An independent design practice focused on working with academia, nonprofits, startups, and small businesses. I excel at collaborating with clients and developing integrated solutions to solve business challenges.

Services include brand strategy, logo and identity systems, editorial design, website design, and print design.

Clients: The University of Kansas, GBA Systems Integrators, LLC; Shawn Brackbill, Photographer; Northwestern University Press; EDMC, Inc.; American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.; Left of the Dial Magazine; George Washington University.

» Responsible for hiring, managing, and developing a department of 24 full-time staff members in the areas of design, copywriting, editorial, photography, video, digital, and social.

» Served on a university advisory team on the launch of a revamped international recruitment strategy. Role included directing brand positioning and creative collateral for new and existing international markets.

» Led the development of an integrated approach to the 2014 Chancellor’s Report that included a printed report, microsite, paid and organic social, email, and video elements. With the goal of driving key stakeholders to the microsite, the report far exceed past benchmarks, increasing site traffic more than 13x year over year. Additionally, email open rates exceeded goals by an average of 11% and paid social surpassed the referral goal by 23%.

» Revamped the creative and content strategy for the university homepage, which communicates KU’s mission to prospective and current students, faculty and staff, legislators, and alumni. The content approach included a message calendar for slideshow features, video features, photo essays, and a robust social strategy.

» Managed relationships with external agencies responsible for media strategy and implementation.

» Managed the operating and marketing budget for the Marketing Communications department.

» Elevated to interim director to lead department reorganization, reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs. Created a new departmental structure, establishing defined career paths, an agency-like creative reporting system, and a more robust digital department with UX and digital strategist positions.

» Served on the university brand council tasked with developing online degree programs for the top-ranked public graduate program in Special Education. Role included directing brand architecture, voice, and creative collateral for the first of several online programs for the School of Education.

» Responsible for managing and directing 9 full-time staff members on the creative design, photography, and video teams.

» Directed the creative development and implementation of over 800 print and interactive projects for the Office of Admissions, Chancellor, Provost, and other campus departments on an annual basis.

» Collaborated with the Office of Admissions to overhaul the undergraduate recruitment campaign collateral to improve consistency in cross-channel messaging. The project included a redesign of materials to improve market relevance and brand awareness, the introduction of branded email templates, and the inclusion of personalized and targeted mailings. These efforts contributed to a 14% increase in freshman enrollment, as well as gains in the average test scores and diversity of incoming students.

» Led the creative direction of the University of Kansas’ first social media-centric student contest, the #exploreKU Social Media Triathlon. Campaign included Foursquare, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Vine, and evolved based on student media usage insights.

» Revised the University of Kansas visual identity standards, including revamping the color palette, revised departmental and unit signature set-ups, and a redesign of the university business card.

» Served as lead brand steward and creative consultant with university academic departments and administrative units to maintain brand consistency.

» Responsible for the design of print and interactive communications and campaigns for the Office of Strategic Communications, totaling over 600 projects annually.

» Interviewed, selected, and managed a team of 5 full-time designers to work on department-wide projects.

» Developed a new creative workflow process that allowed for more effective collaboration between peer departments, and the delivery of accurate work on short deadlines.

» Created the first brand identity guidelines manual for Alumni Relations and Development.

» Developed concepts and maintained identity standards for comprehensive design systems (invitations, signage, collateral) for university events.

» Directed a project team of writers, designers, and developers through the development and implementation of an email template system that ensured consistency in outgoing communications.

» Responsible for the development of materials for The Art Institute system which includes 32 schools throughout the U.S. and Canada.

» Art directed and designed school-specific recruitment campaigns, viewbooks, direct mail, banner ads, posters, broadcast advertising, exhibition graphics, and other promotional materials.

» Responsible for the development and design of marketing collateral for seasonal campaigns based on market research into current trends and inspiration.

» Designed seasonal catalogs, direct mail, CD packaging, fragrance packaging, shopping bags, and other promotional materials.

Division of Graphics, Design and Communication
Dean’s list, cum laude