For a responsive design it is good to use a container having a relative layout and content (placed in container) having fixed layout as.
CSS Styles:
/*Centering element in a base container*/
.contianer-relative{
position: relative;
}
.content-center-text-absolute{
position: absolute;
text-align: center;
width: 100%;
height: 0%;
margin: auto;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
z-index: 51;
}
HTML code:
<!-- Have used ionic classes -->
<div class="row">
<div class="col remove-padding contianer-relative"><!-- container with position relative -->
<div class="item item-image clear-border" ><a href="#"><img ng-src="img/engg-manl.png" alt="ENGINEERING MANUAL" title="ENGINEERING MANUAL" ></a></div> <!-- Image intended to work as a background -->
<h4 class="content-center-text-absolute white-text"><strong>ENGINEERING <br> MANUALS</strong></h4><!-- content div with position fixed -->
</div>
<div class="col remove-padding contianer-relative"><!-- container with position relative -->
<div class="item item-image clear-border"><a href="#"><img ng-src="img/contract-directory.png" alt="CONTRACTOR DIRECTORY" title="CONTRACTOR DIRECTORY"></a></div><!-- Image intended to work as a background -->
<h4 class="content-center-text-absolute white-text"><strong>CONTRACTOR <br> DIRECTORY</strong></h4><!-- content div with position fixed -->
</div>
</div>
For IONIC Grid layout, evenly spaced grid elements and the classes used in above HTML, please refer - Grid: Evenly Spaced Columns. Hope it helps you out... :)