Kelly Harkins Designs - Graphic Design in Scottsdale
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  • Portfolio
    • Logos
    • Print >
      • Ads
      • Brochures
      • Magazine
      • Reports
      • Packaging
      • Postcards & Flyers
      • Tradeshow
    • Websites
    • Digital
    • Other Design Categories >
      • Presentations
      • Photo Retouching
      • Photography >
        • Animals
        • Children
        • Head Shots
        • Family
        • Real Estate
        • Weddings
      • Video
  • About
    • About
    • Services
  • Contact
  • Wine Glasses By Design

About

Multi-skilled creative ninja with over 15 years of experience as design lead in diverse environments offering a broad skill set that drives all aspects of brand marketing for print, web, social, PR, and bespoke content creation. Proven success in art direction, graphic design, and brand development for digital and print projects. Motivational team member and leader, accustomed to collaborating effectively with multi-functional teams, organizing workflow, and delivering projects on time and within budget. Leveraging high-level experience of managing multiple clients’ accounts for advertising agencies, an in-house designer on the client-side, as well as supporting many clients as a freelancer. Accustomed to delivering exceptional quality with great attention to detail, have a solid work ethic, and a high level of professionalism with a contagious positive attitude.

More details...

From a very early age, I knew I would become a designer. I have fond memories of painting with my grandparents who were artists by profession, spending hours with my father who loved photography and always had his SLR camera in arms reach and working with my mother who instilled in me the importance of words and sentence structure. As you can see, these are important elements of marketing, and it is in my blood. These early experiences have served me well.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design, I started my career as an entry-level production artist. I have since worked my way up the totem pole. I have tackled all aspects of marketing projects: brainstorming and storyboarding, design and conception, copywriting, photography, branding, logos, websites, and then carrying out the design throughout all mediums.

During my tenure as an Art Director / Sr. Graphic Designer, I have developed a reputation for creating smart, clean visual solutions that stand out in a crowd. My ability to translate ideas into visual concepts that are appealing and effective has allowed me to create designs that meet client expectations and surpass them. 
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I have a great work ethic and am a quick, efficient designer with great attention-to-detail. In addition, I also have a high level of professionalism and a positive attitude that is contagious.
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During the past several years, I have learned many things. I know that it takes a person with excellent communication and interpersonal skills to be a team player in a productive setting. By hiring me, you will get these skills as well as someone who is highly creative, motivated, flexible, independent, and not afraid to find innovative ways to complete a job. 

Education

Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design, Art Minor,
Keene State College, Keene, New Hampshire

Areas of Expertise

  • ​Logo Creation
  • Print & Web-Based Media
  • Website Design & Programming
  • Filming & Video Editing
  • Photography & Photo-Retouching​
  • Social Media Campaigns
  • Design Strategy & Implementation​
  • ​Brand Development
  • Campaign Management​​
  • Project Management​
  • Leadership & Coaching
  • Product Packaging​
  • UI/UX Design & Best Practice
  • KPIs & Analytics
  • Research & Insights
  • ​​Client Relationship Management

Technical Proficiencies

  • Adobe Creative Cloud Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, 
    ​Lightroom, Premiere)
  • iMovie 
  • Sketchup
  • ​​HubSpot
  • WordPress
  • HTML / CSS knowledge
  • Microsoft Office Suite
  • Mac and PC Systems

Professional Experience

Freelance Senior Art Director / Senior Graphic Designer
Kelly Harkins Designs, LLC 
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​Leverage strong conceptual and design skills to create compelling work and provide integrated design and art direction from concept to campaign for clients across diverse sectors. Deliver multi-faceted expertise to offer commercial graphic design services, marketing, and brand strategy development, as well as web and social media management and asset creation. Evaluate client needs and create custom solutions while drawing from diverse methodologies and technologies. Collaborate with directors, project coordinators, copywriters, and photography teams and maintain awareness of current and future design trends to drive innovative solutions. Formulate criteria for project success and produce high quality outcomes for clients while successfully managing multiple projects. Communicate effectively across stakeholders to complete projects within set budgets and timeframes.
  • Provided interdisciplinary services including graphic design, art direction, photography, and video filming/editing for print and web.
  • Reliably met tight deadlines and handled concurrent, varied assignments while providing consistent quality and accuracy exercising innovative creative thinking to quickly grow brand identity and presence.
Project Highlights:
  • Risk Management Association (3/2022 – Present): Working within Professional Development dept.
    in conjunction with Marketing dept. to rebrand financial course materials for instructors and participants; 200-600 pgs. each. Provided solutions to reduce redundancy, increase accuracy, and built project tracking system.
  • ​ETA Consulting (2019 - Present as needed): Complete rebrand involving logo creation, business card, letter head, and brochure design for printing. Successfully delivered concepts and designs to approval of two main executives with vastly different ideas and approaches.
  • Digital Air Strike / DAS (07/2021 - 05/2022): Conceptualized and designed various projects for agency and its clients in the medical and automobile sectors. Inspired new look, feel, and tone for DAS social campaigns that was highly successful and generated 75% more clicks than previous campaign.

