Barbara Harvey - Background on BrightFuse

About Me

Experienced graphics designer who loves variety mixed with lots of tedious details - actively seeking steady part/full-time employment as a graphics support/production artist.

My focus & passion is on YOUR target audience, simplicity, function, & usability. Some of my favorite challenges have been technical instruction pieces and catalogs. While my portfolio includes everything from medical illustration to stage backdrops & costumes, I can also get excited about doing a good, simple newsletter layout.
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AREAS OF EXPERTISE:
• Digital editing, retouch, repair, collages, color correction, enhancement
• Print production art & page layout: programs, newsletters, brochures, ads, posters, banners, signage
• Skilled illustrator: equipment & technical, medical, cartoons, realistic live subjects
• Website design: functional, informational, simple animation, usability training [note: do NOT have php or database training]
• Familiar with both print & online file requirements

Work Experience

Dec 2006 - Feb 2009

saint paul, MN (US)

Web Manager, Graphic Designer
Midway Party Rental
Still do work for them on a Project basis. Maintained & enhanced Web site & designed promotional graphics for ads, flyers, web & catalogs. I gathered, re-organized, sorted & edited their entire photo database creating a functioning usable marketing tool for their sales force.
1968 - 2006

roseville, MN (US)

Graphics Designer
UNISYS Corporation
Handling short-deadline projects, presentation graphics, proposal art, layout, posters, banners, and technical illustrations for Product Information. Got exposure to a wide variety of applications.

Following branding guidelines, templates, & emulating styles in a team of 5-10 designers was essential.

One assignment included style-checking 100+ html web pages against unfamiliar style sheet for a user interface design. The style sheets were becoming unwieldy because many different programmers were allowed to add new styles at will, often duplicating styles and making load time unnecessarily long. I initiated a VISUAL SAMPLE guide of all the styles and revamped the CSS using abbreviated styles eliminating unneeded code and allowing the interface to load and run faster.
1998 - 2000

white bear lake, MN (US)

Production Artist
Taymark Corporation (Anderson Party Supply)
Created graphics for glassware, pencils, and other souvenir items. Here the focus was on SIMPLICITY and CLARITY and the ability to cram 10-pounds of information into a 5-pound space and have it look good, make sense, yet have enough detail to convey all the critical information. Meeting short deadlines and a familiarity with fonts was a MUST.

Education

1968 - 1969
Other - Studio Art - UCLA
University of Minnesota
2 quarters in the work-study program - doing illustrations for the Veterinary instructors on the St. Paul Campus. At the time, there were no good commercial art courses at the U of M.

Courses & Certifications

oDesk Competency Test Transcripts: http://www.odesk.com/users/~~7b1a896141f55dc2
-PC Graphics Designer, Score 4.0, top 10%
-HTML 4.01, Score 3.25, 57%
-Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Designer, Score 3.60, 84% (top 20%)
-Adobe InDesign CS3 Score 2.6
-Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Score 3.25
-MS PowerPoint 2003 Score 3.9 (top 20%)
-QuarkXpress 7.0 Score 2.6
-English (Sentence Structure Expert), Score 4.25
-English Spelling (U.S.) Score 4.9 (top 20%)
Brainbench.com Competency Transcripts:
http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=8334662
-Web Design Concepts Score 3.53
-Typing Speed and Accuracy, Score 2.85

MCTC Net Web Certificate 2005.

Numerous on-the-job classes including:
-Time Management, Microsoft Office and similar topics
-Usability training, diversity training, Sigma Six training