PORTFOLIO
http://www.mercedes360.com

OBJECTIVE
To obtain an Art Director's position in a company that will allow me to demonstrate my experience and creativity 

with opportunities for growth, in a creative, group-oriented environment.

 

​EXPERIENCE

April 2019 - Present

Treat Yourself, New York (Jerk Chicken Company)

Position: Branding & Operational Manager

Description: Responsible for all branding design such as promotional material, social media market, etc. Responsible for day to day front end management such as event staffing, event excution and operations, coordination of location expansion, etc. Treat Yourself is a young and rapidly expanding Jerk Chicken company that provides food service at various pop up events in the 5 boughs of NYC. 

 

July 2019 - March 2020

Continental Studios, Queens, New York (Portrait Studio)

Position: Freelance Graphic Designer

Description: Served as a Freelance designer and portrait photo editor. Assisted with in studio shoots. 

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May 2018 - Present 

Lightbulb Press, New York, New York (Financial Literacy Publishing Company)

Position: Freelance Graphic Designer

Description: Serving as a freelance Designer and Production Artist. Worked on various print and online projects. Creating of art, print page layout, and web page conversions.

 

March 2018 - April 2018

Aqua Products, LLC. New Jersey (Aquatic Pool Cleaners and Equipment)

Position: Freelance Graphic Designer

Description: Serves as a Freelance Designer on various instructional manuals for there different pool cleaner models. Also worked on print and social media ads.

 

November 2015 – December 2017
New Classic Cooking, LLC, Jamaica, New York, (Fresh & Frozen Food Product Company)
Position: Marketing Assistant / In-house Print & Web Designer / Trade Show Coordinator
Description: Vitalicious was acquired by New Classic Cooking, LLC and I accepted a position as Marketing Assistant to the Brand Manager, assisting with the Classic Cooking, Garden Lites and Vitalicious Brand products. My responsibilities varied and included:

 

 

Packaging & Design

• In charge of executing revisions between print runs and maintained all packaging files and version archives for all brands. 

• Executed a total rebrand for the VitaTop product line from layout of all retail packaging files, rebrand of the website, creation of coupon and other promotional material.  

• Creation and production of all promotional material, sell sheets, coupons, advertising, inserts, etc for all brands. 

 

 

Emailing Marketing & Social Media Promotions

• Assisted in the Email Marketing Program for Vitalicious and Garden Lites from initial promotional concepts and projections, to creative execution via photography and design and coding elements, as well as scheduling deployment and maintaining the active customer list. 

• Assisted Brand Manager with creative creation (from photography to art creation) of Social Media platform marketing and advertising material. As well as assisted with scheduling specifics and adhering to budget limitations in social media advertising. 

 

Website Design & Maintenance

• Maintained the Vitalicious website prior to redesign which included making creative updates, product inventory updates, creation of advertising banners, email marketing sales, and promotions, etc

• Worked on redesign of Vitalicious (www.vitalicious.com) and also assisted with maintenance of Garden Lites site (www.gardenlites.com). Additionally assisted with art asset creation for the Health Food Store site (www.thehealthfoodstore.com). 

 

Trade Shows 

• Coordination of the annual scheduling of Gluten Free Trade Shows that we would showcase Garden Lites at, which was about 32 shows annually. I ensured all applications and health department requirements were met and all other areas were covered such as scheduling of electricity, product and sample delivery for the show, booth supplies purchased and coordinated and ensured all general show needs were met. 

• Coordination of event booth staff and hired supporting staff as needed on a show by showcase. I also ensured all hired help was trained and prepared to serve as a brand representative at the booths. When schedule permitted I also worked shows to get a better understanding of what the consumer reaction to our product was and reported insight back to the Brand Manager. 

• Ensured booth display was on Brand Strategy, attractive and attracted our consumer base. Items included backdrop designs, tablecloth design, sign displays, sell sheets, coupons, etc. 

 

 

December 2013 – October 2015 
Vitalicious, Inc. New York, New York (Frozen Food Products)
Position: Freelance Graphic Designer
Description: Vitalicious are the makers of the VitaTops and other health food products such as VitaCakes, VitaPizza, VitaEgg & EnergyLoaf. While at Vitalicious I maintained all packaging files and coordinated and executed all revisions and maintained a working relationship with printers and set print deadlines. I also assisted with the launch of several new products and the execution of brand design across product flavors. Additionally, I worked on creating all marketing & sales PowerPoint presentations, sales sheets, print & digital promotional material. Digital material included email-marketing promotions, which distributed to an email list of approximately 300k customers. I assisted in the creation of monthly email marketing promotional calendars from promotional details to creation of all art and html coding. I also managed scheduling and redeploying of promotional emails.

