Kate Hebdon

Full time contract turned full time hire. I started at Prudential and worked on the 2013 brand transition to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices for all of North Carolina (there’s 4 different DBAs depending on where you are in NC, so it gets convoluted). While my title hasn’t changed, my duties certainly have grown: I started out simply focusing on executing the national level brand standards, but as I’ve continued here, I’ve grown our NC brand to better suit our distinct markets. The corporate marketing department has doubled in size since I’ve been here: instead of producing everything myself, I now produce and direct/review the work of others. I’ve worked on a wide range of projects while here including campaign development for print/digital/social media, website rebrand/development, individual new home community branding/campaigns, distinct luxury collection branding, photo retouching, copywriting, video direction, and event planning/coordination.

Freelance opportunity. Small automotive repair shop that relied on print coupons for business. Periodic branding ads and website graphics/design. Final project was a company rebranding to move their brand identity into a more modern design language.

Freelance opportunity. Some digital items to start an Independent Consultant with their digital presence. Notably, a b-to-b eCard and some social media covers and background images.

Freelance opportunity. A smattering of items including a flyer for trade show use and an anniversary eCard.

Freelance opportunity. A small start-up with a focus on encouraging kids to practice proper dental hygiene. Dentist and orthodontist practices would subscribe to various management plans that IntegrateIdeas offered and I was responsible for creating informational marketing material, application forms, "membership" reward cards, website graphics, and branding materials.

Full time contract position. While here, I was brought on to work in the eCommerce image retouching/management department. My experience at Xonex with product photography and image manipulation was a great boon for securing this role.

At Belk, my initial duties were to become familiar enough with their in-house content management system so I could take product photography, place it on a pre-determined template, and assign it to the correct product log file. By the end of my tenure there, I was in-charge of specific departments and was working on-site at the product photography studio overseeing product styling. I also established style guidelines* and built a style guide book, coordinated with vendors/merchandisers, and built the swatch library and codified the process for it. An additional task I took on was training new photo retouchers, developing training packets/materials, and reviewing their work.

* Fun Fact: Due to my revision in product presentation photography, sales were boosted over 160%.

Freelance opportunity. A research thesis focused on the re-distribution of federal circuit court districts using multiple data points (eg: population, case load, etc). The final selections of theoretical districts each needed graphics to be published within the issue using strict style guidelines.

Freelance opportunity. Back in the infancy of Groupon/LivingSocial, GoGoCoupons attempted to penetrate the digital coupon market. I was contracted to make easy print-capable coupons and small/minor website work for various clients of GoGoCoupons. I also assisted with some additional branding graphic creation for GoGoCoupons.

Freelance opportunity. Back in the day, when website coding was a little more simple, I would hand-code relatively simple pages. This was one such project for an internal-use website detailing specifics of the claims process that claims processors would send to filers.

Freelance opportunity. A small architectural design firm. I was responsible for appropriately applying textures and colors to architectural elevations presented to builders, board members, city personnel, etc. I was given sample materials to use as a basis for hand-markering the large-format elevations.

Collegiate internship turned full time freelance. The most fun and creative role here was product design for both Xonex and their clients. However, I also did product photography, photo editing/retouching, print graphic design work, and website design & coding.

I started out as an intern and shadowed the staff designer. Here I began to do the production work for print catalogs.

When the on-staff designer left for another position, Xonex decided to bring me on as a freelancer during my final year in college instead of hire a designer to replace him. It was here that I started to gain my footing for project management, photography, print/digital work, and product development. I even progressed to working with overseas factories directly to supervise/approve samples and specifications.

Freelance opportunity. For 2 years running, I laid out the event schedule and details program for a small gaming convention. A simple, low-cost, multi-page booklet for a weekend's worth of events.