Dick Kramer Studios
In Dick’s own words, “I began my art education at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art in Newark, New Jersey. I transferred to The School of Visual Arts in New York City and finished my art education there. After working for a chain store doing pen and ink illustrations for their advertising publications, I decided to free-lance. We had $78.00 in the bank, four kids and I quit my full time job. Ginny always believed in me even though it was a terrible time as far as money was concerned. She never complained or told me to get a real job; my father-in-law told me that. Ginny has always been behind me, no matter what was happening.
I then spent 8 years as Art Director for ITT Avionics Division, a defense contractor. I found out that I wasn’t meant to be in the “Corporate World” and went back to free-lancing. We moved to Florida, spent 8 years there and that’s where my entire life changed.
I met John Meyer. At that time he was the head of H&K Training Division. He approached me about doing a few drawings for a poster advertising their training facility in Sterling, Virginia. I said yes and produced seven vignette drawings for the poster. It was a series of SWAT Officers doing what they do so well. I didn’t think much of it. The check cleared and I forgot about H&K. When the poster was distributed worldwide, the receptionist at H&K threatened to quit. The telephone lines lit up with SWAT Officers from around the world wanting to know who was doing these drawings and how could they get copies. That was the beginning of our fabulous life. We literally started at our kitchen table. I produced four sketches, the first of hundreds and hundreds to come. The rest is history. Ginny and I have been all over the world, from England to Germany to Abudabi and Dubai and all over our wonderful U.S.A. God has blessed us with a wonderful life filled with good friends in the SWAT Community and Corporate World. Half of our business is from our on-line sales of prints and half is from Corporate Commissions.”
Dick and Ginny have been personal friends since 1989. Team One commissioned Dick to draw a montage for our 2004 calendar/poster when we first started. We produced thousands of the montage and even had it on our trailer. The conference room at the Team One office is dedicated to Dick Kramer and contains a dozen of his original works.
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