I am a versatile designer, illustrator, & animator adept at crafting great experiences in print & online. I love creating work that engages, inspires, & connects.
My well-rounded experience includes freelance and in-house print and web design, creating content and design for private, non-profit, and corporate clients. My work includes all aspects of content and visual design, including CSS, HTML, UI, UX, research, storyboards, wireframes, photography, illustration, package and publication design, writing and editing.
Microsoft Azure
Visual Design
West Coast Poverty Center / University of Washington
Visual Design
Copacino + Fujikado
Production Design
Art on the Green
UX/UI & Visual Design
Catalyst Kitchens
Visual Design
Zillow Group
Presentation Slides
Motion
Animation
Birds & Bees & Kids
Web & Print Design
Project NEON
Web & Print
Medieval Women's Choir
Print Design
Northwest Heritage Resources
Print and Packaging
Instructional & Education
Print and Packaging
Client list: Northwest Heritage Resources, Sound Discipline, Birds + Bees + Kids, Art Wolfe, Inc., Pike Place Market Foundation, Pike Market Childcare and Preschool, Medieval Women’s Choir, Conflict Resolution Center of the Inland Northwest, Cranium, Inc., Modern Dog, Citizens’ Council for the Arts, Project NEON/Seattle Counseling Service, ZAAZ, Media Partners, Inc., Left Right Forward, West Coast Poverty Center.
Illustration
My illustrations have appeared all over the world. Editorial, kid-lit, publishing, and corporate clients have commissioned or licensed my traditional and digital illustrations to enhance their projects and products. Experienced working with art directors, design teams, and committees. Ongoing illustration assignment: a weekly column for The Seattle Review of Books, “Portrait Gallery.”
Key accomplishment: Published in the New York Times. Head Robotmaker: proprietor of the Robot of the Month club, a subscription print service that I ran for 5 years and shipped worldwide.
St. John's Well Child
Illustration
Seattle Review of Books
Portrait Illustration
Robot of the Month Club
Subscription Print Club
Client list:The New York Times Op-Ed, The Stranger, Travel & Leisure, The Seattle Review of Books, St. John Well Child, New Star Press, Quarto Gallimard, Hudson Valley Magazine, Clients and Profits, Birds + Bees + Kids, LLC., Pike Place Market Foundation, Pike Market Childcare and Preschool, Medieval Women’s Choir, Cranium, Inc., Citizens’ Council for the Arts, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Art on the Green is a yearly arts festival in Coeur d'Alene, ID put on by the Citizens' Council for the Arts, a volunteer run non-profit devoted to promoting arts and arts education in the area. The festival is now in its 49th year. All profits from the festival are put back into the community in the form of sponsorships, educational opportunities and support. I have been a volunteer with this organization since I was a child (first job: shucking corn in the corn booth.) The festival was such a success that other festivals have sprung up around this first one to capitalize on its popularity.
The organization has had a website since 1998 (which has undergone multiple refreshes and redesigns) but there has never been an in-depth review of how well the site has been working for its users or for its internal stakeholders. This year we were able to step back and assess the website and associated tools and make some positive changes.
The website (and auxiliary social network) serve several changing purposes throughout the yearly festival cycle.
Publicity and promotion of the festival and its participating artists
Artist, entertainment and vendor applications and opportunities
Volunteer coordination and recruitment
Year-round mission of promoting arts and arts education in the community.
Process:
What we did:
Reviewed existing site
Interviewed core volunteers/internal users
Sought feedback from community/external users
What we learned
Paths to specific information were difficult to find
Volunteers spent a lot a time answering queries that shouldn't need personal response
Messaging of mission and history was inconsistent
Non-tech savvy volunteers needed to be able to modify site
Graphics could better reflect the festival environment
Limited resources ($ and people)
Site architecture needed to be flexible depending upon what sections need to be primary.
Social media integration could be improved: blog cross posting to facebook and twitter
Mailing list signups are important
What we did
Eliminated redundancies in content
Added FAQs for primary sections (Festival- and Application-oriented)
Devised more clear pathways to core information for site visitors, including call-to-actions.
Created new illustrations using iconic features of the festival such as the park setting, juried show tent, and festival food.
Used turn-key web solution (Squarespace) to allow for easy updates by volunteers.
Integrated third-party solutions for artist application administration (ZAPP), mailing list (MailChimp), and contests (Survey Monkey)
How did it work?
Volunteers reported a significant reduction in direct queries
Signups increased during festival
The site was easily updated by volunteers with news and publicity information.
Feedback was easily received via contact forms on website.
