An Overdose of Creativity: Ryan Delaney on building his dream

Starting his business in his mum’s spare room, co-founder and creative director of Overdose.Digital, Ryan Delaney knew he would be successful one day.

Originally coming to Wintec for the Bachelor of Media Arts in moving image, he changed to graphic design to widen his opportunities.

Ryan said, “I learnt a lot, I loved Wintec, it’s probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.”

His first profiled job was working for Federation Clothing in 2012, one of the biggest fashion labels in New Zealand at the time.

The first week he started at Federation, the lead graphic designer left, so Ryan had to quickly learn to be flexible.

Early on he was told, “everything you learnt at Wintec don’t do” – which meant adapting to the company’s style.

He later went on to work for eCommistry and I Love Ugly.

“I wanted to complete my degree, get a job, and then I always had this one objective that I wanted to have my own business at 25.”

Overdose. Digital started in 2016 with the help of his business partner.

“We are a digital agency that focuses on ecommerce, growth, online stores, we do lots of things, essentially we do the business side of things.”

Overdose was soon acquired by a larger company, but a month later he brought it back not liking their working style. That’s how they developed the anti-agency, agency.

“It’s  [the buy back] actually what developed Overdose. If you fail you learn from it.”

Since starting the business two and a half years ago, they now have offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Kiev.

They are aiming to open another office in Australia and then possibly move into Europe.

“The goal is bigger clients, stay hungry, and stay humble. If you essentially love what you do, then you will be great at what you do.”