About Me

Commission Arts is a service-oriented design studio offering customized design & illustration with more than 15 years of experience in collateral, corporate identity, direct marketing, and brand development and design to help reach and captivate your core audience.

Effective design goes beyond impressive image, it must clearly communicate the qualities and values that differentiate your business from your competitors. Commission Arts digs deeper to deliver a more relevant and memorable message expressed through a sophisticated and clear presentation style that embodies the personality of your brand and engages your best customers.

My Experience

Principal

Commission Arts Design and Illustration

September 2005 - present

Art direction and design of project proposals, branding, marketing collateral, and promotional materials for various clients in the engineering and fine art industries.

Creative Director

KitchenWorks Inc. and HomeWorks/Renewal by Andersen

San Francisco Bay Area, CA

April 2005October 2008

Established in-house advertising department from the ground up for a two-hundred employee home improvement company with a joint advertising spend of approximately seven million dollars annually. Designed entire infrastructure of department including floor plan and computer networking arrangement, design of database systems for project, marketing, accounting, and photography management, plus the creation of marketing material inventories and distribution systems. Hired and managed team of full-time and part-time staff, plus worked with numerous off-site contractors. Involved in media buying and contract negotiations, campaign performance analysis, quarterly planning of marketing initiatives, brand building, product photography direction, and the development of creative briefs and marketing presentations to sales teams. Guided creative team and strategized with marketing and sales directors on advertising and marketing plans as well as coordinated production and promotion schedules.

Project specific tasks included the concepting, process establishment, and presentation of employee referral programs; copywriting and design for mini-websites and landing pages for contests, giveaways, internet ads, email broadcasts, and PPC campaigns; development of customer loyalty and cross-marketing direct mail programs, plus branding and collateral for new business divisions.

Art Director/Graphic Designer

P&H Creative Group

Petaluma, CA

March 2000April 2005

Management of agency accounts from art direction and design to production and printing. Duties include hiring and overseeing staff of designers, commissioning projects to freelance artists, illustrators, and copywriters, working closely with print brokers and vendors as well as account

servicing and campaign presentation to clients. Agencys second-in-command. Concept and design of internet and print advertising, direct-mail, web design, tradeshow displays, b2b and b2c brochures, and identity design in the insurance, foodservice, home-improvement and other industries.

Art Director/Graphic Designer

Gospel Light Publications

Ventura, CA

July 1997December 1999

Served as Art Director and Designer for in-house creative department. Developed trade and consumer advertising for the promotion of books, curricula, and videos targeting the adult and youth Christian markets. Responsible for concept and development of campaigns utilizing catalogs, brochures, national print-ads, pop-displays, logo design, illustration, posters, and direct-mail pieces. Commissioned freelance creative, managed studio photo shoots and hired modeling talent. Communicated with print vendors and worked closely with the companys marketing and sales teams.

Production Artist

United States Sales Corporation

Northridge, CA

August 1996July 1997

Prepared and created both camera-ready art and electronic mechanicals for a wide variety of direct-mail components including brochures, BREs, sweepstakes packages, game pieces, and inserts. Handled corrections at blueline stage, marked-up printer specifications, worked with four-color and spot conversions, and made graphic and photographic touch-ups. Large work volume required a sharp attention

to detail, precision, and efficiency under tight deadlines.

Graphic Design Internship

Azusa Pacific University

Azusa, CA

November 1994May 1996

Developed catalogs, flyers, direct mailers, logos, and promotional graphics for universitys communications department as departments first design intern. Reported to Art Director and Communications Director.

Freelance Design and Illustration

November 1994August 1996

Identity design, music packaging and press kits, illustration, promotional item design, and posters. Clients include: Healdsburg Animal Shelter, Azusa Pacific University, Studio B Productions, New Life Community Church, Soccer Odyssey, Mountain West Communications, John Becker Construction, and English for Professionals.



Core Technical Skills

CS3 Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat Professional, QuarkXPress, MS Word, MS Excel. Drawing, painting and illustration skills.

Additional Experience

Knowledge of HTML/CSS, PowerPoint presentation and Flash animation development, FileMakerPro 8 database building and management, website SEO principles, familiarity with Google and Yahoo search campaign management and reporting, Google analytics, email marketing service provider selection and processes, FTP server setup, domain name purchasing and selling.

Education

Beginning HTML and CSS Class

Santa Rosa Junior College, CA

2008

Bachelor of Arts, Graphic Design

Azusa Pacific University, CA

19941996

Workshops/Seminars

Managing Multiple Projects, Objectives, and Deadlines

Skill Path Seminars

San Francisco, CA

How to Buy Online Advertising

Laredo Group Training Seminar

San Francisco, CA

Creative Advertising

Saatchi & Saatchi

Los Angeles, CA