Experience

Quill

Associate Creative Director, April 2017-June 2023 

  • Directed internal agency team of over 20 creative associates to consistently develop creative solutions that uphold the brand narrative and meet business goals

    • Led research to enhanced audience insights by gaining a deep understanding of their needs

    • Defined a persona, voice, messaging platform and visual identity

    • Relaunched a new, modern brand inclusive of all customer facing communications; like direct mail, email, paid and organic social media, website, video tutorials and packaging

    • Developed and communicated style guide across the company to ensure brand consistency

    • Enhanced lead generation funnel including social media, case studies, white papers, blog articles and landing pages

  • Mentored talent by using a hands-on approach to inspire environment of creativity and collaboration to successfully innovate, meet project goals and deadlines

  • Improved agency operations by developing a more efficient intake process, restructured team to target skills and formulated project hours resulting in 10% reduction in force and improved overall quality

Account Services Manager, April 2015-April 2017 

  • Facilitated all agency projects, including assessment of requests, scheduling, determining resources

    • Contributed in leadership team meetings, reporting on agency performance, dates, etc

    • Enhanced agency relationships with marketing and external vendors by acting as liaison between the groups, resolving issues and satisfying project needs through attentive listening

    • Provided insight to all agency associates by sharing knowledge of the 'why' behind company initiatives and project goals to inspire solution based communications as well as providing a sense of inclusiveness and feeling of contributing to the business

Senior Account Executive, March 2013-April 2015 

  • Ownership of establishing, documenting and implementing agency processes and procedures to ensure overall efficiency of agency budget and resources

    • Initiated new creative brief and process, including objective, strategy, customer insights, schedules, resulting in 15% reduction in time due to less back and forth

  • Plan, schedule and coordinate project activities to meet deadlines and negotiate with project stakeholders or suppliers to obtain resources or materials

Creative Supervisor, August 2007-March 2013 

  • Led designers to develop creative solutions for direct mail, email, website, blog, and social media

    • Developed design concepts, ensured brand standards met, ensured entire customer journey is considered, prepared approach and presented to leadership

  • Evaluated needs of design team, delegated tasks to optimize overall production, contracted overseas resources, identified and corrected performance issues to reduce impact to business

  • Implemented new project management tool and developed workflow and processes resulting in 18% efficiency in catalog page production

Daigger Scientific

Creative Services Manager, August 2004-August 2007 

  • Created, reviewed and approved all customer communications, promotions and campaigns that drove strategic initiatives and raised awareness of new products

  • Successfully negotiated contracts and fees with print and media vendors to secure pricing and services are efficient while meeting business needs resulting in 20% decrease in annual print spend.

  • Directed photo shoots and print runs to ensure top quality deliverables

Hand2Mind (formerly ETA/Cuisenaire)

Graphic Designer, August 2002-August 2004 

  • Developed engaging marketing and promotional advertisements to generate sales revenue and grow customer base

  • Leveraged proficiency in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator to design direct mail, catalogs, posters and other promotional materials

  • Prepared concepts for photoshoots, sourced talent and directed the shoot. Generated digital image files for use in digital and traditional printing

Townsend Agency

Production Artist, July 2001-August 2002 

  • Produced marketing materials such as direct mail, cookbooks, and brochures for companies such as Discover, Alberto Culver, Sears, Grainger, Verizon, and Zurich

  • Balanced design principles with strong working knowledge of client brand standards and specifications to successfully develop communication solutions

  • Collaborated with art director, writer and account manager to ensure customer project goals are met

  • Hustled to meet unexpected and difficult new project requests; resulting in winning multiple new business programs when competitors couldn't meet the ask

Apple Vacations

Graphic Designer, June 1999-July 2001 

  • Developed designs, concepts, and catalog layouts using new and/or predetermined templates

  • Selected vacation scenes or resort photos to best compliment the communication

  • Formatted print designs for multiple programs with varying specifications and visual identity

  • Attended press checks to ensure brand and product color consistency were retained

Education

Bachelor's Degree 
Applied Science, Graphic Design, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale IL 

ADDITIONAL INTERESTS

Breast Cancer Awareness committee (Quill)
Voting Awareness committee (Staples/Quill Corp)