This timely update of the best-selling CD Art looks at digital developments in the music industry. It includes new work produced for the growing download and interactive market: albums packaged ...
By Ron Romanik
The founder of Estudio Ray, Joe Ray, is an artist as well as a designer. This year, his paintings were shown at galleries in Los Angeles and Madison, WI. In the design studio, Joe plays the creative director and president roles while his wife, Christine (also an accomplished artist), plays visual strategist and client services roles. The two met as students at Arizona State University, a mere five minutes from the current office in Phoenix near the city zoo and the Desert Botanical Gardens.
The boutique Estudio Ray agency won the honor of this cover story treatment by participating in the 2009 Makeover Challenge. Readers of Package Design Magazine voted the team's redesign of the Casa Visco pasta sauce brand as the best reimagining of the brand that would help expand its retail reach.
Joe started the firm as a part-time, nighttime freelance design studio some 24 years ago. As business picked up, Christine kept the business side running like clockwork as the design work expanded into marketing and package design. Today, the dedicated and passionate staff work closely as a team through nearly every project. Joe reminds his team members frequently to think visually—even the writers.
The firm's strengths are in food and beverage, but they have also developed a deep portfolio of pharmaceutical package design successes. The other to members of the Makeover Challenge winning "team" are Michelle Foldes, graphic designer and web designer, Randy Geske, 3D illustrator, and Eric Kingsbury, director of business development.
Get it on the wall
In 1985, Ray named his company Estudio Ray because he was anticipating the coming multiculturalism in design and media. His painting and sculpting background has instilled in him an appreciation for the creative process, and he looks for inspiration in his clients, in museums, in stores, and in creative collaborators. Young and hungry designers offer a particular passion and energy. "There's a certain aspect of the rawness that I like to pull from," Joe says.
In branding identity development, the visual is where things come to life for Estudio Ray. The brand or package creates a moment when the visual presentation both defines the brand message and entices with sensory appeal. "We want to grab the eye," Joe says with conviction.