Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Ramirez.
Steven is the owner of Smash Design a Hollywood prop and set fabrication company. Steven first realized the need for new 3d fabrication methods while he worked on Hollywood movies sets for Film Director Robert Rodriguez at the world renowned studio Trouble Maker Studios there Steven discovered the need for 3d CNC machines which opened up new doors in the set design, prop making and themed environments. But it wasn’t until working directly for ex-NASA Senior Robotics Engineer Chris Lovchik that his knowledge of 3d Robotic CNC’s merged with his passion for art. Steven worked as an industrial designer for Lovchik’s cutting edge tech company that invented the famous Carvewright CNC machine. Steven would later move on to develop his own unique company Smash Design.
Steven’s company Smash Design has since constructed numerous large scale projects for clients such as NASA, Saks 5th Avenue, Versace, Maersk, Cosentino, TLC, Warner Brothers, Houston Texans, the Houston Rockets, the Chicago Bears and NBC TV’s Extreme Home Makeover Edition, just to list a few. He know uses large CNC Robotic machines combined with Old World art crafts to carve, sculpt, design and create his monumental art and themed environments. It’s also worth mentioning that Steven has developed and built several of the large CNC robotic equipment that he uses. He has since also developed his own line of Prop making products that high school theater departments all over Texas use for set design called Propmakers, which is distributed through Bright Star Productions.
If you ask Steven how he manages to create such exquisite work he will tell you that he could never build the things he does without the help and support of his best friend and wife Ferrin Ramirez.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not, I started from scratch in the back of a friends warehouse with zero capital to start, when I first started out I would sleep in the storage closet of the old warehouse where I had setup an air mattress, we are talking a really dirty rat infested building that made for restless nights. I did this simply because I had to work my ass off in order to get my projects completed. Before I even had robotic equipment I had to hand sculpt everything using old school techniques that were extremely tiring and exhaustive, especially in a warehouse with no air conditioning in the middle of a Houston summer. Before I had my own delivery trucks I would have to go down to U-Haul and rent a truck every time I had to make a delivery.
Please tell us about Smash Design.
We are the only company in Houston that does what we do. We build entire themed environments, from waterpark features to large scale commercial art, we design, engineer and fabricate everything in house. Everything we build is completely custom, there’s no blueprint for us to follow, or previous concepts we have to develop them ourselves, it’s raw creativity at its finest.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
BMX racing and competing with my little brother Chris. We lived outside, are bikes were our freedom to explore. We were raised by a single mom, who encouraged us to explore and be creative. Bicycles were the seed to my mechanical passion, my mother would use what little money she had to buy me stuff to tear apart and rebuild so I could learn, like old gas powered Vespa scooters, and many bicycles, this was in junior high that I started becoming a mad scientist as my friends and family like to say.
Contact Info:
- Website: smashthedesign.com
- Phone: 956.371.4480
- Email: scrdesigner@gmail.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/smashdesignstudios
- Twitter: twitter.com/smashthedesign
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