What a lot of people don’t know about me when they first come in contact with my work is that graphic design is a second career for me. After graduating from college with a degree in journalism, I worked for a number of years as an event planner in the university setting.
My first big job out of school was for what was then called The John Glenn Institute for Public Service and Public Policy (now the John Glenn College of Public Affairs) and I was in charge of their events from head to toe. Which meant I sourced speakers, found locations, coordinated travel, and yes, designed my own advertising.
My family and me with Senator John Glenn and Annie Glenn after his lecture which I planned and executed.
Working for the Glenn Institute was an incredible opportunity - Senator Glenn and his wife Annie were wonderful people and truly deserving of the American hero status. And I got to organize and be behind the scenes for events for lectures by Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and former Vice President Al Gore (giving an early version of An Inconvenient Truth presentation), a nationally televised gubernatorial debate, and even a lecture by John Glenn himself (for which my entire family flew from the east coast to see).
Eventually I decided I wanted to be closer to family and moved to NYC to take a job at Columbia University, also planning events, but I was also realizing my heart was in the creative side of my work - designing all the materials needed for my events such as posters, adverting, staging, and the printed programs. I decided to apply to a somewhat new program at Parsons the New School for Design which was geared towards people mid-career who were making a change to become designers and the rest, as they say, is history.
What all this all means is that I bring my clients an exceptional level of organization and professionalism at every step along the way. I keep to deadlines, can help with finessing and writing copy, and understand the real world applications for which my work is required. I think this is really important for potential clients to know, as I understand they have to put a lot of trust into me to bring their vision to life.
Check out my portfolio and reviews to see how I take both my creative and organizational skills to bring my clients visions to life.