Tue, 25/07/2023 - 13:28
Tell me a bit about yourself/business/practice?
The first thing to know about us is that we have always tried to be creative and follow our passions. Ross studied design and has worked as a DT teacher and an engineer in industry - whilst also representing GB in the sport of canoe polo at European and World Championships! Ben on the other hand studied music and enjoyed playing trumpet in pop bands and on cruise ships. Dice Ideas began in COVID as a fun project for ourselves. The premise is quite simple. We order thousands of dice, and then use them to create mosaic portrait pieces.
What are you currently grappling with in the studio?
Although we have one of the largest studios in the building, we are constantly struggling for space. The frames that we build measure close to 6ft by 4ft. As soon as we have two pieces on the go at the same time, moving around without knocking into our equipment becomes a struggle.
Do you have any rituals in the studio, what are they?
I wouldn’t say we have any particular rituals - unless you count singing along to an early Blink 182 album while working?
What’s your preferred medium/what do you work with?
Dice! Typically at least 10,000 each time.
What do you have planned for future work?
Incredibly, we have just signed a contract to head out to a resort and showcase our pieces while on holiday at the same time! This is something that we never expected when starting this project, but are more than happy to spend a couple of weeks in the sun.
As well as the physical art pieces, we also offer custom designs for brands. We film the process of us creating a piece which can then be shared on social channels. This can be pretty varied. We currently have jobs lined up with a Japanese cartoon show, and a design to help promote a new console game.
Who/What Inspires you and your work?
We are particularly inspired by successful Entrepreneurs, Musicians and Sports stars. We love to base our designs on our idols, the people that we look up to most. In attempting to understand their level of discipline and what it takes to achieve success, we hope to try and emulate that in our own work. Ultimately the largest driving factor for us is the fact that we get to work on developing our own ideas.
Do you have any helpful resources/advice that you would recommend to other artists and makers?
Don’t talk yourself out of an idea before you’ve even explored it. Try it!
Which guests would you invite to your fantasy dinner party?
Assuming we have a translator- I think we’d both agree on having Leo Messi there. LeBron James would be Ross’s pick. Lebron has been Ross’s idol for years. He has all of Lebron’s jerseys from the teams he has played for and even has a large print of our dice design of him up on his wall.
As Ben has just completed his first ever (very short) triathlon, he has become overly confident in his running abilities and even voiced that he’d like the idea of walk/runnning across the USA - Only an extra 4,500km! For inspiration he would absolutely want to talk to his current hero named David Goggins. This is an ex Navy Seal that is known for running ultra marathons and generally doing the hardest physical feats possible.
If you weren’t an artist/maker and could choose any career, what would it be?
With a shared love of sport and the outdoors, that would probably take priority.
We'd like to suggest that we’d ski instructors or whitewater rafting guides, though these positions are not so easy to come by in the UK.
What have you celebrated in the last 12 months, personally or professionally?
The fact that we are still in business is cause for celebration. When we began this project we had no experience in running a company, pricing, marketing strategies, social media or shipping artworks. Despite this, we have somehow managed to find enough clients to sustain us and have also just delivered a custom artwork to the other side of the world!
We have also been super fortunate to have worked with some well known brands such as Disney, Universal, Activision, Paramount, Ligue 1 and Xbox!
To see more of their work visit the website and follow @diceideas on Instagram and facebook