My Background

A designer since college days, I've been providing graphic design for marketing materials
since 2001.


I've produced direct mail postcards, posters, fliers, brochures, logos, business cards, newsletters, web sites, and intranet sites for a variety of organizations including Nextel Partners, Express Scripts, and Toastmasters International, as well as for small businesses.


I also taught design. My Master of Fine Arts degree is in Theatre Design, and I taught design to university students for several years. Following my teaching career, I got my certification in computer programming, which I then used to write educational materials for Information Technology departments, working as a contractor for many clients over the course of more than ten years. During this period as a writer, I always brought layout and design elements to the table in anything I produced.


My graphics-related work during this time included layout of User Manuals and Quick Reference Cards, creating project intranets, creating computer art for Computer-Based Training (CBT) modules, and producing design elements for custom software (for example, buttons, icons, and window tabs). I've managed entire projects, I'm conversant in the life cycle of a project, and I clearly understand the development process and the importance of being a collaborative team player.


Today I use the same design principles I once taught, enhanced by training in Direct Mail layout by American Writers and Artists, Inc. (AWAI). I use industry-standard design and graphics software packages, and have mentored others in how to use them to create their own designs. Now a freelance graphic designer, I've come full circle and returned fulltime to the design world.


Personal

Although I was raised in Kansas and Nebraska, and taught in Texas and Florida, today I live in a small rural town in Minnesota USA, just west of Minneapolis, with my novelist husband John and a menagerie of dogs and cats, and I enjoy reading, sewing, and travel.