Ryan McManus

Senior Art Director :: New York office

site :: Facebook
site :: Twitter
site :: Flickr

Ryan was born in Hicksville, New York to parents Cynthia and Gary McManus. He grew up on Long Island. His father was a computer programmer, his mother an art teacher.

One of Ryan’s grandfather’s was an engineer on ENIAC. The other was vice president of Doubleday Publishing. (You see where this is going)

Ryan went to university at Arizona State, where he majored in Industrial Design. He graduated in 2000.

Ryan has lived in the following states: New York, Illinois, Arizona, Massachusetts, Texas. He has a hard time with the question “Where are you from?”

Ryan was one of the co-founders of Release1.

Ryan also founded Youth of Tomorrow, a brand design and strategy cooperative out of Austin, TX.

Ryan has designed all sorts of things that inhabit the real world. Most famously was the Scooba™, a robotic floormop from the makers of Roomba. He’s also designed stuff like cell phones, vegan bones, ECGs and holiday cards.

Ryan finds designing things for the real world and the invented, digital world not that different, really.

Ryan can be found on the Internet.

Ryan can also be found rooting for the Boston Red Sox.

Ryan McManus is a fan of

The Barbarian Group

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Formal Friday: California Dreamin'

posted by on August 20, 2010 at 03:46 PM
filed under: Fashion and San Francisco

Came to California today to live the Formal Friday dream!

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4 Years.

posted by on August 10, 2010 at 06:29 PM
filed under: Barbarian History

As of around sometime last week, probably in the middle of the night, I have lived back in NYC and worked for this company for 4 years. I think that makes it the longest professional commitment of my entire life. In fact, my work here represents over 12% of my entire lifespan. Sobering!

It also marks my 20th year as a New Yorker, in one form or another.

4 years ago, I got on a plane and flew into a completely unknown future. I came to New York on New York’s terms – the empty-pocketed, full-o-dreams story this city loves to tell and re-tell. The “star is born” type of story. Annie, and all that.

I arrived here without a job, or a portfolio, or a place to live. I had about enough money for a flight back to Texas if I left within a week. Past that, there was no turning back. I showed up at TBG without knowing what the word “comp” meant, or what a “deck” was. I had spent the previous 14 months working as a cashier at Whole Foods while telling companies what they should do in my nascent consultancy, Youth of Tomorrow. I had almost zero plan on what I was going to do here.

But I could draw, that’s the truth. And The Barbarian Group needed some help. So I took a 2 week freelance gig here, . A week into it, I got an offer.

There’s a phrase for how I came to work here: painting the target around the arrow. When I was offered the job, it wasn’t because I fit into a neat little job description that happened to be open. I wasn’t an ideal candidate. But what I had was a sort of unique combination of skill sets, experience, perspective and opinion (actually, LOTS of opinion) that and and thought would be valuable for the future of this company¹.

And I was, truth be told, an chance for TBG. I was a gamble – an investment that probably wouldn’t pan out. But maybe it would break even².

4 years on, I can’t describe my time here in NYC as anything but a total success. It hasn’t always been easy, and there have been some difficult spots for sure, but I sit here now, 4 years older, knowing that getting on the plane was the right thing to do. It remains the scariest, hardest, bravest, and saddest moment. But it was the right thing.

There’s some old saying that I think about a lot: leap, and the net will appear. I’ve never been real good at that. But every time I’ve trusted enough to try, it’s worked out. Who knows what the next leap will bring?

Here’s a bonus – our office on Broadway about 6 months after I started.

¹ A little Wallacian footnote here: When I started, TBG NYC was about 15 people. The office still had a shower and a bed in it from when Rick would stay here before he had an apartment here or lived here. Now, when i look around, I don’t even know everyone’s name (though I’m trying). It’s amazing how much bigger and more dynamic this company has become.

² There’s a lesson to be learned here, young entrepreneurs and startups – but I’m going to let you figure out what it is.

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iPhone 4 Bumpers - The Shocking Flaw

posted by on July 12, 2010 at 11:18 AM
filed under: Technology Industry and Internet Culture

Like many of you, I viewed the release of the iPhone 4 as just slightly more anticipated than the second coming of Christ. I was fortunate enough to be granted a pre-order, and, wanting to protect the greatest technological achievement mankind has yet reached, I gladly shelled out $30 dollars for the official iPhone Bumper.

