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Art Director / Graphic Designer

Creative & Design

I'm a California resident with a BFA in Illustration from the Laguna College of Art & Design, my work experience has taken me from Photo Re-toucher, to Production Artist, to Graphic Designer/Illustrator.

- Design of marketing campaigns, print ads, lookbooks, catalogs, in-store signage and event collateral
- Use Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign and MS Office on a daily basis to create high end graphics for world distribution
- Prepare press ready files and deliver to vendor
- Work within tight brand guidelines and tight deadlines
- Retouch images and make selections from photoshoots

- Manage all aspects of the Art Department from asset and product creation to file organization and marketing
- Created new company branding, logos, style guides,  based on updated customer profiles. 
- Made 2 new websites first with an outside agency designing a Wordpress site with custom BoardBuilder Section, then a Shopify site managed internally. 
- Created Skateboard art, apparel, and accessory art and marketing assets for 4 seasons.
- Managed other artist, gave assignments, set up processes and file structure for archiving and working on projects
- Updated templates and improved color fidelity
- Designed Licensees' products for NHL and NBA, adhering to team specific style guides and collaborating with the license reps to get approvals on designs. 
- Helped with extra design work from 2 other sister companies and custom internal projects when needed.
- Traveled to meet with important Accounts to discuss custom art and graphic requirements. 
- Created trade show booths, event specific collateral, and custom one-off products for give aways.
- Created marketing for all products, scheduled social media posts, managed several social accounts, and create a social calendar for holidays and sports seasons. 

Art Director

- Performed quick revisions and final pre press on a wide array of political collateral, from multiple mailer formats to lawn signs graphics and large hand out posters

Production Artist / Graphic Designer

- Updated their 2016 Marketing Library with promotional items to be rolled out to the stores throughout the year
- Performed pre-press on all in-store collateral, ranging from banners and window displays, to gift cards and flyers

- Assisted the PinFactory team with their 2016 Pin designs for brands like JustFab, Beta Brand, etc.
- Created Pin layouts using clients existing assets and direction from the Art Director and Copywriter


Web Design & Production Artist

- Support users for Google Play Music Artist Hub, as well as manage their images and bios on Google Play Music
- Work with representatives from large music partners, assisting them with the maintenance and organization of their various artist pages
- Review incoming artist pages, podcasts, and other content to ensure that all of Google’s policies are adhered to
- Provide support for all international markets that support Artist Hub

Play Music Web Content Coordinator

- Assisted the art director with the final output of the 2015 catalogs
- Participated in strategy meetings with the entire apparel marketing and distribution teams
- Designed print and web collateral for various 2015 campaigns
- Pitched design mock ups for media kits that were to be mailed out to various golfing press   outlets

Mid-Level Graphic Designer

- Created the 2015 Scholastic Hoops Jam Logo
- Designed web and print collateral for various retail locations 
- Handled over flow print production projects and updating old collateral

- Design window, in-store, and web ads for the various DC re-sellers around the globe
- Deliver print and/or web ready files to our vendors while working directly with them to ensure files specs were optimal for their output method
- Manage completed job and make sure that all relevant files are properly archived on the server according to company policy
- Create line-books for the US and international regions that DC shoes has a market presence.
- Manage all of the digital assets to ensure that the project files are organized on the company server for other departments to access
- Make all corrections and updates to the text and images a requested by the different merchandisers for each region
- Create final print ready files for press as well as a web compressed versions to be uploaded to a Web Magazine Publisher or sent as email attachments.
- Improve the efficiency and accuracy of the Line-book proofing process to ensure that more mistakes are caught early on
- Part of the team that is developing a digital Line-book solution to move into an iPad or android tablet environment
- Create new EasyCatalog templates to automate the page flow of catalogs
- Assist the other brands and departments with internal design projects

Production / Graphic Artist

- Assisted in final push for the 2012 Fall linebooks for Quiksilver
- Organized the Linebook assets on the server so that the catalogs were archived and lied remotely and could be accessed by any future artist
- Processed product CADs and Photography after they came from the color department
- Scanned and color corrected fabric swatches

Freelance Production / Graphic Artist

- Assist Production Manager in coordinating every aspect of plate production from the ordering process
   to plate delivery
 - Assign jobs and answer questions for 5 in-house artists and 4 overseas artists
 - Perform pre-flight procedures on incoming art work, and output straight-to-plate orders
 - Set up PDF proofs, create die lines, make corrections to customer's art as well as perform clean up on
   the art files uploaded by our overseas artists
 - Integral part of the team that guided Trisoft Graphics through the best year of the companies history in
   2009, as well as their highest grossing month in October '09

Assistant Production Manager / Production Artist

Pre-flight each incoming design to ensure it meets the specifications for being output on their four-color offset press
 - Modifications would vary from quick quality checks to complicated design work
 - Communicate with clients through e-mails and instant messenger for any necessary design changes
 - Received awards in three different months for having the highest number of files processed with complete customer satisfaction

Pre-Press / Graphic Design

Design business cards, large scale posters, magazine advertisements, as well as delicate photo
  restoration and retouching
- Assist walk in customers by making copies of architectural renderings or legal documents
- Set up Fine Art reproductions for local artists, color correct files, output posters on large format printers,
  also cut and mount the final product
- Take phone and online orders, assist with the walk-in customers and operate the cash register
PHOTO MANIPULATION & RESTORATION, GRAPHIC DESIGN, VISUAL DEVELOPMENT

Designer / Customer Service

Hired on for freelance projects
 - Using several photos of a restored excavated tea pot I made a decal of the design on the tea pot that would be adhered to a mock tea pot that they had made for display purposes
 - Created several vector traces of their excavation site notes using Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator / Designer

Stephen Whalen is an Art Director / Graphic Designer at Skechers USA in San Clemente, CA.

Stephen Whalen

Stephen Whalen

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