Donald McGowan

Gather, organizes, oversees, and analyzes program information to prepare for external publications and information releases. This includes copying and binding public releases, coordinating division briefings, formatting presentations, updating organizational and distribution lists, tracking milestones, creating trip binders for the DPM, and ordering printed materials. Additionally, it involves providing video editing, computer graphics, and multimedia presentations. Responsible for designing, laying out, and producing pamphlets, briefings, posters, displays, and other materials. Assists in the development of presentations that incorporate graphics, charts, photos, and clip-art, while determining the style, size, and arrangement of text and images. Created various graphic materials, including scanned documents and photography.

Produce and create the following: monthly mini catalogs, newsletters, monthly magazine ads for twelve publications and branding; create technical illustrations for new toy vehicles, railroad cars, and engines, labels and signs, web animated ads, booklets, instructional manuals, UPCs, and package design for clamshell, bubble and box packaging; create customized backdrops for photography; inspect shipments of product to artwork and represent the company at traveling train shows within the continental U.S. to interact with the customer base.

Over 30 years of experience in Advertising Design and Commercial Art in the New York metropolitan area and Pennsylvania. He is involved in all aspects of the field of Advertising, including creation, production, and illustration. He specializes in graphic design, slide presentations, function planning, technical illustration, photo retouching, photo restoration, printing, product photography, branding, Intraweb SAP, animated web banner design, point of purchase, point of sale, presentation design, and packaging. Manage complex projects from the idea stage through full implementation; interact effectively with clients to incorporate directives, explore suggestions and resolve questions and concerns; negotiate costs and usage; oversee completion of artwork; hands-on development of creative and design concepts to ensure consistent application of the online brand and brand voice.

Managed classroom environment for 44 students to ensure the creation of a professional portfolio for each student and the mastery of the following skills: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Quark Xpress, traditional paste-up, business/social skills, digital/traditional photography, and sign making. Supervised and maintained student files, lesson plans, confidential information, and classroom yearly invoices; responsible for preparing the classroom’s annual budget and maintaining inventory control; personally kept up to date with today’s Commercial Art/Advertising Design technology; involved in numerous program improvement initiatives, including integrating new equipment and technology as well as ensuring up to date lesson plans.

Designed architecture business maps, web icons, and presentations for management consultants. Responsibilities included travel to clients in New York Tri-State Area as a graphic designer/system administrator for Windows NT. Scheduled reservations at the job site for consultants for miscellaneous travel accommodations and transportation. Clients included Pitney Bowes and AIG.

- Myron Manufacturing, Maywood NJ
• Illustrated and designed stylish new pens for retail distributors and day-timer covers in Adobe Illustrator.
- Catalyst Communications, South Plainfield, NJ
• Edited and recreated MS PowerPoint slide presentations, pre-flighting files to the printer, and reproduced comprehensives to final pieces for Pharmaceutical Advertising.
- Vision Graphics, Morristown/Cedar Knolls, NJ
• Advertising design studio functions with creating point of purchase and point of sale material, revisions, and pre-flighting files to printer.
- Krell Advertising, Flemington, NJ
• Performed advertising design studio functions as well as creative input into logo design for the company Pharmanet.

Phoenix Displays, Deptford, NJ 5/99–8/99
Designed, rendered, mocked up 3-D displays, and produced Point of Purchase material for products for companies McNeil, Schering Plough, The Northwest Company, Team Mouse, and Dr. Scholl's.

Riss Design Group, Norwalk, CT 3/97
Photo retouched and desktop production for a sailing catalog.

Created print media artwork for direct mail, POS material, pole toppers, shelf strips, combo cards, tear pads, and other related materials for Fortune 100 companies like Nabisco and Kraft. Cleaned up, color corrected, photo retouched high-resolution photos and artwork, and responisible for pre-flighted files to the client or printer.

Ernst & Young/ Union Carbide, Danbury, CT
Created Intra-Net web artwork, workflow charts, electronic banners and subtitles for a 50,000 page web site.