CREATIVE SERVICES

•  Book Cover Design
•  Brand Identity and Logos
•  Catalogs, books, brochures, postcards
•  Business cards and stationery
•  Trade show graphics
•  Flyers, posters, presentation folders and mailers
•  Digital image editing
•  Packaging and label designs
•  New product design and development
•  T-Shirt, apparel design and promotional Items
•  Space planning and design
•  Event theme concepts, promotions, decor and direction
•  Product design and development
•  Website design and social media graphics
•  Product photography
•  Photo art direction
•  Interior redesign
•  Event design and planning
•  Soft goods product development, sewing and pattern making

Contact us through LinkedIn if interested in working with us.

I am a “big picture” strategist with innovative imagination who exudes a strong sense of design, originality and inventiveness.  

PRODUCT BRANDING AND DEVELOPMENT

Currently I am working with a client on their patent application process including the actual product design and development processes. Here is one of my own patented products.

bts_inrow.jpg

CATALOG DESIGNER

Award winning Art Director with outstanding creative and conceptual skills and a strong ability to collaborate in a team environment, delivers innovative product development concepts and designs for a wide variety of print collateral and electronic media. Specializing in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. If you need someone to manage hundreds of details for a large catalog project then I am your best candidate! It has been said “she can see how a million small details fit together to create the larger picture”.

I have experience designing and producing catalogs, brochures, cookbooks and more. Hundreds of hours logged in on set working directly with the clients providing extensive photo art direction, forming a great team with the Twin Cities top photographers and set stylists, I been known to assist with set wrangling as well when needed to get that perfect shot for hard goods and food photography. My clients included such national brands as Land O’Lakes, General Mills, Sargento, Lo-Ann, 3M, Target, and Reynolds Company. I am an experience hard cover book designer having designed and produced over 30 titles in the category of Do-It-Yourself, full color hardcover book series.

book_row.jpg

Where does Interior Design Fit in?

I love to dabble in several creative fields, naturally my love of design extends beyond the creation of printed materials and web media. Most recently I assisted with the creative interior remodel at Grace Fellowship Church in MN. I take the clients brand or create a new brand and apply that to commercial interiors specifically for Kid’s spaces:

Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 1.37.26 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-04-21 at 1.37.46 PM.png
 

My endeavor with interiors come out of my certification as an official “Interior ReDesigner”. Using my talents with graphic design coupled with interior design is a good combination! As the previous owner of Room Remedy, my Design Specialists created beautiful new rooms using only what our clients owned. We created spaces that highlighted the things they treasured. Opening their eyes to reuse and rediscover the beauty in what they already own and inspiring them… giving them a renewed confidence in their own ability to create beautiful spaces for their family without spending more on new furnishings.

bestbeforeaft.jpg

Give me a call today, I would love to work on your next big project!

EXPERIENCE

Award winning Art Director with outstanding creative and conceptual skills and a strong ability to collaborate in a team environment, delivers innovative product development concepts and designs for a wide variety of print collateral and electronic media.

GOLD AWARD

Best Overall Catalog Design
The Ozzie Awards — Business Publication Design

plasticsincbrocandcat_ss.jpg
 

BRONZE AWARD

Best Overall Redesign
The Ozzie Awards — Business Publication Design

MERIT AWARD

International Marketing Direct

US PATENT

Infant Feeding System

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR   

Ad Agency and Book Development Firm  |  Cy DeCosse, Incorporated

BOOK DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT DIVISION  | Senior Art Director
• Award Winning Catalog Designer
• Senior Art Director, designed and produced 160 page, full-color hardcover books, and catalogs for national brands
• Most client and rep. requested art director

CREATIVE AGENCY DIVISION  | Senior Art Director
• NATIONAL CLIENTS — Land O’Lakes, 3M, Sharp Electronics, General Mills, Sargento, Baker’s Square, Hale Groves, Hormel Foods...
• PHOTO ART DIRECTION EXPERIENCE — 75% food related, 25% product related
• MAINTAINED HIGH BILLABLE RATES — 82%, with consistently good profit margins
• RESULTED IN — Assigned to lead a departmental task force to develop strategies to assist others in gaining similar success in time tracking and recording billable hours
• Team collaboration, brainstorming, layout and design, sketching, marker renderings, client presentations, photo art direction, set styling, production and color proofing
• Accountable for directing and supervising freelance and production artists

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT SPECIALIST

New product development specialist, manage product development from idea to final product launch, pattern development, brand development, design modifications, material sourcing and specification, analysis • Provisional patent consultant and patent artist, 3D technical drawings

PRODUCT DEVELOPER | US PATENT HOLDER | ENTREPRENEUR CEO

• Invention and creative problem solving skills used in Patent research and writing - owner of a US Utility Patent

• Product research and development, trend research, pattern making, prototyping, ensured qualification for toy safety standards (ASTM F 963-16)

• Created customized package solutions, packaging die lines

• Product Specialist: able to articulate product specifications with foreign vendors, ensuring compliance with quality control specifications, approving product samples, international communication with foreign manufacturers