 

 

 

March 2011 - Present 
Tribe 360, LLC, Queens, New York. (Multimedia Design Company)
Position: Co-Founder & Art Director
Description: Currently serving as Art Director and production artist on various print, web and multimedia projects. Projects included corporate identity packages, re-branding projects, website designs and redesigns, marketing and promotional material, PowerPoint presentations, catalog layout, etc.

 

March 2000 - March 2011
Lightbulb Press, New York, New York (Financial Literacy Publishing Company)
Position: Art Director
Description: Lightbulb Press is a publishing company that specializes in turning complex subjects, predominantly personal finance, investing and technologies, into easy to understand and straightforward content and design. Using clear language and illuminating graphics, we create customized content for corporate clients, specialized guides and financial literacy websites. As a Designer and Art Director at Lightbulb Press for 11 years, I was involved in countless print and web projects on all levels. I served as a designer and creative staff manager for many guide books and mini-guides published as well as several web and collateral projects.
 

Some guides or mini-guide titles include:

• A Salute to Smart Investing, Prepared for armed forces. A 28 page guide co-branded by Various State Boards of Security.

• Guide to Understanding 529 Plans. A 24 page guide to assist with preparing for a child's educational future.

• A Patient's Guide to Cancer Care. A 80 page guide developed in collaboration with Cancer Treatment Centers of America.

• A Muslim's Guide to Investing & Personal Finance. A 99 page guide developed in accordance with the Shariah

• Welcome to Your Financial Life. A 160 page guide for young people starting out on their own.

• Dictionary of Financial Terms. A 224 page guide co-branded by Standard & Poor's.

 

Created custom collateral print and multimedia materials for clients including:

• Cancer Treatment Centers of America's patient handbook's, informational brochures, 160+ information sheet catalog.

• Financial Planning Associate PowerPoint presentation course on various Financial Literacy topics from Investing to Coping with job loss to retirement.

• Citibank PowerPoint presentation course on various training courses Financial Literacy topics such as Managed Accounts, Identity Theft, Insurance and others.

• An Insider’s Guide to Adobe InDesign. A 16 page mini-guide featuring the ins and outs of basic InDesign concepts and features.

• Design and production of company marketing materials including catalogs, calendars, sell sheets, conference materials, and our website, www.lightbulbpress.com.

Design and art directing assistance on client websites including:

• McGraw Hill's Financial Literacy Now Campaign, www.financiallitnow.org

• Boys & Girls Club of Americas, Money Matters Campaign, www.moneymattersmakeitcount.com

• The Foundation for Investor Education, www.pathtoinvesting.com

• ING Direct, Planet Orange original site design, www.orangekids.com

Responsibilities include management for almost all print projects, from initial concept meetings, design sketches, presentations, production and pre-press, to going on press checks.

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September 1999 - December 1999
CMP Media, New York, New York (Multimedia Design Firm)
Position: Web Design Intern: HTML writing, logo design, photo corrections.


June 1998 - February 1999
New York City Technical College, Brooklyn, New York
Position: Yearbook Editor: Layout design and photography


July 1996 - March 1997
Woman's Domain Inc., Hicksville, New York., Health & Fitness Center
Position: Graphic Designer and Promotion/Advertising Consultant. Design of company's logo and promotional flyers.

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February 1996 - June 1996
D'arcy, Masius, Benton and Bowles, New York, New York, World Wide Communication Agency
Position: Advertising Design Intern: Created various ads, brochures, business cards, letterheads and logos. Assisted in typographical layout on ads for clients such as Coca-Cola, Bahamas and Pampers. Operated Canon Copier and scanner.

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EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts, New York, New York
Continuing Education Program: Multimedia Design Course, Macromedia Flash 8.0 (Spring 2007)

The City University of New York, Brooklyn, New York
New York City College of Technical
Major: Communication Design (Bachelors of Technology degree, June 2003)
Major: Art & Advertising Design (Associate in Applied Science degree, June 1999)
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SKILLS
Experience with Macintosh/Windows Platforms:
Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Acrobat), Quark Xpress, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel), HTML coding, Digital Photography and color correction.

Working experience with:
Wordpress, MailChimp, Shopify, Adobe Flash, Adobe Premier, Adobe Streamline, Adobe InCopy,

Traditional experience with:
Black & White photography and darkroom printing. Mechanical layouts and paste-ups. Some experience in offset printing and plate making.

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REFERENCE
Available upon request.