Meet the creatives: Ugla Studio

January 14, 2023

Meet Rudo Bleeker, the creative mastermind behind Ugla Studio!

Hi! Can you tell us about who you are and what you do?

Hi! I am Rudo Bleeker, 31 years old and owner of Ugla Studio. Ugla Studio is a design studio that mainly focuses on creative direction, graphic design, illustration and painting. So of everything. I do all this from my house in the center of Leiden or on a beach day at a cool beach club. Laptop and sketch pad and I can actually work anywhere.

You make super cool designs, including for Yuna Merch! Have you always known you wanted to be a designer?

Thank you. That's right, I make the prints manually for Yuna's parasols and I design what it should look like in its entirety. I have indeed always had it in me, ever since I could hold a pencil I was busy. After much beating around in other lyrics, I returned to my first love. Drawing and creating. In 2015 I started my own business and started Ugla Studio. Please be happy, it is going very well. Lots of fun assignments and I hardly see it as work, because I do what I love most and I think that's the most important in life.

Where do you mainly get the inspiration for your designs?

I think my inspiration is very much in the desire for freedom and purity. I've seen quite a bit of the world and in the end you take it all with you in your own style. I think if working for several years in this you "fall into your talent" at a time. I have completely found my style since a year of 2 or 3 years. It has something tropical, something raw. Furthermore, I really get my inspiration from everywhere, my own daily life, travel, nature, mythology and history books, etc. I am really a sponge and always look around me. Other artist graphic designers can also give you a shape and I like going to museums and performances. I am very visually oriented, so an evening in Paradiso gives me a whole atmosphere of the world in my head with a certain song, which I can then translate into a design. For Yuna and the umbrellas, especially the vintage look of the new Foxy Flower, I can really trace that back to an umbrella my grandmother used to play on the beach.

Much of your work has a tropical, beach vibe. Do you also like the beach and summer?

Secure! I think I'll be there every week. Although I must be honest that I am more of a 'forest me too much' brings. You always get a holiday feeling when you walk on the beach, especially in the summer. I try to put that feeling in my designs as well.

And finally, what does your perfect beach day look like?

That is anyway with a lot of friends, grade of 25, Yuna parasol, music and ball (and a sketch pad of course). Bubbles and fewer pieces. At sunset, enjoy a sumptuous meal at a beach club and, when closed, catch some sea sparks. Can't wait for summer!

Click here to discover Yuna Merch designs.

Want to see more of Rudo's work? Check out his inspiring Instagram account @uglastudio!