The day it arrived, I couldn’t be more excited. I hungrily slid my shining, hard device into its sleek black prophylactic, and the world at that moment was at peace.

Sadly, HEARTBREAKINGLY, it was not a lasting peace. Through thorough research and investigative journalism, I have discovered a fatal flaw in the very design of the iPhone 4 Bumper, one that serves to undermine not only the use of the device, but communication itself.

THE RUB

The problem is, in a word, friction. While the rubberized front and back of the iPhone 4 Bumpers may protect the device in fall situations, and keep it it from sliding on a desk, this very friction keeps the device from easily SLIDING IN AND OUT OF JEANS POCKETS. While standing, the device is difficult to retrieve – while sitting on a crowded G train, nearly impossible.

You see, the typical Apple user can be easily defined by this venn diagram:

This means that while we love our technology, we also somehow believe we are rock stars, and should wear jeans of a corresponding tightness. Through casual research I’ve discovered that on average an Apple users jeans are 33% tighter than a PC user, and a shocking 90% tighter than a Linux user. Apple fans are also hamstrung by a lack of cargo pockets on their pants that these other users enjoy. The problem is bad with a pair of Earnest Sewns, and becomes increasingly critical when I switch to, say, my Levis 501 XX Shrink to Fit 1947 Selvedge Cone Denim.

This inexcusable design flaw on Apple’s part has caused me and my friends to miss several important calls, cost us countless minutes of possible Plants vs. Zombies playing time, and forced us to listen to a Vampire Weekend song when we really wanted to skip to the new Panda Bear track.

How can this be? How can Apple, the largest and most powerful corporation in the free world, release such an untested, fatally flawed product to market? Wouldn’t they have thoroughly tested these bumpers in various jeans pockets?

And then I remembered: The Keynote. Jobs. Jobs’ Jeans! They’re BAGGY!

Well, not baggy, but you know..loose-fitting and sorta dad-like. The kind of jeans with AMPLE pockets. The horror struck me immediately: Steve was unaware that millions of us tight-jeansed Apple faithful would be nearly unable to use the iPhone 4 Bumper because HE HIMSELF WOULD NOT HAVE THIS PROBLEM (I can’t speak to the types of jeans Jony Ive wears, since they only show him from the waist up in those videos).

I emailed Steve to alert him to this coming apocalypse, which I accurately described as “probably worse than the Holocaust”. His response?

Not a big deal. Buy some looser pants.

I replied:

Steve. IT DOES NOT WORK! Geezzz I hope this this is not really you. Are we on a different MHz? I have yet to see an iPhone 4 Bumper work in Williamsburg when you put it in a pair of APCs. It is not “isolated”. I was a big fan. But I am done.

His response?

Don’t worry. Be Happy!!! :D

Typical billionaire smugness. So I contacted AppleCare to see what the official solution would be. I was told that a fix is “on the way” in the form of a software update.

This is not enough. Apple owes us more than this. In fact, they owe us everything. They were supposed to be creating the second coming of the JesusPhone, and instead delivered it wrapped up in a rubbery LIE. This product is the worst piece of shit since the last MGMT album, and if not FIXED immediately, will lead to Apple’s destruction, California sliding into the ocean, and the collapse of western society. I do not believe I can overstate how fucking pissed I am.

So I’ve started a petition: Sign below in the comments if you believe Apple should be giving us free Bumpers for our Bumpers. We need to stand as one.

Class-Action lawsuit forthcoming.

iPhone HD background

posted by on April 23, 2010 at 02:15 PM
filed under: Mobile

In celebration of the new iPhone coming out soon, and the ability to customize your background, I took the opportunity to make you guys a sick custom background in 960×640 that you can download for FREE:

You are welcome.

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E-Fail: When You Care Enough to Send the Very Effed.

posted by on April 12, 2010 at 05:07 PM
filed under: Internet Culture, Advertising, Creativity, Websites, Entertainment, and Microsites and Minisites

Sometimes, just sometimes, a project you’re working on might run into some…problems. Snags. Roadblocks. Hiccups. Things like that. You might find that you’re totally understaffed, or that you need a skill set you thought you had but didn’t. Or your hotshot designer might have walked out on you, leaving you, well, effed.

