University of North Dakota; Grand Forks, ND; Bachelor of Arts, English
Central High School; Grand Forks, ND; Graduated with honors
Adobe Creative Suite (Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat Distiller, and Bridge), Macromedia Flash, Soundslides (a production tool for still image and audio web presentations using Flash player), Sitegrinder (A Photoshop plug-in by Medialab that builds websites, and layers in Macromedia Flash), QuarkXPress, Harris, Kermit, Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, Entourage, Excel) various FTP programs, Silverfast scanning software, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Netscape, AGFA RIP software; most of my experience is on the Mac OS X platform, but I have also had experience with the PC platform as well.
2005-Present
The Ithaca Journal - Newspaper Graphic Designer/Advertising Spec Artist/Blogger
Contact: Allison Kaiser
In my current position my time is split between the advertising and news department at The Ithaca Journal. In the news department, I act as a graphics reporter. In this position I design graphics for daily news stories including original artwork, locator maps, graphs, charts, and other design elements to help illustrate a news story. Primarily, I use Quark Xpress, Illustrator and Photoshop. If any problems arise, I troubleshoot and try to find either a solution or at least a work-around for the time being.
Other duties include: editing Neighbors - I design, layout, and edit this 12-page broadsheet weekly newspaper made up photo pages, community news stories, and local advertising. Ticket, Buzz, and various other special sections: I design the cover art for these sections. I size and download photos, create clipping paths, create graphics in Illustrator, and Photoshop. Ticket is a weekly tabloid insert focusing on Arts & Entertainment. Buzz is bi-weekly and is a hip night-life niche publication targeting 18-24 year-olds. As part of the Ithaca Journal’s initiative to do more product with web components, I designed the 2006 Year in Review section, and I also created a website for it using sitegrinder. I have also taken company sponsored classes in the use of Flash and have created Soundslides multimedia project for a Martin Luther King, Jr. student poetry and art contest. I also write a blog for the Buzz website.
In the advertising department I build spec ads, and create advertorial tabloid special sections including a bridal section, and a welcome to the area section. For these sections I use Adobe InDesign and Acrobat Distiller in addition to the software described before.
2001-August 2005
Ad Coordinator, Ad Builder in the Advertising Department
Grand Forks Herald, North Dakota (a Knight-Ridder Company)
Contact: Linda Lande
Job Duties, Ad Builder: Build ads for several different publications including the Grand Forks Herald and the Grand Forks Air Force Base Leader, Page layout and design for Wheels (a weekly motor publication), edit stories for content and clarity and accuracy, write headlines and select stories for Wheels, troubleshoot outside ads e-mailed to the paper to make sure they are built and will run correctly (accounts for roughly 15-20% of the daily paper ads), work with clients to help them e-mail and ftp their ads, solve any problems with ads or advertising that will not print, help with in-house training of advertising production staff
Job Duties, Ad Coordinator: work with sales team to accomplish administrative duties, roughly layout paper, make sure all ads are accounted for, checking with finance department to make sure all ads financially are able to run, checking with advertising production staff to make sure all ads are built and in by deadline, checking with advertising sales staff if there is a problem to be solved.
1998-2001
Director of Marketing, Inside Sales, and Drapery Sales
HB Sound & Light, Inc., Grand Forks, ND
Contact: Mike Drees
Job Duties: Decide and implement advertising and strategy plans for small production company, purchase advertising and manage advertising budget, produce monthly flyer, oversee mailing and distribution, design outside advertising and banners, inside sales, facilitate sales of corporate rentals, organize stagehand work, organize help and workers for various events, drapery sales, manage drapery shop, fulfill drapery orders, price textiles and sales items, order from various sound and lighting supply vendors, use standard office equipment to facilitate sales, troubleshoot any problems on the fly to help facilitate a performance.
Dec 1995-1998, and occasionally beyond
Layout and Design editor
High Plains Reader, Grand Forks, ND
Contact: Ian Swanson, John Strand or Raul Gomez
Just before the newspaper building burned to the ground in the flood of 1997, I drove the computers that the current issue was on first to a small town named Grafton 40 minutes away during an ice storm. Grafton lost power for a week, but they had enough reserve power to turn on the electricity grid by grid for two hours at a time. During that time, I waited for the power to turn on and work on the next issue. After that issue was done, and we found that the phone lines would not transmit the issue, so I drove with the computers and Raul Gomez to Fargo, a city over 90 miles away to get the newspaper printed. Job Duties: Layout of small alternative newspaper, work with editor to decide on local content, format newspaper, design advertising, design info graphics andgraphics for stories, copy edit and check for accuracy, send final paper off to press to be printed, check bluelines and work with printer for optimum quality, later worked with new owners on and off again to help publish paper weekly when they needed someone to fill-in for layout or design, helped to implement new hardware and software upgrades, fixed various computer problems.