As Director of Integrated Production Studio 8 for many years, Ralph Navarro oversaw all production for DDB New York, both print and interactive. During his tenure he created a state-of-the-art studio, the best in the DDB global network. Before he left in 2016 Ralph had created a studio that was truly media-independent, capable of producing work in all media.

It all began in 1982 when he was hired as Type Director, collaborating with art directors on type treatments for Volkswagen, IBM, American Airlines, Atari, GTE and other clients. His was the first agency studio to implement the latest typesetting system—saving DDB NY time and money, and improving creativity.

It was said that he maintained the art of typography while embracing the technology.

In the early 90’s when Macintosh revolutionized graphics and typesetting, Ralph was first on board. He trained himself in the new technology, page layout software and desktop publishing tools, and then trained his co-workers. Because of Ralph’s intense desire to stay current, DDB became one of the earliest adopters of the new technology. By the mid 90’s the DDB print production operation was entirely digital AND highly profitable.

Once promoted to Director Ralph brought prepress, a service that had been outsourced to costly vendors, in-house, dramatically increasing revenues for the agency. By 2016 DDB New York did all of its retouching, proofing and delivery to publishers and printers on site.

Today Ralph takes on projects that interest him in his area of expertise and is always looking for new challenges, new technologies and new ways of communicating a client’s message.