Don’t be ashamed – it happens to everyone. In times like these, the best thing to do is let those who need to know, know. You, my friend, need to send an E-Fail.

Riding the success wave of InternetOnlineWebsite.com, The Barbarian Group and Aquent have teamed up yet again to provide our friends and colleagues with a way to get the word out that things aren’t going so well. Utilizing one of the internet’s most cutting edge technologies, E-Cards, we’ve designed a site that lets you take control of your sinking ship of a project. IAmEffed.com is a free resource to help you get the help you need, fast.

What’s more, E-Fails are completely customizable to your current situation and level of distress. Within a matter of seconds, 41 different captions combined with 7 different illustrations provide more than 287 possible combinations. Well-placed humor is used to disarm your recipient, getting them on YOUR side. Thanks, E-Fail!

Even better, E-Fail can be sent completely anonymously, allowing you to let your producer, ECD or HR representative know about problems on the project without singling you out as the pariah.

So try an E-Fail today! E-Fail, when you care enough to send the very effed.

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I Didn't Buy an iPad, but My Uncle Did, and Why Apple Should Worry About That.

posted by on April 09, 2010 at 12:42 PM
filed under: Internet Culture and Technology Industry

So, yeah, the iPad came out, did you hear? Honestly, I couldn’t escape that omnipresent TV commercial featuring that band The Blue Van and those fake, weird legs. The weirdest thing about this launch, for me anyway, was that I wasn’t at it. I didn’t get in line, I didn’t pre-order, I didn’t even see one until Monday. I have yet to hold one, to play with it and see what it’s like.

This is bizarre because this is the first Apple category-defining product since the e-mate that I haven’t adopted early. Newton? Check. iMac? Bondi. iPod? 5GB. iPhone? #300 in line. AAPL in 1995 when it was at $14? I wish.

But something about this one struck me as different. Try as I might, I just could not fit it into my admittedly well-connected life. I tried to imagine the scenarios when an iPad would fit the bill: Nights when I don’t want to drag my MacBook Pro home but need a little more screen real estate than on my iPhone? I guess? Browsing things instead of committing to watching a movie? Possibly. Watching a movie? No thanks. Chat Roulette? No front-facing camera.

I know the iPad will be successful. I know it will be a game changer, that the apps at launch are hinting at potential and the apps and OS changes being written now will transform an honestly simple piece of technology into a true new way of understanding interaction with a computer. But this first one just – it doesn’t offer much more than that idea for me. So I skipped it.

And then I heard that my Uncle, pushing 65, had picked an iPad up on launch day. He had waited in line at his local Apple Store, and then heard that Best Buy had no line, so he popped over there. He surprised my cousin with it by joking that it was a gift for him. It wasn’t. He wanted it for itself.

Many will argue that this is far, far from a problem for Apple. Obviously there are far more of the middle-aged uncles out there than 30-something single-income NYC designers. Apple is moving towards the thick middle of the American bell curve, and by controlling the OS, the apps, and the ads, they will stand to make a bazillion dollars.

But. But. The pause in me arises from the fact that Apple has shifted, almost imperceptibly, from the Vanguard to the Old Guard. They have gone from being the cutting-edge, daring, (and yes, expensive) designer’s brand to the shop on King st. in Charleston that my Mom takes her iPhone in when she can’t make the icons stop wiggling. And in this shift, they have given up a little prestige, a little bit of the aspirational nature that has driven this success. They will continue to make amazingly great products. They will continue (as long as Steve or Jony Ive are around) to raise the bar for designed electronics the world over. But the cache they had is being cashed in, and once it’s spent, there’s no going back. Just ask Sony.

Back when Apple’s PC marketshare was hovering around 3%, Steve Jobs famously said that Apple wanted to be “the Porsche of computers”. Well, with the iPad, Apple has made its Cayenne. I hope they sell a boatload.

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The Buzzkillers

posted by on February 17, 2010 at 10:59 AM
filed under: Internet Culture

An odd thing happened last week: A large technology company (nearly universally known and widely respected and loved) released a new social networking aggregator, free, to users of its (also free, and widely used) email service.

That they did this is not the odd part.

That users and the “blogosphere” at large reacted swiftly and overwhelmingly in the negative isn’t even the odd part.

