Skills

Interactive Art Director Extensive writing, art, and communication skills make me a versatile and well-qualified Interactive Art Director. My expertise in teaching Visual Communications and leading interactive design teams is a direct expression of my world view. I keep up-to-the-minute with implementing the latest SEO techniques. My background as a cartoonist and comics editor has informed my ability to understand web user cognition and interactive user experience. I also teach Digital Imaging (Adobe CS Suite), Graphic Design, Illustration, Writing the Graphic Novel, Visual Communications, Color and Composition, Drawing and Watercolor Painting.

Copywriter & Editor for web and print: Web interface copy [specializing in home, real estate, and web community and connection websites], SEO, web and print catalog copy, marketing copy [pdf], help documentation[pdf], advertising, naming, humor writing, direct mail [pdf], packaging, business and legal writing, newsletter content [pdf], corporate letters and reports, ecards, scriptwriting, editorial.  

Graphic Artist Print and web design, publication design [pdf], illustration, GUI design, logo design, how-to illustration, photo retouching, digital production, animated ecards and web banners, annual reports [pdf], comics and graphic novels, storyboarding, concepts and art for paper products, surface design, character development, color consulting.

Software Photoshop, InDesign [pdf], Illustrator, Quark [pdf], ImageReady, PowerPoint, Word/Excel [ppt], Dreamweaver, FinalCut Pro, Flash.  Mac or Windows platforms.

Experience

Aunt Violet Productions'

Clients include:
SheZoom.com Lead interface copywriter and "voice" of this video community website.
RPS Art Director and copywriter for wireless device development; Powerpoint artist.
DDB San Francisco Graphic Design and illustration.
Emerald Coast Properties Web Copywriter and interactive web content consultant.
Stivaletti Cookies Art Direction, copywriting, package design.
Landmark Education Photo retouching and copywriting.
DivineCaroline.com Editor; helped develop style guide for this web magazine.
California Magazine Photo and editorial research for this magazine for Cal Berkeley Alumni.
BlowUp Lab Large-size display design, copywriting.
Segmation Help docs, GUI design, web content, icon design, corporate identity.
WetFeet.com Editor, business-related e-books.
Bay Media Arts Copywriting for real estate television show [mov], web content, video editing, illustration and corporate ID.
A Home Within Designed and edited annual report and other graphics.
MoodLogic Brainstorming meeting facilitator, storyboard artist, corporate cartoonist.
Gumps Catalog copywriter, Quark production.
Visa Corporation Brochure illustration, design, photo retouching.
Bristol Publishing Created over 300 illustrations for eight cookbooks; designed and illustrated The Wedding Catering Cookbook.
MacCounsel, BJ Droubi, Harbor Bay Realtors Marketing designer/copywriter [websites, newsletters, bios, promotional campaigns, brochures, direct mail, web design, logos]. Creative facilitator, storyboarding.
Sun Microsystems Creative facilitator, storyboard artist, corporate cartoonist.
IronSpeed Creative facilitator, comedy and marketing copywriter, animator.
Dreamsmith Technical writer, legal/construction industry.
The Good Service Guide Copywriter, home services; catalog design consultant
Congregation Sha'ar Zahav [pdf] Newspaper layout artist and art director.
Wall Street Journal Regular illustrator for travel page.
San Francisco Chronicle Illustrator.
San Jose Mercury-News Illustrator.

Others include: The New York Times, Apple, Chronicle Books, Coldwater Creek, Ten Speed Press, Salon, eHow, IDG, The SF Weekly, The East Bay Express, SF Bay Guardian, Banana Republic, Novell, La Bouquetiere, eScore, The Gutenberg Project, Peninsula A La Carte, Worldwise Publishing. Websites include: David Wright, Att'y, Trina Robbins, author and historian, Kim Flournoy Website Developer (copy only), Emerald Coast Properties, IADMD.org

