CATHLEEN HEARD
Web | Print | Photography
http://www.cathleenheard.net
cmheard75@yahoo.com

 
PROFESSIONAL PROFILE:
** Inventive, energetic yet seasoned professional with a decade of design experience.
** Synonymous with versatility. Equally at home with demands of web and print. Capable of designing for the conservative audiences of pharmaceuticals, government and academia as well as hip, trend-defining subcultures.
** Discipline and diplomacy engrained from rich background in deadline-intensive world of publishing. Excelling in fast-paced and heavily collaborative environments is second nature.
** Ambitious. Self-taught as well as formally educated in: graphic design, site construction, HTML/CSS, animation, online audio production, 35 mm & digital photography. Voracious appetite for new challenges.

ADVANCED COMPUTER AND TECHNOLOGY SKILLS:
(Within Mac OS X as well as PC environments)
Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Flash, Microsoft Office, Quark Xpress, Fireworks, HTML/XHTML, CSS, XML, Javascript, PHP (light), online audio tools

WORK HISTORY:

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR - Philadelphia, PA
January 2000 to Present
Freelance Web Developer/Graphic Designer
Retained by diverse colleagues to generate original art and graphic layout of content, banners and logos. Skilled in assisting the conceptualization of clients' personal vision, then executing that vision in easy to comprehend, eye-catching designs.

Sample Clients & Results:
** Rachel Furman, Rachel Inc. – Aid repositioning of successful event promoter as premier Philadelphia style guru and columnist through image re-branding and creation of all subsequent marketing materials.
** Girls DJ Collective - A passion for increasing gender visibility in a male-slanted field led to joining the board of directors of this educational collective. Designed site that has become a resource for female DJ hopefuls of all ages, their parents, press and funding organizations.
** Busybee Interior Decorating - Tapped to redesign and maintain site for booming interior design firm during start-up phase. Revamped Internet presence to appeal to key market of property owners and real estate brokers. Added arresting animated splash page as well as virtual tour galleries. Resulting work was integral to Busybee's climb from small assignments to projects in upscale Old City and Rittenhouse Square neighborhoods.

THE SCIENTIST - Philadelphia, PA
May 1999 - August 2006
Senior Web Site Designer and Administrator
Crucial member of science magazine web team. Cultivated interest in the advantages of augmenting their web presence. Monthly issue design/coding including generation of multimedia assets (interactive info graphics, Podcasts). Ensured faithful translation of original print materials. Edited daily update of breaking news features and corresponding art. Guided visual evolution of branding through multi-pronged internet advertising campaigns: banners, e-mails and online media kit. Liaison between users, advertisers, editorial, sales/marketing, print and web. Recruited and organized freelance photographers.

THE SCIENTIST - Philadelphia, PA
May 1999 - August 2006
Assistant Art Director, Print Production
Page layout of monthly issues. Contributed editorial-enhancing content including illustrations, logos, charts/graphs. Produced in-house ads. Point of contact for advertisers and printers.

Key Accomplishments:
** Pioneering and imaginative, carved own path from print production department to first full-time web employee. Was instrumental in four complete redesigns and growth of magazine from small trade publication to well-regarded contender in market shared with Nature and Science.
** Member of team behind 2006 ASBE award winning Pain supplement sponsored by Johnson & Johnson.


ACCUWEATHER - State College, PA
May 1996 - April 1999
Senior Production Artist, Shift Manager
Mobilized team comprised of ten production artists. Drew and assembled complex weather maps, graphs and overall pages as per newspaper clients' detailed specifications on a deadline intensive schedule. While on duty, served as able primary troubleshooter of system complications and forecast delays.

Key Accomplishments:
** Self-taught team player who single-mindedly leaped from data entry to career within newspaper production/design.
** Confidently bridged delicate client-staff relations as well as needs of own division versus meteorology, data entry and editing teams' requirements.

EDUCATION:
University of the Arts - Philadelphia, PA
Web Design Certificate program, completed December 2004

AWARDS:
Honorable mention, Philadelphia City Paper/Philadelphia Center for the Photographic Image photography competition. Featured in First Friday exhibit at Nexus Gallery, April 2006.

KUDOS:
"Cathy has excellent design skills and mastery of Quark Xpress, Adobe Photoshop and other software required for the artwork creation and layout development of a magazine. During her first 2 years at The Scientist she contributed excellent ideas to the improvement of the look of the magazine, and she laid out pages carefully and with imagination.

In 2001 Cathy surprised me by applying for the new position of Web Site Designer and Administrator. However, she demonstrated an aptitude for the technical aspects of the position which combined with her design skills to create an unusual and valuable set of skills. She was single handedly responsible for several complete redesigns of The Scientist web site, during a time when the site was growing rapidly in size and seeing huge increases in traffic. Her hard work and skill moved The Scientist web site from an amateurish, dated look to a professional and modern presentation."
- Alexander Grimwade Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer of The Scientist, 1997-2002
sandy@amgpublishing.com

"There aren't a lot of web resources out there for women looking to DJ, and I have had many strangers contact me saying that they had found Girls DJ through web searches. I cannot count the number of people who go out of their way to compliment Girls DJ on our beautiful and useful web page - a web page solely the work of Cathleen. She is responsive to any needs for changes or updates, detail-oriented, creative, and meticulous -- a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend her for any position that would benefit from a smart, talented, creative professional."
- Carolyn Chernoff, MS. Ed.
Co-Director, Girls DJ Collective
chernoff@dolphin.upenn.edu

"Cathy did a great job of coming up with interesting images to accompany stories. Instead of just slapping things on, she often chose images that added another layer to the piece, making it much more compelling than anything anyone else came up with. Once she stepped into the role, the homepage became much more visually appealing."
- Alison McCook,
News Editor, The Scientist
amccook@the-scientist.com