RYAN HOLLER is a designer and artist in Conway, Arkansas. After playing many sports as a youth, then focusing on basketball through high school and college, he began considering footwear design as an occupation, designing sneakers while formally studying fine art. Since graduating with an art BA in 1990, Ryan returned to study graphic design and has worked in many creative genres both full-time and freelance.

In April of 2004, Ryan completed the first shoe design he had produced in several years and submitted it to Artist Series, a monthly basketball footwear design competition at KicksGuide.com. The month's theme was a design for the yet to be released adidas T-Mac 4, the signature shoe of NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady of the Houston Rockets. Ryan won first place prize, a trip to Portland's adidas Village for a day with the adidas footwear design team, as well as a trip to Los Angeles to meet and present his design to Tracy McGrady on the set of his T-Mac 4 TV commercial.

In all Ryan has now competed in 8 Artist Series competitions, winning 3 first-place finishes, while honing his footwear design skills and building a portfolio. His most recent 1st place win was his design for the Air Jordan XXI theme, work which drew attention from several designers in the footwear industry, including D'Wayne Edwards, Design Director for Jordan Brand, who encouraged Ryan to set his sights on the west coast for full-time shoe design opportunities.

However, Ryan chose to pursue only freelance footwear design opportunities which would allow him to remain in Arkansas, where his children could grow up near their close-knit extended family. In the spring of 2006, that decision proved fortunate, when Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, came calling to fill a full-time athletic footwear design position.

Though Ryan is no longer seeking work as a freelance footwear designer, he does still keep busy with carefully selected logo and graphic design projects. If you or your company have such a need, you may contact Ryan by e-mail at design@ryanholler.com or call 479-464-4647.