Education:
Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, California State University, Fullerton (2005)

Experience:
After earning my Bachelor’s Degree, I continued my employment with Decorative Wood Products, Inc. (decorativewoods.com) as their bookkeeper and expanded my duties within the company to include design projects. My primary projects completed during this time was rebranding the company with a logo redesign, and instituting a brochure design, as well as creating their first product catalog within their new branding style. Employed currently, as a freelance artist I have been asked to design a new website which is in production as well as continue in the production of future product catalogs.

In November 2005, I accepted a position as a Graphic Designer with Stampington & Comapany, LLC. (stampington.com), an Arts & Crafts Publishing Company located in Laguna Hills, California, where I quickly earned the title of “Assistant Art Director”. My primary duties in this position included the design and production of one or more of the many publications published per month, as well as the project management and design direction of the in-house design team in conjunction with Art Director.

In April of 2007, I began employment at Idea Hall (ideahall.com), a Public Relations/Ad Agency located in Costa Mesa. Hired as the lead Production Artist, I assisted the Senior Art Director in all projects assigned to the art department. Primary duties included recreating all design comps as press-ready InDesign files or HTML websites, and design and production of marketing materials under the direction of the Senior Art Director.

In addition to my in-house design experience, I have had the pleasure of working with a few companies as a freelance designer. Freelance projects have included a business card and eblast design for Reptek, Inc. (reptek.net), a website redesign for Hurricanes Bar & Grill (hurricanesbargrill.com), an enewsletter for World Health Products, Inc.’s product Detoxamin (detoxamin.com), and continuing photo manipulation and diagram illustration requests from Red Lips for Courage Communications, Inc. (eileenpaulin.com).

Design Philosophy:
It is necessary that every part of my design exist for a logical reason; I must present a design that has a conceptual base. Parts may allow artists’ intuition, but on the whole the elements are included because the design concept warrants it, not because they are aesthetically pleasing. Because of this, I strongly believe that a Graphic Designer should be able to explain “why” they included an element in a design, and what type of effect they intended to produce.

My ultimate goal is to be an effective designer, who is able to please each client I come in contact with. I attempt to adapt to any situation that presents itself, and I am able to express this flexibility through my design styles and techniques. Although primarily working in the digital format, I am capable of creating artwork by hand, using drawing, painting, or collage. My design process, which includes thorough research of any subject presented, makes it possible for me to create an endless variety of image and text combinations, as well as creative conceptual ideas. This becomes the basis for the designs that I produce, all the while keeping the client’s needs and taste in mind.

A Graphic Designer’s worth is determined by his/her design’s effectiveness in moving people to action. The end product is a joint effort guided by the designer’s wish to produce art and by the client’s design needs and preferences, as well as the two party’s effectiveness in communication. Without an understanding of the purpose and audience of the final design, the opportunity to produce a logical concept and appropriate execution of this concept is missed. My hope is that, through my design process and creative concepts, I am able to produce art that is effective in accomplishing whatever goal and action is intended, doing so in a new and refreshing way.

Click HERE to download a PDF of my resume.
Contact Me About a Design Project: kkannedy@gmail.com