Clare Lynne Ramirez

The Weddings Issue

I came up with the idea to create origami with bills as the visual component for The Washington Post Business section's Weddings Issue, to emphasize the financial focus of the stories. I also hired a local DC florist to arrange a special wedding bouquet that incorporated the flowers I made out of bills. After a few weeks of getting the origami ready and figuring out logistics (including asking a co-worker to model in her wedding dress!), I worked with our photo team in the studio to style our props and take photos that would then be used in our digital and print designs. 

You can read more about the process here.

Political TV Hosts

For a magazine cover story, I collaborated with a photo editor and photographer to come up with three concepts that reflect the idea of TV hosting becoming more political. Our cover concept was inspired by the act of holding cue cards over a camera for a TV host to read (think Jimmy Fallon or SNL). The words on the cue card would serve as the cover headline. The second idea plays off the soapbox and its symbol as a platform for political beliefs, and staging it in a modern TV stage where a host would likely make an opening monologue or speech. The last idea was to paint a microphone blue on one side and red on the other, so as to show a divide in politics, and stage it under bright spotlights as if inviting someone to make a statement.

The roundtable-style story features interviews with Seth Meters, Ziwe, Andy Cohen, Padma Lakshmi, and Keke Palmer. 

Best Books 

I had the idea to create a physical pop up book for Washington Post's annual Best Books project. This process involved commissioning an illustrator to produce artwork based off genres like romance, mystery, and science fiction. In addition to that, I also a paper engineer to turn those illustrations into a physical book. I ended up going to New York to meet the paper engineer and pick up the book from him myself. Images and video of the book provided the basis for the visuals of the Best Books of 2018 online project.

Sincerely, Michelle

In 2020, Washington Post personal finance columnist Michelle Singletary felt it was time to write a series addressing common misconceptions involving race and financial inequality. I worked with artist Eliana Rodgers to produce each illustration for these columns, which tackled subjects like affirmative action, redlining, reparations, and microaggressions. Early on, we established a color palette that we liked and used it across all illustrations to establish consistency. I also designed each column's digital presentation.

Letters Project

The Washington Post asked readers to write letters to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the eve of their inaugurations. I contributed my handwriting (screen recorded via my iPad) to use as the topper for both of these projects.