transient image streams would drive collective creativity and discovery, distinct from static blogging or private browsing.[20] Launched initially as an invite-only beta, dump.fm gained early visibility through a March 5, 2010, editorial on Rhizome.org, which highlighted its fusion of surf club aesthetics, Tumblr-style rapid posting, and chatroom immediacy.[20] The platform provided a special invite code ("RHIZOME") to readers, accelerating access for digital artists and fostering a community around modifiable, animated content like GIFs.[20] By later in 2010, it expanded to general public availability, attracting users ranging from teenagers to established creators interested in real-time image manipulation and sharing.[21]Initial internet-based projects
Ripps launched the Internet Archaeology project in 2009, creating an online archive to preserve early web content threatened by the impending shutdown of GeoCities by Yahoo.[22][23] The initiative focused on curating abandoned Flash-based websites, often characterized by their eccentric, low-fidelity designs and humorous or surreal elements from the pre-social media internet era, such as personal homepages with animated GIFs and rudimentary interactivity.[22] This effort reflected Ripps' interest in documenting the uncurated, DIY origins of online culture before algorithmic curation and professionalization dominated the web.[23] The project served as a conceptual intervention against digital obsolescence, compiling examples of "net art" and amateur web experiments that exemplified the medium's early freedom from commercial constraints.[22] Ripps selected sites for their archival value, emphasizing content from a time when online expression prioritized individual whimsy over virality or monetization.[22] Internet Archaeology gained recognition for bridging historical preservation with contemporary critique, influencing later discussions on web heritage amid the transition to HTML5 and mobile platforms.[23]Commercial work
Founding of OKFocus
In 2011, Ryder Ripps co-founded OKFocus, a creative digital agency specializing in web design, branding, and marketing, alongside artist and programmer Jonathan Vingiano.[16][24] The agency was established three years after Ripps's graduation from The New School with a degree in media studies, primarily to generate revenue that could subsidize his conceptual art practice, which at the time yielded limited financial returns.[16] Ripps served as the creative director, emphasizing work that blended clear functionality with engaging, internet-native aesthetics to appeal to clients in fashion, technology, and consumer products.[25] OKFocus differentiated itself through an egalitarian approach to image-making and digital experiences, often integrating elements of art, streetwear, and emerging tech to create forward-thinking campaigns.[3] Early projects under Ripps's leadership included web development and branding for niche platforms and brands, such as curator-driven sites and fashion labels, reflecting the agency's roots in online subcultures fostered by Ripps's prior ventures like the image-sharing board dump.fm.[26] By 2012, the duo's collaborative efforts had garnered recognition in advertising circles for innovative digital executions, positioning OKFocus as a bridge between underground digital creativity and commercial viability.[24]Key client engagements and designs
Ripps founded OKFocus in 2011 as a digital design and marketing agency, focusing on web experiences that blend cultural resonance with playful functionality.[27] The studio's client roster spans music, fashion, and consumer products, with engagements emphasizing innovative online presence and branding. Key collaborators include Nike, for digital campaigns launched around 2013; KENZO and Nicopanda, for website redesigns in the early 2010s; and Mike Will Made It, involving promotional digital assets.[28] In music, OKFocus provided creative direction for artists such as Kanye West and Pusha T, including branding and visual elements tied to album releases and tours; Stone Island and Marc Jacobs in fashion, with web and marketing designs; and Bruno Mars, for digital promotional work.[27] [29] Further collaborations encompassed Grimes and Travis Scott, focusing on multimedia creative direction that integrated internet aesthetics into commercial outputs.[30] A standout consumer design was Ripps' 2016 packaging for Soylent's Food Bar, which adopted deliberately unappealing, utilitarian visuals—contrasting glossy versus matte finishes—to subvert conventional food marketing norms and align with the product's functional ethos.![Soylent packaging comparison, glossy vs. matte versions designed by Ryder Ripps][center][31] These projects underscore OKFocus' approach to commercial work as an extension of Ripps' conceptual interests, prioritizing disruptive digital interfaces over traditional advertising.[16]