A bit about myself
I try to remember the moment I made the conscious decision of becoming a designer, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that it wasn't really a decision. I've always been this way. From an early age, I filled notebook after notebook with colors, shapes, and lines, which eventually evolved and bled into my college education, where I discovered the opportunity of using my passion to help tell a story through design. I started picking up freelance design projects, and before I knew it, I was working as a designer, and it's been the one thing that's fostered my career.
As a designer with a fairly diverse background, I have thorough experience working in a tech environment as well as an agency environment. I am very comfortable with client facing relationships, and have experience selling the work, either to my peers or to larger client teams by explaining design thinking in a strategic way. I have deep knowledge of the design process, from development to production, and I have a deep passion for the art of design and the power it has in telling the brand story.
a bit about my work
Through trial and error, working with mentors and industry professionals, and through my own personal growth and refinement, I've really had the chance to come into my own. This has shaped who I am as a designer, which in turn, has affected my overall design process. I’m able to provide clients with the tools to have a better overall understanding of the creative while also fostering the relationships I have with those clients. When given the chance, I truly think it’s a beautiful and fulfilling process to make a brand story come to life.
SOFTWARE
Adobe Creative Suite, including mastery of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Design using Fligma, Sketch, and InVision. Google Slides, Powerpoint, keynote for presentations, Wordpress, mailchimp, Squarespace. UX software like Sketch, and various other tools for project management and optimization
SPECIALTIES
BRANDING—visually molding information, to tell a compelling story with dynamic visuals, style, tempo, and cadence
STRATEGY —leading workshops with partners to guide them through a visual strategy, providing them with the tools needed to create future campaigns, acting as a creative consultant and furthering relationships post workshop.
DESIGN—working with existing and new brand identities to update or create a visual style through advertisements, layouts, logos, catalogs, business collateral, illustration, banners, photo editing, template design, working with wireframes, designing custom UI kits,
MANAGEMENT—providing creative input for peers and junior level designers help them produce their best work.
EDUCATION
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Creative Advertising
makersplace
brand Design | march 2022 - PRESENT
I work on the Design team for Makersplace, an NFT marketplace for artists in the space. I was hired to work through the company re-brand, as well as progress the brand and product as it stands currently. I work closely with the product team on page design, as well as templatizing design systems for ease of use throughout the company. I also work to develop compelling work for video, social, email, digital ads, blogs for marketing streams and avant-garde partnership campaigns. A big part of my role is experiential design, working on virtual experiences, large-scale in-person NFT conferences, art shows, and various events that require our brand presence. I work with different mediums whether it’s print (both large scale booth design or collateral), digital design for large or small scale media, and swag design.
Working on a small team, I take initiative to propel design projects forward and work with the team to identify gaps as well as brand opportunities for longer-term company success and growth.
The Marketing store
Senior Designer | April 2020 - march 2022
Working exclusively on the T-Mobile brand along with The Marketing Store internal design initiatives, as a Senior Designer I managed, produced, designed, and pitched work for the T-Mobile brand team at large. I worked exclusively on brand evolution within T-Mobile, I sold new ideas to win T-Mobile business partnerships, and I maintained a strong client relationship. I solely developed and sold a new illustration style and system to the T-Mobile team. The success of that project led to larger conversations about implementing this style to the T-Mobile parent brand illustration.
On a day-to-day cadence, I worked alongside our Creative Director to make sure the team was following best design practices, I led larger visual initiatives, pitched to the client team on a bi-weekly cadence, and managed the Junior designers to make sure they were producing their best work.
DESIGNer | august 2018 - February 2020
Working on the Cross Functional Design team, I was primarily focused on working with Pinterest Ad partners, working on end-to-end design and the creative development process for all clients. I had to understand the client’s needs, develop mock-ups to get feedback, and deliver the final assets. Alongside this work, I worked closely with the sales team to design content for Pinterest’s marketing and sales collateral, develop compelling material to assist in closing new business. I also worked closely with the Pinterest Brand Team to design and roll out the new Pinterest branding to all the XFN teams. Our team led the initiative to create a newly designed system that could be applied across multiple channels within the company. This included internal collateral, presentation design, marketing/sales collateral, developing Pinterest branded event design, etc.
During my time there, I also created and administered a new offering called the Pin Creation Workshop, working with various partners to educate teams on how to best create content for Pinterest. These workshops included a comprehensive design and concept strategy, an interactive workshop (led by us), as well as a follow-up creative consultations. I was responsible for designing out the partnership brand material according to Pinterest Best Practices, optimizing their assets by providing their teams with template-based designs that optimized their own objectives for promoting on the platform.
cramer-krasselt
associate DESIGNer | april 2017 - august 2018
Concept design of 360 campaigns, logos, print advertising, out of home, digital media, and web. Designing brand identities, led client re-branding efforts (from concept stage to specific branding guidelines) and art direction for video and photo shoots to follow suite. Designing any and all digital and web collateral, aiding art director & copywriter teams with campaign design strategies. Managing multiple projects through ideation to production working along side Creative Directors
CAXY INTERACTIVE
DESIGN LEAD | JANUARY 2016 - april 2017
Web DESIGNER | MARCH 2014 - DECEMBER 2015
Working at a web development agency, working on digital branding and creative consultation for any and all client-facing and in-house Caxy work, working closely with UX designers, front-end developers, and back end developers in an Agile environment to develop products from the consultation phase, to the development phase. Internally, I worked on the creation and standardization of the Caxy brand (and re-brand), from logo development to the development of the official brand guidelines.
DONER ADVERTISING
DESIGNER | october 2012 - MARCH 2014
Design for prints ads, logos, layouts, email templates, web banners, and print collateral, as well as design for brand guides, brand identities, and new client re-branding efforts. Administered projects through prepress to print production, as well as managing multiple projects when needed.
LIANA BUTKUNAS DESIGN
FREELANCE | 2008-PRESENT
Work directly with clients to provide logo design, brand consultation and development, advertisement campaigns, and web/print layouts. Specialize in working with and advising start-ups and small companies.