Sid Ramnarace is a Canadian-born American designer[1] and strategist who has worked with the Ford Motor Company, in Dearborn, Michigan, United States, and has designed automobiles, furniture, jewelry, textiles, glassware, and home decor.[2] [3]
At the age of 12, he submitted letters to Chuck Jordan at General Motors and Jack Telnack at Ford in the hope of receiving advice to landing a job as a designer.[4] Based on the reply from those letters, Ramnarace studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he graduated with a degree in industrial design, studying under the tutelage of design pioneer, Viktor Schreckengost.
After a brief stint at General Motors as a contract designer, Ramnarace began at Ford working at Ford's Global Design Center and developed textiles, color and trim for the Ford Explorer, Ford Prodigy[5] and 24.7 show car concepts,[6] where he worked under VP of Design J Mays and Chief Designer Laurens van den Acker.
He has contributed to automobile interiors and exteriors including the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX, Ford Flex, Ford Thunderbird[7] and most notably, the 5th generation Ford Mustang which was cited as one of the most iconic cars of the last 20 years.[8]
Sid has also spent time teaching at his alma mater as well as appearing as a guest speaker at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business at the MBA in Marketing program.[9]
The clean design of the 24.7 featured simple geometric shapes and machined surfaces which were designed to communicate a technical look and feel, complimenting the prescient advanced communication and telematic technologies that made up the essence of 24.7. However, the design of the 24.7 was criticized in the press - The Car Connection was quoted saying, "It's wrapped around the Internet because the Internet is trendy, and in the design-led world Ford is entering under J Mays guidance, trendy is everything."[10]