RUBY MACKINNON
Melbourne-based designer, illustrator and artist
At the heart of my art and design work is a sense of refined playfulness and humour.
I create simple pieces that have a quiet beauty and that fill hearts and homes with delight.
I love working with community-minded small businesses, quirky brands, animal-lovers, romantics and people who follow their hearts over trends.
Using a blend of visual styles, I capture their unique spirit and tell their stories in personal, warm and authentic ways.
Photo by All My Wednesdays, 2025
Having the good fortune to grow up in a family of artists, designers and teachers, the opportunities to play and learn artistically were endless. As such, a creative pursuit has always beckoned.
My love of design, lettering and all things visual is as old as I am. I’ve been painting for as long as I could hold a brush and my high school notebooks were filled with carefully lettered headings and margins packed with illustrations. At Uni I studied Film and Television with a minor in design, and after completing my bachelor I worked in design agencies until going freelance in 2015.
These days I work from my home studio in Melbourne alongside my partner and fellow creative Andy and our least productive studio mate Ronald, our clever, affectionate, beloved, pain-in-the-butt ginger cat.
But I’m not always crouched over my desk, out of hours I find joy in being a wholehearted Aunty and an enthusiastic student of dance.
I like to think the sense of joy and delight I find in my work and cultivate in my life is reflected in the final pieces I create.
Photo by On Jackson St, 2023