Valerie A. King Pro

• Collaborated with a large marketing team to create a variety of digital and print deliverables, including event themes, logos/icons, flyers, brochures, invitations, online marketing assets, booklets, newsletters, and forms.
• Project managed, created, and executed up to 20 jobs worked consistently during a week, for seven different divisions. Completed over 100 projects in under seven months, including many unique and creative icons, infographics, and long-lasting imagery.
• Created a large, expensive trade show booth display, and a large voter advocacy project, with many elements. Other numerous projects included: billboards, TV, digital and print ads, outdoor camp maps, and other support materials for the largest social services non-profit in Minnesota.

• Guided each book design from the initial design/s through the production cycle, which included meeting multiple deadlines, and adhering to strict internal styles and procedures while maintaining high-quality production.
• Completed three to five (approx. 300 pages) books a month; along with getting praise for providing a fresh engaging style to the overall look and feel of the interiors, utilizing key designer expertise with Adobe InDesign.
• Created appealing trade book interiors, utilizing graphics and many creative unit, chapter, and section openers, along with new ingenious ways of breaking up usually boring grayscale pages into a pleasant reading experience.

• Successfully designed/produced 40+ textbooks using editorial storytelling techniques throughout, including helping transform newer titles into an online learning management system starting in 2018. Served as art director and was the lead team designer for these complex learning programs, which included college and adult learning level textbook covers, interiors, ancillaries, and digital assets for Paradigm Education Solutions and JIST Career Solutions.
• Created and led production on marketing catalogs for both print and digital, assets for digital sales and various swag; supplied and managed final asset files and created/managed instructions for company-wide usage while providing ongoing, immediate support to marketing and stakeholders.
• Rebranded Paradigm and JIST Publishing in 2014. Successfully collaborated with CEO, senior management, marketing, and web development to create new branding for both divisions; including; logos, websites, eBooks, mobile, marketing, trade show booths, and other assets. Managed brand identity for company-wide consistency.
• Created info-graphics and edited Illustrator and Photoshop files for several large textbooks, which allowed the company to save money as these elements were previously created and edited by external vendors.
• Imagined and designed 12+ award-winning book covers and interiors allowing editorial and marketing to praise efforts for great visual appeal, user readability, and product cohesiveness.
• Rebranded Paradigm and JIST again after the sale of the company to Kendall Hunt in February 2020. Successfully collaborated remotely for 8 months, continuing to design and execute large textbooks within agile project teams; and was the key designer in quickly and efficiently creating marketing assets for print and digital.

• Ideated, conceptualized and executed design concepts for the fast-paced, dynamic graphic design agency.
• Created eye-catching print and web materials, along with mock-ups and final presentation materials.
• Worked with diverse clients such as 3M and the CHS brands: energy and nutrition.
• Created and produced deliverables including annual reports, advertising, catalogs, webpage design, gift card design, mailers, posters, brochures, and more.

* Independently managed creative projects to produce outstanding branded marketing materials.
* Managed everything from concept to production. Strategizing and developing concepts for promotion, while liaising with external clients. Created striking, creative and consistently branded marketing materials for Albarella Design, United Banker's Bank, Welland Laike Communication, City of Cottage Grove and many others. Successfully utilized strong skills of metaphorical visual design, creative layout design, photography, and writing (including writing creative copy).
* Maintained a 12 year exclusive designer relationship with United Banker's Bank and was able to produce many beautiful annual reports (with no errors) for eight years running, along with all of the company's marketing collateral, advertising, website design needs-defned company branding, with top notch results.
* Art Direction of all projects along with Marketing leadership team and freelance writer collaboration on major projects. Photography Director and actual photographer on several projects.
* Illustrated maps, logos, and vector art, saving companies time and money.