The odd part, the thing that made me take pause, was how familiar this reaction has become.

Think about it: in the past 2 years, how many times have we seen this? How many new product launches have been met with this type of derision, this collective “meh”? Google Buzz, the iPad, President Obama. All have felt the swift sea change from media darlings to pariahs. The Facebook Redesign Backlash has become as reliable as Death and Taxes. But why?

I asked some folks on Twitter their opinions, to varied response. One user, @majormoore, chimed in with the succinct “uhh because the products don’t live up to the hype.” And maybe that is true. But whose fault is that? Who created that hype to begin with?

The answer is us. We did. Increasingly, we build hype and then complain when the product fails to live up to our own inflated expectations.

The Internet and society at large has undergone this subtle shift, this increasing fragmentation. When we started this whole thing, message boards were filled with passionate, niche fanboys, and each small community had its own critics, and its own defenders. The rise of blogs gave a more public voice to the user, letting them curate a voice and identity that could have shades of grey.

But with the advent of microblogging on Twitter and Facebook alike, the pieces of the collective attention pie are growing exponentially thin. The combination of a steadily growing online user base along with a far more public and homogenized forum means that we react not with many voices, but a chorus. And increasingly it’s a chorus of boos.

Why? Because as someone once noted, everyone’s a critic, especially on the Internet. Our culture has steadily moved towards one of critical thought; a culture where every experience, whether it be culinary, cinematic, or emotional, needs to be analyzed, ranked and rated. 5 stars. Two thumbs up. Hot or not. And the easiest way to be a critic is to be negative, to come up with some complaint about why you dislike something, to point out a flaw, is the easiest most base form of critical thinking. Folks think that by coming out and saying “the iPad is just a big iPhone with a shitty name!” they are somehow defining their personal online brand as a Technological Analyst. They are trying, in vain, to rise above the crowd by shouting the same message.

This is troubling because, increasingly, our opinions and reactions are directly tied to the financial success of the companies we both love and deride. Say what you want about Apple’s secrecy– imagine the technological landscape without them. Imagine the mobile OS landscape without the iPhone. But with every new product launch, those achievements are quickly forgotten. We set the bar higher, and then are shocked when they fail.

Hopefully this is an adolescent trend in the puberty of the Internet. Hopefully we’re in that obnoxious “I know everything and I will tell you whether you like it or not” phase. Hopefully we’ll grow up, get laid, and start listening to better music (metaphorically speaking). Because right now, all this negativity is making the Internet a drag.

(Twitter user @deanjanssen pointed me to this great post, which says what I just did, but far more entertainingly: here)

(Also, comedian Louis CK’s Everything’s Amazing and Nobody’s Happy is also about this, but WAY funnier)

I'm a Driver, I'm a Winner.

posted by on February 08, 2010 at 12:17 PM

So, The L Magazine, bastion of Brooklyn culture, recently had a contest where patrons could nominate their bodegas for Best Bodega in NYC. For those of you outside the NYC area, a bodega is a corner store that carries the essentials: coffee, egg and cheese sandwiches, some dusty cans of goya, and most importantly, beer (here in NYC, you can only buy beer outside of a liquor store, you know, because it’s still the 1400s?)

So I nominated the guys at On The Corner, which not only is the closest bodega to my house, but is literally the best one I’ve been to – they’re just really interested in making it the hub of the neighborhood.

And L Magazine agreed, so they gave them the award.

And then they gave me a prize: A week’s supply (7 six-packs) of whatever beer I wanted.

We all win.

the barbarian group

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Ryan McManus

Senior Art Director :: New York office

site :: Facebook
site :: Twitter
site :: Flickr

Formal Friday: California Dreamin'

4 Years.

iPhone 4 Bumpers - The Shocking Flaw

iPhone HD background

E-Fail: When You Care Enough to Send the Very Effed.

I Didn't Buy an iPad, but My Uncle Did, and Why Apple Should Worry About That.

The Buzzkillers

I'm a Driver, I'm a Winner.

It’s gonna be awesome.™

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Recent Posts

Ryan's Latest Topics

Recent Comments

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Ryan McManus

Senior Art Director :: New York office

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

M&Ms World

Benjamin Palmer

Keith Butters

Rick Webb

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

Ryan McManus

It’s gonna be awesome.™