We will continue to build out features and sections on the site
Blue Sky Org Goals
A campaign to increase community involvement
Implement fundraising outside of the three-day festival period
Create a grant application process
Festival App
Date: April 2017
Client: Citizen's Council for the Arts
Category: UI/UX, Illustration
Art Festival App
Interaction Design
As a long time member of the Citizens' Council for the Arts I've had the opportunity to watch artists' and festival-goers' interaction with the festival and organization transform from print-only engagement to a combination of online, mobile, and print. The printed program is still an important on-the-ground, accessible way to get festival info, but our site analytics show that significant number of people are now visiting the website during the festival to access festival, artist, and entertainment information. This is a great opportunity to create an app that will support people who attend festival (which in turn will support the artists who show at the event.) This is a blue-sky project but it was a wonderful exercise to think about what an app for this festival would look like without constraints. It also has value as a proof-of-concept should the organization ever apply for grants to produce an app.
Process
I started out by considering what information people would be interested in accessing with an app, as well as who the users would be (and if there are overlaps or disconnects among the different users). Research was a combination of informal interviews and analytics review. Reviewing the analytics from the past 2 years showed that traffic on the website increased between 300-400% on festival days, and that the primary content accessed was visit information (location and times) and the entertainment schedule. In my role as a core volunteer I have access to the festival post-mortem information and was able to gather a lot of useful notes on what festival-goers wanted, their requests and complaints, and any other feedback. I also researched other festival apps and apps designed as destination guides to see what others were creating.
Visitors to the Art on the Green festival have 3 primary goals:
Find art/artists
Enjoy free entertainment
Eat fair food
An app should serve those main goals in addition to providing quick and easy access to visit information (dates, times, parking, rules, etc.)
Who are the users?
I identified 3 types of primary users:
Art Lovers
Families
Day Trippers / Good Timers
In considering these users, I was able to sketch out some quick and dirty user flows.
Followed by some more expanded screen explorations / rough and tumble wireframe.
App Features:
Supporting current programs and structure, and blue sky projects*
Artist list (search by name, category, add to favorites)
Client: Citizens' Council for the Arts/Art on the Green
Category: Interaction Design
Project Name
Sub title
Project Description
| CD package design.
| CD package design.
| CD package design.
| CD package design.
Zillow Group
Presentation Deck Slide Design (internal)
Creative Brief: Design and illustrate presentation deck slides for end-of-year internal team report for the Mortgage group.
The team wanted to demonstrate some metrics in a fun and engaging way that went above and beyond charts and text. The final designs included simple flat style illustrations with texture and had room for the internal team to add proprietary data.
Tools: Sketch, pencil and paper.
Date: November 2017
Client: Zillow Group
Category: Design, Illustration
Motion
Animation, flipbooks, and other moving images
Below are some bumpers and other animations.
Reading Snow Person animated gif for The Seattle Review of Books
digital, Photoshop animation
Jet Pack Robot animated gif
gouache on paper, Photoshop animation
The Witch animated gif
digital illustration, Photoshop animation
Birds + Bees + Kids Flipbook
pen and ink, flipbook
Explainer excerpt "Banks"
After Effects
Explainer excerpt "Banks"
After Effects
Small and Silly Gifs
Birds + Bees + Kids
Take the sting out of talking to your kids about the birds and bees. Website development, book design, identity and more.
Amy Lang's sex education consulting business teaches parents how to tackle this challenging subject with confidence. Throughout the many years I worked with Amy and her evolving brand, we strove to create engaging material for her one-on-one consulting and institutional workshop programs. Projects included online Q&As, printed handbooks and guides, videos, dvd packaging, postcards, pamphlets, and more.
Birds + Bees + Kids Logo
identity
BBK Website
web design
Birds + Bees + Kids Guide
book design
Birds + Bees + Kids Ask Anything Journal
book design
Birds + Bees + Kids Packaging and collateral
print
Project NEON
Website development using Movable Type for this harm reduction website. This website is geared towards M4M who use methamphetamine. This site is for people 18 years and older and is NSFW. ProjectNeon.org
Project NEON needed a robust CMS driven website that they could easily edit and update. At the time Movable Type was the best solution for their goals and budget. The backend of this site uses multiple blog installations to handle the different templates needed. For this project with I worked with SCS educators, the King County HIV/AIDS program, and peer counselors to develop the content strategy for the website. My design and dev duties included creating custom HTML and stylesheets, graphics, and icon design. The visual design has changed a few times over the years, with the aesthetic evolving from DIY/zine to slightly more polished but still funky to appeal to the very specific audience.
Project NEON Website
ICON design
A peek at the backend
A Flash game for the "Tweakroom"
Medieval Women's Choir
Non-profit Organization | Print and Package Design
For over 25 years, the Medieval Women's Choir has been one of the only non-professional choirs in the United States to specialize in medieval repertoire. Each year, they perform three concerts, sharing medieval jewish sephardic music,
the music of St. Hildegard of Bingen, and more with their audience and core subscribers. In the ten years that I have worked with the choir, we've collaborated on CDs, brochures, postcards, programs and advertising for this musical non-profit.
