QUALIFICATIONS

I have over ten years of experience as an Art Director; creating retail paper products and collateral materials in the publishing industry. I offer expertise in print and web design and all phases of production; with mastery of Macintosh programs including Quark Express, Adobe Illustrator, PhotoShop, PageMaker, Word, Excel, Dreamweaver and HTML.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Senior Art Director for Portal Publications, Novato, California.
Art Director, February 1994 - April 1997;
Senior Art Director Calendar Division, April 1997 - present.
Portal Publications is a leading publisher of art prints, posters and social expression products. My contributions include the expansion of the Anne Geddes line of products from a $2.3 million line to $12.5 million in one year, the creation of a line of invitations and stationery products, and the expansion of the boxed note line which increased sales from $350,000 to $2.5 million .
  • Conceive and create an array of retail products including calendars, wall decor, greeting cards, note cards, stationery and gift bags for a major publisher
  • Recruit and direct freelance artists and photographers to create finished art for retail products
  • Oversee production, from design to final color proofing for products
  • Negotiate contracts with artists, licensers and artists' representatives
  • Edit and select photography for publication, from stock houses and freelance photographers
  • Edit text and assign freelance writers to copy dependent products such as greeting cards
  • Write text and captions for specific calendar, catalog and book projects
  • Conceive, style and art direct photo shoots for various products and collateral materials
  • Source and procure new artists and photographers for assignments and publication
  • Serve on special task force committees to develop corporate identity, web-site and trade shows
  • Merchandise trade show booth at selected shows
  • Attend trade shows to meet with prospective artists and customers
  • Received numerous awards for calendars from the Calendar Marketing Association, including Gold Award-Best Design (1997), Silver Award-Most Educational and Most Original (1997), Gold Award-Best Contemporary Art (1998) and Silver Award-Best Wildlife Calendar (1998)
  • Recipient of three American Graphic Design Awards for design and art direction of calendars in 1999
Visual Communications Manager for Marcel Schurman Co., Fairfield, California. September 1989 - February 1994
Marcel Schurman Company is a manufacturer of greeting cards and gift ware items. My responsibilities were to create catalogs, collateral materials, packaging, advertising and merchandising schemes for a unified corporate identity within the marketplace.
  • Managed and art directed all projects in a sales and promotional materials department including catalogs, sales binders, packaging, retail advertising and trade advertising
  • Maximized resources to create exciting sales materials within limited budgets
  • Managed, trained and evaluated the performance of Visual Communications production staff
  • Administered departmental budgets for printing, color separations, personnel and supplies
  • Designed and implemented the merchandising of trade show booths for stationery shows
  • Designed and produced multimedia slide presentations for national sales meetings
  • Analyzed and researched market trends with sales representatives to develop better sales support materials, marketing strategies and point of purchase displays
  • Conceived, art directed and styled photo shoots with contract and freelance photographers
  • Proofed color separations and ran press checks on four-color printing projects, both domestically and overseas
Advertising Designer for House of Fabrics, Los Angeles, California,
November 1988 - April 1989.
  • Designed and produced newspaper and direct mail advertising for a national chain of 650 retail fabric stores
  • Conceived and art directed monthly photo shoots for direct mail advertising
  • Supervised production and typesetting for direct mail and newspaper ads
  • Made media placements, routed ads through the department and acted as traffic manager
Layout Artist/Production Artist for Fashion Bar, Denver, Colorado.
November, 1985 - October, 1988.
  • Designed newspaper and direct mail advertising for a statewide chain of retail stores
  • Produced tight marker layouts and paste-ups on a rigorous schedule
  • Made media placements, routed ads through the department
  • Retouched black and white photographs for newspaper advertising

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with concentration in Graphic Design from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, May, 1985.

Creative Arts Scholarship recipient at Colorado State University for six semesters from 1982 - 1985.

SPECIAL SKILLS

Four-color proofing and press check abilities, camera work, illustration, photography, photo stylist, photographic retouching and black and white photo printing