By Amanda Durry  January 26, 2012

Ryan Achten was always going to be creative and admits he was basically born into a life of art.

Most of his family is creative, only his mother misses out, and although he hasn’t followed a traditional artistic path, his chosen course is helping him to think outside the box.
The 19-year-old has completed his first year of his course at Otago Polytechnic which explores a range of visual mediums.
It’s geared more toward design but has seen him experiment with mediums such as graphic design, film, animation and web design. It has also involved design theory and he’s already making waves.
After his first year, he won an award for design excellence, shared top spot in his class and won a three-week design internship at the Otago Museum, which has now led to a part-time job as a design assistant.
Three students took part in the internship, which are usually given to second or third year students.
While he may have taken art and graphics at Ashburton College, he got his real hunger for design after staying with his uncle for a week in Year 11.
“He is the creative director for Icebreaker so I got to go along to the studio with him and he sent me to a few different places to see what it was about. So from there, I was more interested in the design side.
“I mainly do ink work, screen printing and pencil sketches but I really enjoy the computer side of design as well. Art and design interweave quite a bit but I think design is more lucrative. It’s very competitive but there are more job opportunities,” he said.
It did mean a lack of sleep though, which he hoped would all be worth it one day.
“You have to be really passionate about it,” he said.
He will return on February 13 to complete the last two years of his degree and plans to also complete marketing papers at some point.