Coroflot

Resume

QUALIFICATIONS
14+ years of artistic work experience including product, graphic and package design, illustration, mural work, cartooning, watercolor painting and floral design.
Proficient on both Mac and PC operating systems
Skilled in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign CS4, QuarkXPress, MS Word, Excel & PowerPoint.

EDUCATION
2000-2004 Northern Illinois University DeKalb, IL
Bachelor of Fine Art: Illustration
GPA: 3.51/4.0

2007 Harper College Palatine, IL
Wedding Consultant Certificate

EXPERIENCE

KIO KREATIONS, LLC Naperville, IL
Owner/Lead Designer/Creative Director
July 2004-Present
Manage an all-encompassing creative services company. Main services provided include floral, graphic, product, logo and event design. Companies designed for include Fellowes, Inc., Embossed Graphics, The Morton Arboretum, Zazzle.com and Lake County Forest Preserve as well as numerous independent clients. Participate in art competitions and gallery showings including PACE Postcard Competition. Continually manage ESTY and ZAZZLE online shops which feature my products. Manage, Blog and update content on Kio Kreatons website. In addition to main functions of business: I also create portraits, illustrations, paintings, murals, crafts, and teach private art and floral design lessons for various clients.

WILTON PRODUCTS, INC. Woodridge, IL
Product Designer
December 2004-November 2008
Design products for Wilton's Wedding, Baby, and Stationery Business Categories. Research trends, create trend reports and presentations, present to PD team and Buyers. Create patterns, color palettes, characters, icons, die-lines, packaging, logos, rendered plan-o-grams and scale mock-ups. Hire, manage and provide creative direction to freelance artists. Art direct and style product photography shoots. Work with licensees to develop co-branded products. Formerly designed for The Weston Gallery division of the company. Designed picture frames and home decor items. Presented trend and new products to PD team and Buyers. Did market research, attended trade shows, and created displays. Products have been placed in Wal-mart, Target, Michael's, JoAnn Fabrics, Garden Ridge, A.C. Moore, Party City, JC Penney, and Aaron Brothers.

WORLD RICHMAN MANUFACTURING CORP. Elgin, IL
Product and Graphic Designer
May-December 2004
Designed soft-line products for a leather manufacturing company. Created camera and cell phone cases for companies such as Nextel, Nikon, Canon, Pentax US and Europe, Calumet Photo, Ritz Camera, Office Max as well as the WRC private label HI-PRO.

THE NORTHERN STAR NEWSPAPER DeKalb, IL
Senior Cartoonist
August 2002-May 2004
Created a daily humorous comic strip based on my life called "Kios Kaos". Created semi-monthly editorial cartoons.

FREELANCE Chicagoland Area
Artist/Illustrator/Muralist/Graphic Designer
1998-June 2004
Worked with clients designing logos, creating PPT's, illustrations, web cartoons, portraits, painting murals, etc. Clients included: Wheaton Direct, Rainbow Mountain, Inc., The Art Attack School of Art, and StudentAffairs.com.

ART ATTACK SCHOOL OF ART Sycamore, IL
Core Art Teacher
August 2003-April 2004
Taught students ages 5-adult various art projects including cartooning, Drawing 101, Peewee Picasso's, Handmade Paper Mache Puppets, Mixed Media, and Faux Finishing.

ACTIVITIES AND RECOGNITION
Starring on an upcoming episode of HGTV's "That's Clever" which aired in March 2009.
Co-created and pitched an original animated series to Fox Network Executives in Los Angeles, CA. in December of 2003.
Postcard designs displayed at Postcard Art Competition & Exhibition "PACE 2007" and "PACE 2009" at Lake Co. Discovery Museum (traveling exhibition)
Volunteer for Kane County 4-H Program teaching cartooning, comic strip production, still life drawing, floral design and paper making. Judge youth art projects at the Kane Co. Fair.
Volunteer Floral design teacher for the Chicago Botanic Garden in preparation for their Annual Roadside Flower Sale.
Volunteer at the Morton Arboretum and organize annual volunteer banquet, paint murals, teach classes at the Children's Garden.