Ask Aunt Violet Wrote and illustrated weekly advice column in comic form for alternative weeklies for over 6 years, including the SF Weekly, Ottawa XPress, Philadelphia Weekly, Chicago Reader, Albuquerque Alibi, Jacksonville Folio, Telluride Watch, Long Island Voice, Buffalo Beat, Salt Lake City Weekly, Creative Loafing and the Madison Isthmus. Self-syndicated/marketed Ask Aunt Violet internationally. Wrote Travel Tips, Shopping Tips, Kid Tips, etc.

greatEntertaining Senior Copywriter, consumer and marketing copy, for online magazine and catalog of gifts, party items, jewelry, bath & body products, gourmet food, candles, lighting, cookbooks, decorating books, serve ware, objets d'art, toys, etc. Also wrote and illustrated "how-to" articles and e-newsletters.

Tavolo.com Lead contract catalog copywriter for Williams-Sonoma style cookware, tabletop, and gourmet food catalog. Ad campaigns; marketing copy.

Creative Assets & Aquent Animated e-cards, Yahoo; web production and illustration, ofoto.com; character and icon development, Netopia.

Blue Mountain Arts Wrote, illustrated, animated digital greeting cards. Concept, script, artwork, animation, audio.

Browseteria Editor/art director/scriptwriter for Pthalo Ptheatre, a soap opera; designed and produced comics news and interview section. Writing, editing, art direction, design, character development, illustration, voice acting, interviewing.

Penguin Books, Simon & Schuster, Women's Glib, The Funny Pages, Wimmin's Comix Featured in both Twisted Sisters graphic novelette anthologies; Mind Riot, graphic novelettes for teens, Women's Glib books & calendars by The Crossing Press, comedy writing for The Funny Pages, Editor/contributor to Wimmins Comix, #8 through #17.

Panetti's Gifts Assistant buyer, display stylist, product developer and salesperson for eclectic Noe Valley crafts gallery/shop. I designed some packaging graphics and wrote product copy for exclusive Panetti's items.

Aunt Violet's Buttonworks I design and make bracelets, earrings and clocks out of antique buttons, carried in the finest shops in San Francisco, Chicago and elsewhere; you can also purchase them directly through me. View my Button Bracelets.

Teaching & Appearances

Interviews I have been the subject of interviews in the Arts and Leisure Section of The New York Times, KPFA radio and elsewhere. I have spoken about comics, the graphic novel, and my heartfelt, down-to-earth approach to art at many panels and book-signings, comics conventions in San Diego, Oakland and London, The Commonwealth Club, and bookstores such as A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books, Book Passage, Modern Times, Cover to Cover, and Comix and Comics. You can read an interview with me at Vault.com.

Exhibitions Featured in two films about comics, Comic Book Confidential (Canada) and Funny Ladies (Pamela Briggs); other shows include the recent exhibition She Draws Comics at the SF Cartoon Art Museum, the White Columns Gallery and the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in NYC; La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles and the Kunstlerhaus in Stuttgart, Germany; The Secession Gallery in Vienna, Austria.

Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising I teach Digital Imaging (Adobe CS2 Suite: Photoshop and Illustrator) in San Francisco, in the Visual Communications Department of this accredited fashion design college, aka FIDM.

UC Berkeley Extension Taught Editorial Illustration and Comic Art for four years, in the Graphic Design program. Also taught Illustration.

McIntosh College Dover, New Hampshire: Illustration, Drawing for Illustration and Design. Helped create new Graphic Design department.

Education & Affiliations

California College of Arts & Crafts Now called California College of the Arts, Oakland and San Francisco, CA. BFA, Graphic Design and Illustration with an emphasis on animation and film.

UC Berkeley Extension Film Scriptwriting, Ceramics, Print Production, Children's Book Illustration, Pastel Drawing, Comedy Acting Improvisation.

Queens College, City University of NY Major in Communication Arts and Studio Art

Member: San Francisco Women on the Web, Coastside Chapter of BNI, Writergrrls, Women in Consulting, and the San Francisco Film Society.