Maria Cheema
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About
Accomplished graphic designer with extensive experience in communications and marketing, from research to concept, content development and execution.
Key strengths include: creativity, integrated marketing strategy and social media marketing, website design and content management; effective project management and leadership experience.
Adept at design and development for the corporate identity and thoughtful positioning, while ensuring consistency of messaging across multiple platforms, within tight deadlines and juggling multiple priorities. Familiarity with HTML/CSS and UI Design.
Event management experience with orchestrating communication strategies with vendors and venue management.
TECHNOLOGY
Adobe InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator
Joomla!
Raiser’s Edge, Net Community SPARK and Online Express for e-marketing
Microsoft Office Suite including Microsoft Project
Adobe Premier and Macromedia Director, QuarkXpress and Flash
TV Eyes
CORE COMPETENCIES
Creative thinking
Photography
Branding
Crafting presentations
Deadline management
Taking initiative
Multitasking
Visual problem-solving
Commitment to excellence
Expert at Adobe Suite
Teamwork, motivation and team development
Organizational skills
Event planning
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Won awards by the Public Relations Society of America for various design projects and campaigns submitted over many years.
In an effort to inform immigrants, I led a project to produce flyers in multiple Asian languages, which included working with a translation service, researching and downloading foreign fonts, and having multiple native speakers proofread and approve content.
Recognized by Elixir technologies executive management for exceeding expectations in respect to rebranding and modernizing the company’s image while retaining its legacy. -
Education
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Certificate Web TechnologyManchester Community College2019 - 2020Project Management and UX Design focus.
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MS Communication DesignPratt Institute1996 - 1998Masters degree with Graphic Design concentration.
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Experience
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LV Desktop PublisherEast Hartford, CTJan 2020 - Present (4 years 11 months)
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Graphic DesignerHartford, CTFeb 2003 - Jul 2017 (14 years 5 months)Managed design needs for the largest anti-poverty community action agency in Connecticut
Conceptualized and designed internal and external marketing campaigns, annual reports, brochures, infographics, newsletters, advertisements, flyers, invitations, billboards, presentations and websites, while staying within restricted budgets.
Developed and managed social media content and graphics as needed.
Planning, marketing and execution of various company events and fundraisers.
Member of Integrating Marketing team to redesign the company’s website. Managed updates to internal and external websites.
Provided photography for various company events, along with selection, manipulation,
optimization and archiving of images. -
Graphic Design ManagerMar 1999 - Jan 2002 (2 years 10 months)Co-ordinated between its Ventura, CA and Islamabad, Pakistan offices
Project Manager for yearlong global Corporate Identity project:
Design solution based on research, internal and external surveys and target market.
Synthesized the requirements into a design brief as guidelines for the project.
Managed and participated in the design and production of the entire corporate identity including the logo, stationary,
brochures, packaging, training manuals and print ads, new mascot for the company, newsletters, and splash screens
for the software UIs.
Designed interactive tutorials and presentations, brochures, advertisements and posters for Trade Shows.
Gained experience in UI design and Icon design, learned VBScript to help programmers design better UIs for their software.
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Awards
“National Arts Local Color” Campaign. The pre- and post- event publicity, and the various aspects of the event itself won the the silver award in the category Campaigns, Events & Observances More Than 7 Days by the Public Relations Society of America (Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and Westchester County NY)
The 2006 CRT Annual Report won first prize (Gold) at the regional PRSA Mercury Awards by the Public Relations Society of America (Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and Westchester County NY) -
Industries
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Skills
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Elsewhere on the Web
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On Coroflot@mariacheema, member since 2015
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