Elizabeth Matthews

Art Director / Lead Designer

East Greenwich, RI, USA

Work Experience

Paramount Greetings

Designer

Created concepts and designs for everyday and seasonal greeting card collections and lines. Worked with director of planning and visual trend to envision and balance greeting card lines. Followed color, design, stationery, greeting card, fashion and home decor product trends developing concept boards, sketches and specification sheets. Worked directly with freelance and in-house designers ensuring that art execution and deadlines were met. Managed greeting card collection lines from initial ideas to final art. Illustrated final greeting card product art.
2002 - 2005 Rhode Island, United States

The Melton Agency

Art Director

Responsible for coordinating with clients, art directing photographers, and working with copy editors to created printed and online marketing materials (newspaper ads, brochures, billboards, web banners and sell sheets) and create individualized branding strategies.
Clients included: Danversbank, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Lawrence General Hospital, and Health Alliance Hospital
2006 - 2008 Massachusetts, United States

Gartner Greetings

Art Director

Lead design team on projects, coordinate design reviews, research trend, market, and sales data to create reports, acting liaison between clients, IT department, and production department, and overseeing product launch. Create artwork for stationery, giftware, home decor and customizable cards which are sold at major retailers.
Responsible for creating physical mock-ups of very detailed hand-made/embellished designs, creating repeating patterns for use on bags and card designs, assisting with designing and organizing materials for presentations, attending design review meetings, setting up card files for production, being proficient in type setting and typographical design, and maintaining a thorough understanding of value applications such as foil, glitter, silk screen ink, foam tab attachments, die cuts and laser cuts.
Clients include: Walmart, Costco, HP, Staples, CVS, Jostens, Fuji, TJX, Bella Baby, Michaels, Chatbooks and Snapfish
March 2008 - March 2019 Rhode Island, United States

Children's Books

Children's Book Illustrator and Writer

-Candlewick Press, Boston, MA, 2007 “Different Like Coco”
(A biography picture book of Coco Chanel)

-Hyperion Press, NYC, 2009 Illustrated “First Ballet”
2007 - Rhode Island, United States

Freelance

Designer/Illustrator

Freelance Illustrator and product designer.
March 2019 - Present North Smithfield, Rhode Island, United States

Education

Rhode Island School Of Design (RISD)

BFA Illustration

Awarded a scholarship and senior year awarded the "Faculty Choice Award"
1996 - 2001 Rhode Island, United States

Awards

Louie Award

nominated for a design for Paramount Cards

2006

Louie Award

Awarded Louie for a sympathy design I completed for Designer Greetings

2009

Skills

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Advertising Design, Art Direction, Children's Books, Corel Painter, Digital Illustration, Ftp, Photo Manipulation, Traditional Illustration, Traditional Painting, Catalogs,