MARKETER

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

WEB DESIGNER

BRAND MANAGER

ILLUSTRATOR

PROJECT MANAGER

karencave

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“

Karen Cave has worked within the design arena for over 27 years as a marketer, graphic and web designer. Her work has taken her to the States as well as many European countries often assigned to high profile or sensitive projects for blue chip companies.

If domain expertise and enthusiasm were currencies, Karen would be a millionaire several

times over. Her desire to find the right answer and deliver it is very infectious, which makes any team with her in it twice as productive.”

CYRUS GILBERT-ROLFE - VICE PRESIDENT

AS A MARKETERKaren’s marketing experience and graphic design skills works hand-in-hand; with little need to enlist external resources. Karen has strategic marketing skills and creative flair producing campaigns that result in a healthy ROI, increased client engagement and brand awareness. Karen ensures all touch-points are maximised using traditional and digital channels. She works closely with sales and customer services developing initiatives for lead generation, advocate referrals and customer retention.

AS A DESIGNERKaren is an Adobe powerhouse with extensive knowledge of Photoshop, In-Design and Illustrator. Her understanding of client needs and requirements allow her to produce intuitive design solutions for any number of industry sectors including product design, packaging, exhibition stand design, corporate branding, product branding and brand-to-hand sales collateral.

AS A WEB DESIGNER Karen has developed sites using WordPress, Joomla and Perch Content Management Systems (CMS). Karen is fluent in HTML, PHP and CSS, she is an experienced User Interface Designer and User Experience practitioner having developed front end designs for online applications and software solutions.

AS A PROJECT MANAGERKaren is well versed in DSDM (rapid application development) project management methodology. She has experience overseeing project delivery; managing resources, relationships and time-lines. Her modus operandi is to deliver work on time, within budget and beyond the expectations of her clients.

VALUE ADD As well as an impressive list of core competencies Karen brings a wealth of experience. She is a huge team player with a “can do” attitude; willing to stretch herself and take on new challenges.

Her work ethic, integrity and personal values will ensure you have not just a great employee but also a valued asset. Her quick wit, insight and inventiveness contributes to an energetic and fresh office dynamic. Her positive relationships assures successful outcomes and satisfied stakeholders.

Karen is a company fit but will also bring a little zest, joy and fun into the mix. She is an incredibly happy person and as such is a fantastic motivator.

ELEARNING2014 - Present

Harper Collins Publishers Industry: Education | eLearning Software Modern foreign and classical languages software and mobile application for the education arena.

Marketing | UIUX Designer Responsible for the planning, execution and evaluation of activities defined within the marketing strategy for Harper Collins MFL eLearning Software including digital marketing, analytics, SEO and social media strategies. Duties included graphic and web design services covering digital and traditional channels.

The production of User Interface and User Experience Designs, creating Visio flowcharts, storyboards, GUI designs and asset generation.

Marketer � Marketing Strategy

� Marketing Plan | Activities

� Digital Marketing

� Social Media Marketing

� Traditional Marketing

� Google Analytics | SEO

� Sales Support

� Campaign Management

Graphic Designer � Brand Design

� Digital Designs

� Camera Ready Artwork

� Campaign Designs

� Advertising Artwork

UI & UX � User Interface Design

� Storyboarding

� Flowcharts | Visio

� Designs and Visuals

� Graphical Assets

� Styles | Themes

ALEX MARSON“Karen oversaw the transformation of what was a fairly rudimentary marketing output into something much more professional. She developed an in-depth marketing strategy, encompassing online/print advertising, conferences/exhibitions and social media.

Her role as UI/UX designer coincided with the start of our transition to a new version, a single page application making use of new technologies. She produce a completely updated look and feel with insight and input based on her own considerable experience to ensure that user experience is as good as it can be.”

JUSTIN SYCAMORE

“Karen is a high-energy marketer and designer who brings her creativity and resourcefulness to all projects that she works on. Karen uses her broad range of skills - from graphic design to user experience and interface through to website structure and layout, managing and maintaining social media presence, negotiating for appropriate advertising as well as managing event and exhibition planning and attendance. Karen is diligent and hard-working and I would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a self-motivated designer or marketer.”

ECOMMERCE

2013 - 2013 SHORT TERM CONTRACT

Kettlewell Colours Ltd Industry: Retail | eCommerce Clothing range for customers who dress according to their seasonal colour chart.

Photo Retouching - eCommerce WebsiteResponsible for colour changing their clothing range, stock photos and catalogue shoots. Created batch automation in Adobe Photoshop, a mannequin system with mask filters for ‘shop the look’ and redesigned their eCommerce User Interface.

Photo Retouch � Look Book Images

� Printed Catalogue Images

� Online Catalogue Images

� Automated Adobe Filters

Web Designer � eCommerce UI & UX

� Online Assets

� Liaised with Developers

2009 - 2013

GR84 Ltd Industry: Health and Fitness | eCommerce Marketing and design collateral for the fitness industry with eCommerce applications.

