Russ McIntosh

Creative Director + Designer + Photographer

So how does a ranch hand, Hawaiian tour guide, forestry technician, log home builder, surveyor, butcher and electrician end up in a creative career?

Your guess is as good as his…it would have been a lot easier if he had known what his passion was, gone to college and landed a sweet job. Instead, he took the winding adventure of life that landed in design and ultimately shaped his approach to his work.

Russ’ entry to the design world began at a small local newspaper in his hometown where on his first day, he struggled to coax a CD from a Mac and had to teach himself QuarkXpress in two weeks (the equivalent of learning a foreign language in the same time frame). In the process, he realized, “Hey, maybe I have an aptitude for this?” Organizing things, setting type, using the grid, obsessing over the details… It was here that his passion for design began to unfold.

Russ grew up constantly sketching inventions. He was always curious about photography, signage, industrial design, dimension, order… yes things neatly placed. The Reagan administration probably didn’t know what to think when Russ’ sketch arrived for the new battleship the government didn’t know they needed.

As Creative Director and Designer at Studio Absolute and nearly three decades after fumbling with the Mac CD drive and sending sketches to the President, Russ’ portfolio includes work recognized in the Oregon Addys and the publications, Visual Marketing, Logolounge Books 7, 9, 10 and 12 and Master Library editions. Russ is self-taught and credits his success in design and photography to years of experience in agency work in the branding field. Today, nearly 15 years after Studio Absolute opened its doors, Russ continues to lead with the same vision he started with—an emphasis on strategy-driven design, strong typography, and an eye for imagery which drives the successful projects that channel through the studio.

Russ’s love for photography was spawned in his teens when shooting film with his Canon AE-1. His rural Oregon roots engrained a love for the outdoors. Today you can find Russ with his family and friends exploring the wonders of the Pacific Northwest from his Bend, Oregon home. He loves to spend time in nature, especially on rivers and lakes. When not working in the studio, Russ can be found on his Central Oregon ranch—home to horses, cattle, chickens, and his livestock guardian dog, Juno.