• Managed all aspects of marketing, business and accounting knowledge, corporate record keeping

• Conducted retail and e-commerce sales, customer/vendor relations and product fulfillment

WEBSITE DESIGNER | WEB MAINTENANCE | CROSSROADS CAREER NETWORK

www.mncrossroads.com / on WIX Platform | Ariseanddesign.com on Squarespace Platform

GRAPHIC DESIGNER  

Marketing and Communications Department  |  Multi-Campus Church Organization 

COLLABORATION, COMMUNICATIONS, LEADERSHIP
• Creative conceptualization, brainstorming, team collaboration
• Facilitated presentations and project meetings, with clear articulation
• Directed large teams of volunteers, execution of various projects
• Interior space planning and remodeling concepts and designs for lobby, check-in stations, creative kids spaces, interior and exterior way finding signage

WEBSITE DESIGN, BRAND IDENTITY
• Website Design — intuitive navigation, UI UX considerations, website and social media graphics
• Brand Identity — created new brand identity for multi-site church, encompassing over 30 individual ministry programs, brand guidelines, monitoring compliance across organization

WORKFLOW, PRODUCTIVITY, TIME MANAGEMENT
• Developed production strategies to increase productivity, file naming conventions, file hierarchy, improved file access, swift retrievals and integrated asset generation
• Known to take multi-tasking to new levels with consistent, unwavering commitment to quality
• Accuracy, excellence and fast-paced production of press-ready files, on time and on budget, with tireless high volume output

PROBLEM SOLVER, SELF-MOTIVATED, SETTING IDEAS IN MOTION
• Proposed implementation of a project management system ­(WRIKE, ASANA) to improve project scheduling, tracking, accountability and transparency
• Instituted the creative brief as a tool to inspire team creativity while staying on track with branding, marketing and demographics
• Proposed and executed downsizing of bulletin, reducing workload and expenses
• Developed a complex EXCEL spread sheets to investigate PTO issues, solving the miscalculation of PTO hours by outside firm, resulted in accurate reporting of PTO for all employees

GRAPHIC DESIGNER  

Marketing and Communications Department  |  Multi-Campus Church Organization  |  Eden Prairie, Minnesota

• Design and production of event posters, flyers, bulletins and brochures

entreprenuerial pursuits

inventor  |  Product Developer

• S-CORP — Chief Executive Officer
• US UTILITY PATENT — Successful inventor, patent writer of unique 3D soft toy animal characters — highly functional and incredibly adorable, baby bottle holders
• Product design and development, soft goods pattern making, sewing and construction, material selections, prototyping and design refinements
• Foreign manufacturing relations, negotiating licensing agreements, retail vendor relations
• Unique 3D package design and die lines, communicating package design specifications with foreign print vendors
• Marketing and retail sales, merchandising
• Skilled in 3D perception, ability to see in minds eye even before an object exists in physical form

ROOM REMEDY  |  Interior Redesign

• Conceptualized and launched a new Interior Redesign business for residential clients providing in-home consultations
• Created 3D walkabouts for online room redesigns and online consultations purposes
• Designed, owned, operated business website roomremedy.com
• Engaged with clients, built their trust and confidence in us to work directly with their furnishings and interiors by rearranging their rooms in 3 hours or less

Freelance Graphic Design

• Worked as an Art Direction, Photo Stylist, Photographer with various local and national clients
• Photographed, designed and produced a 400+ item catalog and a broad variety of collateral marketing material

Volunteering

• High School Decorating Chairmen, responsible for the transformation of school interior into a whimsical themed wonderland
• Collaborating with other committee chairmen, in the conceptualization and organization of two (large school-wide) graduation events, including over 20 themed activities
• Directed teams of over 75 parent volunteers to create and install site-wide event decor

TECHNOLOGY

ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE, MICROSOFT OFFICE
PC Windows and Mac fluent

INDESIGN
PHOTOSHOP + 3D Photoshop Skills
ILLUSTRATOR
ACROBAT
SQUARESPACE
POWERPOINT
WORD
EXCEL

MACRO SKILLS
Typography, Color Theory, Page Layout

ONLINE STUDIES
Lightroom, Dreamweaver, After Effects, Flash, Sketch, CSS

EDUCATION

Graphic Design and Commercial Art | BA

Minnesota State University

Additional Course Study
Photography, Web Design

HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

Life Group Leader: Street Healing Ministry - we go out on the street and expect God to work miracles, granting signs and wonders to be done by our hands, we share the gospel and show Christ love to all we meet.

I love to study the bible and strive to grow more and more in my personal faith for healing miracles. I have personally experienced God’s healing touch instantly which cured a 6 year illness. I would love to share my story with you!

I enjoy jogging, biking, hiking, camping, sewing and reading. As a hobby and passion I love to problem solve and invent new products whenever I see a problem with a current process or product I will noodle out a new solution and start in on a prototype.