Design | Marketing Director Responsible for the design and delivery of marketing and brand led services provided by GR84, a brand licensing company. Duties included providing marketing support, marketing collateral, a dedicated knowledge base and business development services. I also developed an eCommerce site for users to pay for and download editable artwork.

Marketer � Campaign Management

� B2B & B2C Marketing

� Social Media Marketing

� Digital Marketing

� Google Analytics | SEO

Graphic Designer � Brand Design & Development

� Brand Assets

� Design Services

� Artwork for Print

� Digital Artwork

Web Designer � Multiple Brand Led Sites

� Mini-sites Sub-Domains eCommerce

� Knowledge Base

� UI & UX

BRAND LICENSING

JAYNE STONE“Karen provided an invaluable service, her skills, knowledge and creative flair were inspired however it was her sense of humour, ready wit and ‘crazy-funny’ I appreciated the most. I would highly recommend Karen, she is able to take on any challenge with an indomitable spirit - had I not retired I would still be working with her today.”

DESIGN AGENCY2007 - 2009

Futurate Ltd Industry: Marketing | Design Agency Providing eBusiness, eLearning, marketing and design services to SMEs.

Information Architect | Marketing | Design Duties included marketing consultation, marketing strategies, sales support and bid management. Responsible for information architecture and content management in-house and as a service provider. Provided design services including web and graphic design, consultation on UI / UX for all eBusiness related projects and scripts for User Acceptance Testing.

JENNIFER FRYER“Karen initially joined our organisation as Lead Designer. After only 1 year, she was promoted to Director of Marketing making her part of the sales, account management and client relationship management teams.

Karen leads by example and many people here find her enthusiasm and dedication both inspiring and motivating. Karen has not only worked hard to build authentic relationships with new and existing clients, but she has also created a strong new brand for the company while at the same time streamlined the entire proposal process. Her efforts have resulted in a 100% increase in the number of pitch interviews for prospective new clients, and has given the company a more coherent, focused definition of its service offering.”

Marketer � Business Link Partner Services

� B2B & B2C Marketing

� Traditional Marketing

� Marketing Consultancy

Graphic Designer � Brand Design & Development

� Design Services

� Design Consultancy

� Vector Illustration

Web Designer � CMS Websites

� Graphical Assets

� User Interface Designs

� Information Architecture

� User Acceptance Testing

2004 - 2007

Serco Education Industry: Education | Management Information Systems Providing MIS systems for schools and colleges.

Marketing | Design Worked as a Graphic Designer within Serco Educations Marketing Department providing brand led designs for their communication touch points, sales and marketing collateral. Created assets and assisted in the User Interface Design of ‘Facility’ and ‘ePortal’ - Serco Educations MIS system for Schools and Colleges. Deployed the rebranding initiative from HQ throughout our division.

Marketer � New Brand Rollout Scheme

� Website Content Management

� Exhibition & Event Management

Graphic Designer � Brochures

� Case Studies

� Brand To Hand Collateral

� Training Material

� Stand Designs

Sales � Bid Project Office

� AV Slides | Presentations

� Business Strategy

NIGEL THACKER “Karen was instrumental in the professional face that our business put to the marketplace. She ensured that the large volume of that our marketing team created was professional, excellently designed and maintained a corporate coherency whilst managing to remain interesting, varied and engaging - and very relevant to the customer. Karen was also well within her broader capabilities within the role that she had with us - I’m sure that given the opportunity of a larger organisation and more complex set of responsibilities she would have shone even more.”

ANNE JEFFERY“Karen always made her work look easy, which means I didn’t always appreciate the hard work and professionalism she demonstrated. Her design ideas were always inspired, and her presentation was always as close to perfect as she could get it. I’ve worked with a few designers - Karen is one of the better ones.”

THOMAS HENNESSY“We worked on numerous projects together often with limited resources and she always delivered a solution on time that was of a very high standard. I would have no hesitation he recommending Karen Smith going forward.”

JOHN ROOTHAM“Karen is always the superb professional in everything she does! The ‘world of bids’ has its own pressures, deadlines and tight timescales - whatever the circumstance Karen brought enthusiasm, ideas, produced innovative collateral which added measurable and clear extra value. Karen works to create a dedicated team enabling us all to perform at a higher level.”

MIS SYSTEMS

2002 - 2004

Pacemaker UK Industry: Retail | Brand Licensing Developing new products as well as managing licensed products from gift-ware to collectables.

Senior Project Manager | Designer Responsible for the production of licensed products, new product development and end to end project management. Products included ‘The Simpson’s’, ‘The Turds’, ‘Not So Scary Monsters’, ‘Leo’ and ‘Hammer House of Horror Top Trumps’.

