Ray Cruz (RIP)

Stuart Sandler

via Jim Lyles - To my type design friends, I learned this afternoon that the talented type designer Ray Cruz passed away March 26, 2025. He was a fine person, and loved teaching his craft and mentoring young designers. I think we met at the first TypeCon! Send up a nice thought to a nice man.

Ray’s obituary can be found here: https://www.easternshorecremation.com/obituaries/Ramon-Cruz?obId=40148096

Ray Larabie

I'm so sorry to hear of his passing. I met him at TypeCon all those years ago and he was so nice.

Kent Lew

I also met Ray Cruz and would see him annually at TypeCons back in the day. Sorry to hear of his passing. R. I. P.

Stephen Coles

Ray was one of the first people I met at TypeCon and was always warm and friendly. He was also one of the last people I know to call himself a “type director” and truly continue to do that work long after the profession mostly faded.

Stephen Coles

Ray Cruz on Typeradio. The first few seconds reveal what a humble, goodhearted man he was.

John Nolan

Like many here, I met him at an early TypeCon. Friendly, warm man. R.I.P.

Thomas Phinney

I knew him mostly through ATypI and TypeCon conferences. Always such a warm, down-to-earth fellow.

Peter Bain

This is sad news. I don't recall when or where I first met him in NYC. He was always approachable and generous with his time. When he was a type director at Young & Rubicam, I was happy to be his designated fill-in when he was out. Some old promotional sheets show his corporate alphabets included Camel cigarettes, PeoplExpress airlines, and Pillsbury Foods; plus final artwork for many wordmarks.

John Butler

Ray Cruz hired me to work on the OpenType programming for his Cruz Grafica fonts back in the early 2000s, through a referral from Ralph at Phil’s Fonts, if I recall. Ray was gracious and generous. I think I finally met him in person at a TypeCon, but my memory of that era is blurry now. He’s one of those relentlessly positive people. Everyone knows a handful of such people, and yet they remain rare.

Nick Shinn

A fabulous career—at the centre of the Mad Men era.
Talented and lucky guy, and he deserved it.

Mark Simonson

I met Ray at TypeCon as well, and I would hang out with him quite a bit when he attended. I remember at TypeCon NYC in 2005 he did a presentation in which he did lettering in the air with light. I seem to recall his son was involved.

Florian Hardwig

When I had a research question about his early typeface designs once, Ray was generous with his time and readily provided information about Swinger, Fat Albert, Loose New Roman, etc. In addition, he mailed a whole package with specimens from his time at John N. Schaedler, Inc., alongside other materials. Attached is a portrait that was included in a showing of Cruz Tempor Medium and Bold, “his first independently designed alphabet styles”, c.1968.

Mark, a sample of his flashlight lettering was shown on his website and is preserved at the Internet Archive.