Do YOU know of any Photo-Artistic Designers in Northwest Indiana?
As a self coined Photo-Artistic Designer, Rich Ramirez transforms photographs into fine art. The movie posters that he creates add a level of articulated graphic design.
Ramirez, founder and owner of CineMagic Sportsline in Griffith, has been blessed with an interesting art, media, and community oriented life along with an equally loyal and talented family. Not only does he work on sports team projects, but his highly honed skills can also be directed to many other events as well.
He and his wife, Jill, have five incredible children—Isaiah and Noah play baseball, Hannah enjoys soccer, Eden involves herself in softball and dance and Levi, at 5 months, has still yet to discover his talents. Ramirez thanks his wife for her unwavering support and all around beautiful nature.
“A lot of what our family does incorporates sports; in the summertime, we go from game to game to game for all of our children. Noah intensely plays Travel Ball in the summer and all of us make sure to cheer him on throughout his seventy games. The youth sports area is what we are most involved in as a family,” Ramirez said.
At first, Ramirez only created his own movie posters for weddings, but soon after his son, Isaiah, went into a league championship tournament, he then began thinking how cool it would be to customize a poster for his team. After passing out his work to other parents on the team, Ramirez was then approached by others inquiring if he could design a poster for other teams.
“The next thing I knew, I was constructing posters for St. John, Lowell, and from there it just grew. I have come so far from just handling wedding posters and it’s been a wonderful journey,” Ramirez said.
Ten years prior to his intriguing spin on photography, graphic design, and fine art, he made collages for various occasions. After seeing how he could creatively combine portraits with words, he knew what direction he wanted to take.
In his very early career, Ramirez drew all the time and was adored by his classmates for his impressive talents. The first freelance, commissioned job that Ramirez had was from his middle school art teacher at age 14; his assignment was to draw a portrait of someone.
“The funny thing is that when I was in high school, I wanted to make movie posters for the rest of my life. I loved how they looked and how they told a story in a concise way by just using a couple taglines. They always compelled me to action with the little information they gave,” Ramirez said. “There is no one pushing you to see it or trying to sell it to you—you just see it and something inside you awakens.”
Last year, the Gary Air Show called on Ramirez to design a promotional poster and everyone loved it—including The International Council of Air Shows’ (ICAS) heavily followed convention in Las Vegas. His highly revered talent was showcased internationally and he was speechless after hearing the news that his poster won first place for marketing.
Ramirez’s work is now known around the world and he receives various jobs from Australia, Sweden, England, and Canada.
“There are times when I think to myself that what I do is not all that important because photographs are a luxury item, but then there are times when I do something for someone and two or three years later they come back to me with gratitude,” Ramirez said.
We capture our memories through photographs and Ramirez helps others carry that picture with them forever and that is truly beautiful. He feels that he is responsible to help keep those memories alive for anyone and everyone he can.
“I could have became a photographer and followed in footsteps, but I didn’t want to get lumped in with everyone else—that isn’t me. I like to say that if I’m going to do something, then I want it to be something never seen before. I think of how God created the universe from nothing, without a reference point and I want to be like that as well,” Ramirez said. “When someone sees something I do, I want them to say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that before.’”
Another great project that Ramirez creates outside of sport and event collages, posters, and banners is called Street Signs of Life. In this craft, he takes two street signs, superimposes words or names on them, and makes a never before seen, personalized photograph for his clients.
For eleven years, CineMagic has been making these clever constructions for weddings, baby showers, wedding showers, birthdays, and many other events.
Right now, Ramirez is covering Pop Warner football games in Griffith, Lowell, Highland, Valparaiso, and a few other locations in Northwest Indiana.
One promotional, community outreach event he will be involved in is called The Conquer Chiari Walk Across America on September 21. He is also currently securing poster jobs for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Indiana University (IU).