An award-winning graphic design professional with extensive experience in concept development, art direction, design, and project management. I have a broad and versatile design background with projects ranging from trade books and editorial design to marketing collateral and museum exhibition graphic design. With over twenty-five years' experience in the adult and children's trade book markets, I have a thorough knowledge of book design, production, printing, and manufacturing processes. With excellent typographic, layout, image-editing, and color management/prepress skills—plus a strong editorial sensibility—I can provide a thoughtful analysis of a project's design needs and manage the process to final deliverables. I also thrive on being part of a dynamic and creative collaborative team working to realize a collective vision.

Fluency and expertise in all Adobe CC programs using MacOSX platform.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

SENIOR DESIGNER/ART DIRECTOR/CONSULTANT
Lydia D'moch Design
(San Diego, CA, June 2009–Present)
Art direction, design, production and project management of visual communications including marketing collateral, advertising, print and online publications (trade book covers and interiors, catalogs, newsletters), editorial design, and museum exhibition graphics. Expertise in developing concepts from rough idea to final implementation, with particular strengths in layout, typography, electronic image manipulation, creating formats and templates, photo editing, illustration and photography. Providing consultation with self-publishing clients to foster understanding of the principles of good bookmaking in addition to content design. Strong editorial sensibility and experience with writing, editing and proofreading. Clients include: California Center for the Arts Escondido, Mission Trails Regional Park, Sunbelt Publications, Becker&Mayer/Quarto Publishing Group, South Dakota State Historical Society Press, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Thunder Bay Press, Silver Dolphin Books, San Diego Zoo (Zoonooz), City of Chula Vista 

GRAPHIC DESIGNER, EXHIBITS
San Diego Natural History Museum
(San Diego, CA, November 2013–November 2016; June 2018–April 2019)
Working in close collaboration with museum exhibit designers, content planners, exhibit fabricators and other team members to create exhibit environments from design concept to production, generating graphic stages from initial layout to final printer-ready files. Conceptualizing and implementing a consistent visual style for all graphic components, including interpretive panels, reading rails, labels, signage, interactive media, printed and online guides, and ancillary materials. Managing assignments to outside freelance illustrators and printers, monitoring project status and schedules. Also designed internal and external print and digital communication materials supporting the Nat brand, including advertising, collateral, signage, and fulfilling business development requests.
Permanent Exhibitions:
• Coast to Cactus in Southern California (2015): 
   A 9,000 square-foot exhibition exploring the region’s unique habitats and biodiversity. 
   (Winner of American Association of Museums' 2016 Overall Excellence Award and 
   Sustainability Awards)
• Extraordinary Ideas from Ordinary People: A History of Citizen Science (2016): 
   An exhibition space celebrating the contributions of citizen scientists and showcasing 
   notable rare books, photographs, maps, and exclusive artifacts from the Museum’s 
   Special Collections Library.

SENIOR DESIGNER
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (formerly Harcourt Trade Publishers)  
(San Diego, CA, September 1989–June 2008):
Designed book interiors and jackets of approximately 50 trade titles per year, from manuscript to bound book, as well as catalogs and promotional materials. Extensive experience with digital and offset print production processes.
• Managed a sizable workload of diverse book genres and imprints with demonstrated skill at planning, organizing, and prioritizing to meet tight deadlines within budget and schedule parameters. 
• Fostered and maintained supportive, collaborative teamwork with authors, illustrators, and editorial and production colleagues. 
• Created comps, layouts, sample pages and dummies indicating hierarchy of image and text components, and generated expert type specs, electronic composition and pagination, and final printer-ready files.
• Art directed and managed extensive image-driven projects, including photo editing, scanning, image manipulation and maintaining photo archives and files. 
• Designed prototypes and mock-ups for spinoff items and repackaging, and brainstormed ideas for developing new novelty products based on backlist to increase revenue.
• Directed assignments to freelance designers, illustrators and photographers, and worked with printers and other vendors, monitoring schedules and project status.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER
The Hunger Project 
(San Francisco, CA, 1987–1989)
Designed newsletters, direct mail, brochures, and other collateral materials for a non-profit organization

GRAPHIC DESIGNER, Freelance  
(San Francisco, CA)
Magazine, book, advertising, marketing design and project art management for publishing, advertising and travel industry clients.

BOOK DESIGNER
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich School Publishers  
(San Francisco, CA)
Designed interiors and covers for literature, history, and social studies textbooks. Developed visual concepts and art directed illustrators and photographers in executing ideas. 

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
• Designed the American Library Association’s Caldecott Medal winner, Smoky Night, 1995.
• Excellence in Book Design, Juried Competitions (1991–2018): Bookbuilders West • American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Fifty Best Books of the Year • IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards • PubWest • New York Book Show • San Diego Book Awards • Paris Writers’ News 
• Photography: Grand Prizewinner, American Humane Association juried competition, 2008; Honorable mention, San Diego County Fair, juried competition, 2016.

EDUCATION
B. A., Scripps College, Claremont, CA
• Internship with Creative Department of Young & Rubicam Advertising, Los Angeles, CA

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Vice-President, Board of Directors at Friends of Cats, a non-profit, no-kill shelter 
(El Cajon, CA, board member 2003–2019)
• Determine, authorize, and implement governance issues relating to employee and feline health and welfare, estate bequests, planning, membership, fundraising and volunteer activities. 
• Write and edit feature stories, photograph events, design, typeset and manage production of the shelter's quarterly newsletter.
• Oversaw the creative process for website redesign, art directed web designer and wrote online content to increase clarity of message and user-friendliness of site.
• Completed the National Fundraising School, professional development training sponsored by the American Humane Association, and participated in other grant writing and fundraising workshops and seminars.

Wildlife Rehabilitation Volunteer, specializing in baby bird care
Project Wildlife 
(San Diego, CA, 2015-Present)