Rob Draper
Rob Draper is a British artist, designer and speaker whose work turns the everyday into the meticulous. Known for his obsession with detailed hand-lettering and analogue craft, his journey from drawing on disposable coffee cups has led to high-profile collaborations with global names like Nike, NASA/JPL, The Golden Globes, Meta, Levi’s, and Pentagram.
Grounded in the philosophy that starting small is enough, Rob’s practice spans intricate lettering, large-scale installations, and hands-on experimentation. Beyond the studio, he speaks internationally on creative resilience, constraint, and reinvention, with his work featured widely across global media.
Talk: Hard Work, Relentless Dreams and WiFi
Rob is going to tell two stories. The first is how he got here – How did he end up doing this and why does he draw on things? It’s a peculiar story that he himself wouldn’t believe unless it had happened to him. After unexpected redundancy from his dream job he felt he was at a junction - retrain and leave behind a 20+ year design career or go it alone, not turn anything down, try new things and see what happens. That approach left him working in a high security prison and spending his spare time drawing on coffee cups.
The second story is how once finally some of his dreams came true, he found himself back at square one – he had no studio, no office and “home” was living on a camp bed in his sister’s front room next to his 11 year old son and how this has shaped him, his work and his outlook. It’s basically a story of relentlessly pursuing dreams when at times the odds are stacked against you and how sometimes that goes right, sometimes it goes wrong but it’s what you learn and take forward that matters …