Art Director
   ER Tactical.com – Phoenix, AZ (01/2014 -12/2020)
   Datix – St. Louis, MO (1-Year Contract, 11/2019 - 11/2020)
   TOMCAR – Phoenix, AZ (02/2019 - 10/2019)
   Advanced Genomic Solutions (AGS) LTD – Scottsdale, AZ (11/2016 - 12/2018)
   Erickson-Hall Construction Co. – Escondido, CA (02/2010 - 04/2013)
Led and directed graphic and website design, copy, video, animation, infographic, social media material, and promotional assets for various businesses and brands. Supervised graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, production artists, creative freelancers, and managed content and production teams. Collaborated with members of marketing or media buying teams to develop strategies for brand identity and worked with copywriters to develop strategies for audience engagement. Created presentations and project plans, met with clients and vendors, and ensured successful online representation of clients’ content creation. Guaranteed consistency in design across all online and offline marketing channels while upholding brand guidelines. Adhered to schedules in challenging, deadline-driven environments.
  • Collaborated with international clients and delivered wide range of physical assets and web support in remote positions meeting quality, time, and budget specifications.
  • Applied strong sense of personal responsibility and professional demeanor with positive, solution-seeking attitude to manage challenging clients and forge rewarding working relationships across language differences to secure successful outcomes to complex projects.
Project Highlights:
  • Datix – Redesigned all marketing collateral, rewrote to simplify and redesigned website to be responsive on smart devices, working 100% remotely. Rebuilt and launched second website with login functionality and tracking per user and played key role in seamless migration process to consolidate hosting accounts.
  • TOMCAR – Created new marketing material for sales team and rebuilt tomcar.com to be responsive on smart devices with the ability to efficiently host and play video headers 75% faster than the previous site. Programmed website Quote Calculator allowing potential customers to Build Their Own TOMCAR and get an instant quote saving sales team time. Hired and managed front desk employees and acted as office manager in delivering employee training, setting up email accounts, allocating appropriate server access, and initiating many improvements to work culture. Resolved IT issues and collaborated with a third-party IT team for server issues.
  • Advanced Genomic Solutions (AGS) LTD – Generated marketing material for global sales team as sole marketing employee. Worked with a programming team to rebuild ags-health.com from WordPress-brochure site to HubSpot-smart website with CRM and tracking ability. Ensured process was HIPAA compliant, and customer data was secure. Redesigned Genetic Reports and audited their genetic database and rewrote all content to be easier to understand. Worked seamlessly with Hong Kong lab team regardless of time zone and language barriers.

Additional Experience

  • Corporate Branding & Media Manager / Sr. Graphic Designer | Verari Systems – San Diego, CA
  • Sr. Graphic Designer / Jr. Art Director | PETCO, Inc. – San Diego, CA
  • Graphic Designer | Direct Partners – Marina Del Rey, CA

Volunteer Experience

Cactus Shadows High School, Secretary, Technology & Design (07/2022 - Present)​
Sonoran Trails Middle School PTO, Technology & Design
(08/2020 - Present)
Designed new logo for school, rebranded all collateral, apparel, signage, built PTO website and ongoing updates.
Black Mountain Elementary School PTO, Director of Marketing (08/2017 - 05/2019)
Committee Head for Evening for the Arts annual fundraiser. Designed custom logo for each yearly event and implemented theme for supporting print and social media campaigns. Raised $55k for school. Built PTO website and ongoing updates.
Jerebek Elementary School, Lead Art Corp Teacher (09/2014 - 05/2016)
Taught monthly art lesson to Kindergarteners, First, Second, and Third grade classes.
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