Graphic Designer Robynne Redgrave profiles prolific Yelp.com reviewer in You Can Change

Date
18 January 2017

Robynne Redgrave is a Canadian graphic designer currently living and working Helsinki, Finland. Despite her formal education being in fashion design, Robynne discovered her place within graphic design, “after years of pent up frustration with the fashion industry,” she explains. Her graphic design accomplishments are ever growing now settled in Finland, interning at studio Double Happiness. “There is a vibrant graphic design scene in Helsinki. It’s a small community of good people,” she says. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”

Describing herself as an introvert, who finds “social situations less then inspiring,” Robynne uses design as a form of communication. “My introversion has allowed me to open up through my work and express myself by making things. I like to investigate the processes of graphic design – and design itself – as a non-dogmatic practice.”

This approach to graphic design has resulted in projects of an investigative vein. For instance, You Can Change, a project based upon Gregg Gethard, an online author who regularly writes reviews on Yelp.com, under the pseudonym Karl G. “Through Karl G, Gregg writes in detail about hypothetical everyday issues such as handling divorce, children and emotional crisis,” Robynne tells It’s Nice That. “His reviews have developed into an interesting narrative with a positive message: you can change. This is something I think everyone needs to hear at some point in their life.”

Inspired by Gregg’s Yelp experiment Robynne set out to make a book about his online personality. “Gregg has left quite the internet trail and seemed to me like an amusing person to profile”. The designer began the process by interviewing him online, “on Facebook chat, asking about his personal life. He was more than willing to let a stranger like myself make a book of his life and put it online”. As a result of Gregg’s openness the book features photographs from his Facebook profile and extracts from Gregg’s novel he is currently writing on Yelp.com.

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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Robynne Redgrave: You Can Change

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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