98 RAMP CREATIVE + DESIGN
Take a historic neighborhood of Los Angeles and an ex-aerospace engineer with a love for mathematics and compelling images. Add to the equation a gifted interactive designer with a flair for writing and a fascination for the satisfying experience of eating Sprinkles cupcakes. What you get is a design team that tells unique stories contextually and shows dynamic ideas visually. Known as Ramp Creative, the five-year-old boutique firm is fully embodied in the simplicity, organization and imagery of its identity and stationery system.

The dual disciplines of the two partners, print-based Michael Stinson and media-oriented Rachel Elnar, are represented in this two-tone, uncoated, engineered stationery system. The system contains original photography of Ramp Creative’s eclectic Los Angeles neighborhood. “My brain puts stories to visuals,” Stinson explains. “Ideas come to mind when I see the environment around me.” The softened, unsaturated photographs proclaim their distinctiveness from contemporary advertising photography.

Ramp Creative’s system implies a mode of craftsmanship informed by function, an oddity in the design world of today, where craft seems so often absent. By letting solid concepts lead the design, Stinson strives to “elevate communications through ideas.” The Ramp Creative approach is to answer clients’ questions with reason. “Passionate clients want to understand,” says Stinson, so more than just simply providing guidance, these problem- solvers try to fully educate clients over the course of the project. By building a client-designer synthesis, Ramp’s seemingly traditional clientele of medical, real-estate and technology companies are transformed via design innovation. by Mary Louise Killen

Ramp Creative + Design | Art Directors, photographers: Michael Stinson, Rachel Elnar | Designer: Michael Stinson Client: Ramp Creative + Design | Contact: www.rampcreative.com