Season Postcard 2017
postcard design
River of Red
CD package design
Season Postcard Series
postcard design
25th Anniversary Brochure
brochure print design
Northwest Heritage Resources
Non-profit Organization | Print and Package Design
Northwest Heritage Resources endeavors to provide access to a wide variety of cultural experiences: concerts, dances, readings, exhibitions, recordings, guidebooks, and more. I worked with this non-profit to design the packaging for their Native American Stories of Washington CD series, featuring recordings of stories and legends told by some of Washington state’s most important Native American tradition bearers. These five projects included multi-panel packaging (traditional, digi-, and ecofriendly cardboard folders), as well as multi-page booklet inserts that featured translations of the texts, photography and photo-composites.
Virginia Beavert, Tiinmami Timnanaxt
Native American Stories of Washington | CD package design.
Other CDs in the series:
Other projects: Book design and production, poster design, postcards.
Cascade Loop South Guidebook
50 page guidebook with CD
Whidbey Island Guide
CD package with 20 page booklet
Whidbey Island Guide
Interior booklet detail
St. John's Wellchild
Non-profit Organization | Illustration | Art Direction by Reyes Melendez
St. John's Wellchild is a non-profit community health center that serves families and individuals in South and Central Los Angeles. Their mission is to "eliminate health disparities and foster community well-being by providing and promoting the highest quality care in South Los Angeles." The creative brief from AD Reyes Melendez specified friendly artwork that would represent the people that St. John's serves, with a focus on the vibrancy of the neighborhoods, diversity of age, economics, and gender identity.
Toolkit: pencil, paper, digital (Photoshop)
Annual Report Tearsheet
Wrap cover, interior pages and map..
Process Sketches
Wrapcover composition explorations
Neighbors
Interior full page illustration
Seattle Review of Books
Online Publication
The Seattle Review of Books is an online publication devoted to books, reading, and all things literary. These portrait illustrations are part of my weekly column, Portrait Gallery
Toolkit: pencil, paper, gouache
Sherman Alexie
Judy Blume
Maged Zaher
Octavia Butler
EJ Koh
Ivar Haglund
Patti Smith
Nancy Pearl
Harriet Powers
Robot of the Month
Print Subscription Club
The Robot of the Month Club was a print club that ran from January 2008 through December 2013 and featured 72 original images of robots. Each month I would paint a new robot image to be printed on watercolor paper and shipped to my subscribers. At its peak I had over 30 subscribers worldwide, shipping to North America, Europe, and Australia. Here are a few of my favorites.
Toolkit: pencil, paper, gouache
Instructional & Education
Print and Packaging
For this print design and production project I worked with the art director and educational designer to create the multi-page handbooks, guides, CD and DVD packaging and more to support this corporate video training series, basing the look and feel on the graphics and titles created by the motion designer.
Client: Media Partners, Inc. Toolkit: InDesign, Photoshop
Employee Handbook
36-page printed employee handbook. 5.5" x 8.5".
Catalyst Kitchens
Visual Design
The Catalyst Kitchens team needed some graphics for their member-facing website. This year they will be producing six educational content sections to support their mission as "a team of social impact entrepreneurs who are committed to breaking the cycle of joblessness, poverty, and hunger." With a consistent look and feel, the visual design of these graphics will help subscribing member organizations easily identify educational and support content.
Toolkit: digital, SketchApp
Date: December 2017
Client: Catalyst Kitchens
Category: Visual Design, Illustration
Microsoft Azure / Indigo Slate
Visual design & production design
Expanded brand and product line with design and layout for e-books, infographics and white papers for the Microsoft Azure brand. Maintained strict brand fidelity with clean and modern layout.
Toolkit: InDesign, Illustrator
Infographic
Microsoft Azure Regulated Industries Infographic and white paper
E-book layout
Microsoft Azure e-book layout
Date: June 2018
Client: Microsoft Azure / Indigo Slate
Category: Visual Design, Illustration
West Coast Poverty Center/University of Washington
Report Layout, visual design and infographics
Created information graphics and designed layout for multi-page report for presentation to the City of Seattle and stakeholders for this university
research group.
Toolkit: InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator
Report and infographics
Long form report layout, infographics, and visual design
Layout detail
Long form report layout, infographics, and visual design
Layout detail
Long form report layout, infographics, and visual design
Date: March 2018
Client: West Coast Poverty Center
Category: Visual Design, layout, infographics
Copacino + Fujikado
Premera, Holland America, Seattle Children's
Designed and prepared production files for out-of-home advertising
(billboards, transit, digital boards, posters), animated and static banner ads,
print advertising (magazine and newsprint), and presentation design for
major brands (cruise, healthcare, and sports.)