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Retro, Future: Phone Artworks

The Retro, Future: Phone Artworks encapsulates Ruggiero's 3D renders with a phone motif. These works span from years 2016 to the present. The phone artworks explore themes of overstimulation, nostalgia, humor, digital connection, and loneliness. You can see Ruggiero's skill set widen as you see her works progress from 2016 until now. Where she once relied on pre-made 3D assets from a marketplace, she now digitally sculpts with rapidly increasing skill.

Bound

Bound was created in 2025 and draws inspiration from Y2K and retrofuture aesthetics, as well as the state of the internet in early 2025. This 3D render serves as a way to process the feeling of a narrowing internet amid an increasingly hostile, click-bait climate. To learn more about this artwork, please refer to Ruggiero's "So We Can Always Remember" artwork series page.

The programs used to create this artwork are as follows: ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Adobe Photoshop. No pre-made 3D models were used for the creation of this artwork.

Bound, 3D artwork, featuring a hand squishing a smart phone made of glass, with icons from major social media apps. There are chains and metallic paraphernalia binding the hand to the phone. The background is a gradient of dark and light blues with some stars and metal spheres floating around the hand.

Bound, 2025, 12/10 editions, some available on objkt
Created with ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and Adobe Photoshop

Retro Phone Series

The Retro Phone Series was created in 2023 to explore the relationship we have with our past devices and the eras from which they came. Each of these phones was a very popular model during the years they were manufactured. The mood of each piece is a callback to the device's heyday era. For example, the Nokia 3310 3D render has a Y2K aesthetic mood. Each phone screen reveals a text message about a nostalgic desire.

This artwork marks Ruggiero's transition to sculpting her own 3D models for her artwork renders. The programs used to create this artwork are as follows: ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop. No pre-made 3D models were used for the creation of these artworks.

Nokia 3310

Retro Phone Series,Nokia 3310, 3D artwork. Artwork depicts a blue Nokia 3310 with a green screen against a blue, Y2K background. There is a hand reaching towards the phone. The phone and hand were digitally sculpted with intentional imperfections. There is a message on the screen that reads "I miss u."

Nokia 3310, 2023
Created with ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

Razr V3

Retro Phone Series, Razr V3, 3D artwork. Artwork depicts a Razr V3 floating in the air with a hand reaching towards it. There is a hand reaching up to grab it. The background has a dot matrix effect. The phone and hand were digitally sculpted with intentional imperfections. There is a message on the screen that reads "Do you remember?"

Razr V3, 2023
Created with ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

iPhone 5

Retro Phone Series, iPhone 5, 3D artwork. Artwork depicts an iPhone 5 with a bright screen in a dark environment, the only light being provided by the phone screen. There is a finger that is going to click the screen. The phone and hand were digitally sculpted with intentional imperfections. There is a message on the screen that reads "can we just go back?"

iPhone 5, 2023
Created with ZBrush, Substance Painter, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

i think there's something wrong with my phone...

i think there's something wrong with my phone is a humorous audio/visual collaboration with Dillon Francis, created in 2021. The artwork depicts a sheet of plastic with phone numbers on it and a hand attempting to make a phone call.

i think there's something wrong with my phone..., 2021, 1/1 sold on Zora
Created with Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe After Effects

Creepy Callies 📱😱

Creepy Callies (with process), collaboration with 5Rob_Renders, 2018
This work was was included on billboards in Shibuya Crossing
Created with HoudiniFX, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and After Effects

Creepy Callies, showing on a billboard near Shibuya Crossing with Neo Shibuya

Creepy Callies, showing on a billboard in Shibuya Crossing with Neo Shibuya

Nicole Ruggiero at the Seattle NFT museum, standing next to her work, Creepy Callies.

Nicole Ruggiero posing with Creepy Callies, showing at the Seattle NFT Museum in 2024

Hold Me, Touch Me, Break Me

Hold Me

Hold Me, 3D artwork by Nicole Ruggiero. Artwork depicts a pink and white marble hand holding a phone. The piece uses light, pastel colors.

Hold Me, 2017
Created with Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

Touch Me

Touch Me, 3D artwork by Nicole Ruggiero. Artwork depicts a pink and white marble hand with one finger pointing down; the finger intersects with parts of a phone that are floating. The piece uses light, pastel colors.

Touch Me, 2017, 1/1 Sold; featured illustration for a NYT article (image below)
Created with Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

New York Times 3D Illustration, Girls Get Tech They Just Need Others To Believe It article screenshot.

Touch Me featured on a New York Times article about Girls and Tech

Break Me

Break Me, 3D artwork by Nicole Ruggiero. Artwork depicts a pink and white marble hand with two fingers breaking through a phone screen. Glass shatters into the air. The piece uses light, pastel colors.

Break Me, 2017
Created with Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

Fuck It

Fuck it, 3D artwork by Nicole Ruggiero. Artwork depicts an iPhone 5 left in a sink with water. The phone is lit up, receiving many messages from one person. The sink itself has dirt, hair, and bobby pins sitting on it.

Fuck It, 2017
Created with Cinema 4D, Octane Render, and Adobe Photoshop

you look at me with this blank stare...
sometimes i wonder
if you're even actually here

Blank Stare artwork by Nicole Ruggiero. 3D artwork depicts a porcelain figure sitting on top of a pick to blue gradient backdrop, with three foreboding phones towering over her.

Blank Stare, 2016
Created with Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Arnold Render, and Adobe Photoshop

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