While at Solve, I’ve had the pleasure of being the main production designer for Porsche model brochures, emails and high-end mailers. After receiving Porsche Germany’s model book files, every aspect must be converted to Porsche North America standards. This includes resizing the entire book, changing the CI to Porsche North American standards, “Americanizing” the copy, changing technical terms and features, updating specs and creating new layouts for specific North America features.

Emails always need to be model or feature specific. I build all emails to Porsche CI, marrying our copy and my chosen imagery, then delivering final files to the developer.

Challenges: I receive Porsche Germany files Porsche files that are all labeled in German. Layers, colors, links, everything. Porsche’s corporate identity is exact, down to the millimeter. Converting sizes and creating new layouts involves precision and attention to detail. Model books are often over 100 pages. While other people might dread such a task, I absolutely love working my way through the challenges and presenting a clean North American version on the other side.

Fun Fact: Traveling to the Porsche North American Experience Center, Atlanta might be my favorite all-time perk of the job, ever.

Design Credit: Porsche Germany, Hans Hanson

Solve is the AOR for Indian Motorcycles and Slingshot vehicles, which means not only did I had the opportunity to work on a little of everything (from print ads to model year brochures to web assets and dealer materials) but I also got to set up workflows and processes. (Which might be my two favorite words ever.)

Challenges: For Indian Motorcycles, almost every form of advertising overlapped each other at once. To revamp the website, we needed to retouch and resize 300 images at 5 breakpoints in 4 weeks. This happened while creating web and social ads in 12 different sizes for 3 different countries in 3 languages each. While all of the digital was happening we also continued to wrap up a 60 page print catalog, covering 12 models. 

Slingshot started off with several print ads, which moved quickly into countless versions of web banners and emails, and ended with a model year brochure. Along with the usual design programs, I was also trained in on how to build for and implement print ads and billboards for a web-based portal that Polaris uses to allow their dealers to customize their own advertising materials. 

Fun Fact: Polaris lent the agency both a Slingshot and a few motorcycles for the summer. I’m pretty sure my neighbors thought Batman was hiding out in my garage.

Design Credit: Sean Smith, Shannon Murphy, Hans Hansen, Pedro Bacic

Inspired Closets provided the opportunity for me to create and maintain over 50 full-page and half-page print ads for dealers to customize and submit to publications.

Challenges: Much of the photography that exists in the client library includes actual products, which would need to be retouched out.

Fun Fact: I love closet organization almost as much as I love file organization.

Design Credit: Hans Hanson

Intelligent Nutrients is a local company I've had the pleasure to work with for several years. Using a designer's working files, I create layouts and keylines for labels, outer packaging and merchandise packaging for various product lines. 

Challenges: Aligning brand standards, product ingredients and the creative execution to all live cohesively together.

Fun Fact: In the 4+ years I have been freelancing, I have never actually met anyone from Intelligent Nutrients in real life. All communication is via email and internal project management websites. This adds to the challenge and calls for intense unwavering organizational skills. For all I know, they could be quite lovely robots with adorable haircuts and impeccable cyborg-skin.

Design Credit: Amy Fastenau  and Ted Riley

Oh the joy, oh the intensity of Best Buy Gift Cards!

I enthusiastically volunteered to be the main chief digital artist for this account. (File nerd!)
I worked closely and directly with project managers, designers, creative directors, print production managers and printers to ensure that files were set up to achieve the desired print technologies.

I was quickly identified as the go-to person on this account, keeping templates and working files updated with an endless wave of brand standards changes. The team of designers who worked on these gift cards rotated, and so with every new round I would pull out my fine-toothed comb double check the work to ensure the brand standards were still intact. I would then work with each designer to update as needed.

Challenges: Applying Best Buy brand standards while keeping the integrity of the design, maintaining impeccable files under tight turnaround times.

Fun Fact: My most favorite Project Manager on the planet and I would create mockups of every single card and carrier to be presented to the client.

Every. Single. One.

Our mockups became legendary, mythical pieces of art, and it only cost us one fingertip in the making. Hers, not mine.

Design Credit: Poom Seitz, Sean Zindren, Jillian Frey, Crystal Jensen, Yves Roux, David Bennet, Eric Herberg, Chad Kirshbom and many more. 

From burger animals to burger boxes, I loved getting the opportunity to work on this account.

Challenges: Although it appears to be simple, this account had a few challenges. First of all, the animal murals would always need to be tweaked to fit in their designated spaces. Secondly when prepping files, it was important to know who was printing and on what substrate and which set of approved colors would be used so I could ensure accuracy in the keyline files. 

Fun Fact: The animals in the murals and the street names on the sound boards at each restaurant are unique and customized to add personalization that reflects that store’s neighborhood, creating a greater sense of community for guests.

Design Credit: Nick Smaasal, Eric Herberg

If there is one thing even better than receiving an amazing invitation, it’s helping to create one. These are several years’ worth of Fame Client Party invitations.

Challenges: I quickly became a (non)certified Master of the Illustrator Pathfinder Palette while preparing files for letterpress.

Fun Fact: I won $4 at the Fame Laundry House and have never met a photobooth that I didn’t like.

Design Credit: Jillian Frey, Poom Seitz, Crystal Jensen 

I love, love, love packaging and all of the upside-down ingredient lists, translations and other challenges that come with it. I have been known to create teeny tiny little mockups for reference and hoard them in my desk drawer. 

Challenges: Circular packaging, like individual cereal cups, which required doing every bit of type on a circular grid. Woofters.

Fun Fact: I did so many redesigns of packaging while at Brandow Creative that I knew the snack aisle of Lunds & Byerlys inside and out. 

Design Credit: Briana Auel, Kay Musech

Ok, I’m going to let you in on something here: I have noticed that digital artists groan when they are tasked with photo retouching, especially extensive environmental photo retouching. But secretly, deep down inside, we love it. It’s like driving through a snowstorm in a nice toasty 4-wheel drive beast, sipping a cup of coffee and enjoying the fact that “you’ll get there when you get there”.  There is nothing more satisfying that toggling your “after” layer on/off and amazing yourself with your results.

Challenges: Removing electrical, light fixtures and glare, need I say more?

Fun Fact: I really do love retouching. I’ve used it for choosing the color to paint my house, putting friends’ heads on Burt Reynolds’ body and picking out a new hairstyle.

Time Warner Cable emails require movie artwork curated from 15+ studios and TV networks and then transposing that to mobile pages. Everything must be perfect and coding-ready for the vendor. In three days’ time.

SuperValu banner ads needed creative to be gently coaxed to fit vendor specifications while keeping the integrity of the design. 

Fun Fact: You really can’t run from the Internet. Ever.

When you layout video on demand emails each week, you always know which new releases were coming out. Sometimes you stare at movie art so long that you convince yourself that not only have you seen the film, but you wrote and executive produced it as well.

When you work on grocery store banner adds, they pretty much decide for you what is for dinner. You can stare at taco fixings for so long before you text your husband that Wednesday is the new Taco Tuesday.

Design Credit: Yves Roux, Danielle Johnson