SUMMARY

An adaptable Graphic Designer, Brand Creative, and Art Director suited to diverse industries including Direct Marketing, Community Marketing, Health & Medical, and Major Appliance aftermarket. A 20-year professional with an affinity for design that focuses on the end consumer and messaging that drives the desired market segment, be it through branding, advertising, display, or packaging.

  • Graphic Design
  • Creative Direction
  • Layout
  • Art Direction
  • Brand Creative
  • Copywriting
  • Visual Marketing
  • Packaging Design
  • Sign & Display Design
  • Fluent with Adobe Creative Cloud

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Electrolux, NA, Charlotte, NC 2010-2015

Consumer Services Group for Major Appliance Manufacturer

Graphic Designer

    Brand and packaging design, management of art department work as required by account managers for aftermarket needs, including B2B, B2C, advertising and promotions.

  • Complete redesign and implementation of aftermarket brand for environmentally-conscious aftermarket product line, which would become “ecosential by Smart Choice®”, saving almost 18 months and estimated $170-200k (based on previous billings) while still executing inside the original commercialization timeline.
  • Update and redesign of brand/ID, trade dress and packaging for the full Smart Choice® aftermarket CPG line in two stages, including creative direction of display and collateral, helping to realize an estimated six figure savings for department.
  • Build aftermarket branding and style in line with Frigidaire Majors for the Water Filter and Refrigeration accessory business, including the new Custom-Flex and Spacewise lines, that gave a coherent family branding that had not previously existed to boost brand recognition at retail.
  • USPTO and Global Intellectual Property Patent (#US 20130282592 A1, held by Electrolux, NA) for Scannable Code Product Registration Automated workflow, April 2012.

YMCA of Greater Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 2007-2010

YMCA of Greater Charlotte; Center City YCommunity

Marketing & Image Director – Creative & Design

    Help build membership, fitness and outreach programming and engagement through lifestyle marketing, campaign design and execution of marketing strategies for YCommunity cluster and Association Metro marketing coordination at branch level.

  • Support of Community Outreach efforts and events to help meet or exceed six-figure annual goals.
  • Designed a custom invitation set for the YMCA-hosted Charlotte premiere of the Erik Weihenmayer film “Blindsight”, by special request of the Metro office Outreach department. Project incorporated braille effects and faux varnishes and a custom envelope, all well under budget.
  • Helped align branches with Association general standard; helped cut costs by developing collateral for special programs and events to print on-demand from internal printer network instead of relying on more expensive external printing.

Graphic Outpost, Charlotte, NC 2005-2008

General Service Graphic Design Firm

Creative Director & Owner

    Creative Direction, account management, production, traffic and freelancer management for a small business/new business-centric design firm handling branding and ID, print, sign & display, copy writing, image and (pre-Web 2.0) web design for a variety of clients in fields such as medical, medical billing, construction and renovation, software development, music and also other agencies (including a previous employer).

  • Major contributions to FABA (Fredericksburg Area Builders Association). Award win for Leeland Station community, 2006, for Jack Morris Advertising.
  • Major contributions to MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards for Stone Ridge community, including Community Signage and Wayfinding suite, 2005-2007 for Jack Morris Advertising.
  • Served as contract Creative Director and provisional CMO for educational software startup, A Parliament of Owls, during initial funding rounds, 2007-2008.
  • Golden Web Award for both SouthRidingPediatrics.com and FarrellPediatrics.com, 2003-2004

Jack Morris Advertising, Falls Church, VA/Leesburg, VA 2000-2005

Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations agency

Graphic Artist

    Execution of creative direction, building out style elements for clients and layout of advertising, brochures, ID suites, with an eventual strong focus on displays, signage and wayfinding. (Note that Jack Morris Advertising also became a client of Graphic Outpost).

  • Contributions to MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards for Stone Ridge, 2003-2005.
  • Contributions to MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards for American Heritage Homes communities.
  • Contributions, including Best Community Signage MAME (Major Achievement in Marketing Excellence) Awards for Leeland Station.
  • FFFL (Finest for Family Living) and Monument Awards for contributions to The Reserve in McLean.

EDUCATION/TRAINING

Bachelor of Fine Arts; Graphic Design 1998

Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA


SKILLS DETAIL

  • Fluent with Adobe Creative Suite/Creative Cloud (current with CC2015), particularly Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver; functional familiarity with Premiere.
  • Fluency with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint; familiarity with Excel.
  • Front-end web design via XHTML/CSS, some HTML5; familiarity with PHP/MySQL
  • Copy writing and message-focused campaign creation, from brand-focused marketing, to consumer-centric lifestyle messaging and community-driven outreach awareness.
  • Digital illustration, including cartooning, general illustration, and site marketing plans.
  • Experience with product and catalog photography, touchups, cloning, and compositing.
  • Signage, wayfinding, tradeshow booth, and display design.