Product Developer � Conceptualisation

� Product Design

� Product Development

� Product Branding

Graphic Designer � Brochures

� POS & Brand to Hand

� Sales Collateral

� Packaging Design

� Illustrations

Project Manager � Product Management

� Stakeholder Management

� Manufacturing Specs

� 3rd Party Suppliers

JOHN NOBLE“I worked with Karen for a few years in the mid-2000s, at Pacemaker UK, Nottingham, where we developed a range of gift products together. Karen has the patience of a saint and helped bring me into the digital era, teaching me new skills and techniques on Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. Karen is a very caring, kind and funny person and an absolute pleasure to work with - keep doing what you’re doing Smudger, you’re great at it!”

BRAND LICENSING

2000 - 2002

Eurodata | Contractor Industry: IT | eBusiness IT Services and Support.

Art Director | Contract Provided art direction for their eBusiness development team. Outsourced to Schroder Pensions to design the UI/UX for their online Defined Contributions Management software.

Art Director � Overall Design Direction

� Creative Vision

� Brand Re-Vitalisation

eBusiness � Bids | Solution Definition

� Storyboarding | UI/UX

� Project Management

Contracted � User Interface Designs

� User Experience Designs

� CSS | Graphical Assets

Marketing � Sales& Marketing Collateral

� AV Presentations

� ARC Referral Scheme

Learning | Development � On-boarding Team

� Training Course Design

� Training Delivery

� eLearning | Knowledge Platform

eBusiness [Europe] � Art Direction

� UI & UX Designs

� Project Office

1995 - 2000

Perot Systems Industry: Business Development providing large scale business and IT solutions for global blue chip organisations.

European eBusiness Design Team Leader Marketing and Sales support responding to requests for proposals. In 1997 moved internally to work with the eBusiness development team looking after the UI/UX elements of eSolution delivery throughout Europe and the US. Working on sensitive and long-term £25M projects.

CYRUS GILBERT-ROLFE “If domain expertise and enthusiasm were currencies, Karen would be a millionaire several times over. Her desire to find the right answer and deliver it is very infectious, which makes any team with her in it twice as productive. I loved my time working with Karen, and I look forward to working with her again soon.”

PETER BROOKE “Karen has carved out a key role in the E-Business team, her work in developing the interface for the ITF Intranet has set new standards for E-Business design. Recently Karen has also taken on responsibility for leading the E-Business Design team for Europe, and this will give her the ideal platform to help build a real centre of expertise in EPOC. Karen has consistently demonstrated initiative and persistence, has readily taken ownership of tasks, and has made a real contribution to team spirit. It has been a pleasure to work with her.”

IT SERVICES

IT SERVICES

1994 - 1995

TIN Industry: Publication Four covers; weekly, monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly publications for the training industries.

Art Editor Responsible for the delivery of four magazine covers published weekly, monthly, bi monthly and quarterly. Duties included layout design, bespoke illustrations and advertising artwork and packaging for print.

IT Training Magazine � Art Direction

� Magazine Layout for Print

� Advertising Artwork

Management Magazine � Art Direction

� Magazine Layout for Print

� Advertising Artwork

Education Magazine (EC&T) � Art Direction

� Magazine Layout for Print

� Advertising Artwork

COLIN STEED - CHIEF EXECUTIVE“Karen is the best! Her standard of work, both creatively, artistically, and attention to detail, is of the highest standard. She is highly personable, highly creative and artistic, and is capable of taking a concept and producing outstanding results. Furthermore, she produces top quality results on time, and within budget. I could not recommend Karen more highly than I do here. As I said, she is THE BEST!”

PUBLISHING

AUDIO VISUALS 1989 - 1994

PR Graphic Images Industry: Audio Visual Providing 35mm slides and audio for corporate presentations.

Lead Designer Responsible for the production of vector computer illustrations - the birth of ‘clip-art’.

The Techie � Adobe InDesign

� Quark Xpress

� Adobe Illustrator

� Corel Draw

� Adobe Photoshop

� Adobe Dreamweaver

� Bryce KPT

� Perch, Joomla, WordPress

� Brackets, Source Tree/Safe

� CSS, HTML, PHP, JQuery

� Microsoft Office

The Marketer � Strategic Marketing

� Planning, Implementation

� Marketing Controls

� Brand Management

� Campaign Planning

� Budget Management

� ROI, Google Analytics

� Sugar, Sales Force, Zoho

� Digital Marketing

� Traditional Marketing

� Retention Programs

The Designer � Graphic Design

� Brand Design

� Web Design

� User Interface Design

� Accessibility Testing

� User Experience Design

� User Acceptance Testing

� Content Management

� Computer Illustrator

� Freehand Illustrator

� Fine Artist

THE BUSINESS SKILLS � DSDM Rapid Application

� PMM, SPM 100

� Process Re-engineering

� People Change Management

� CAP [Communications]

� CPP [Communications]

� Presentation Skills

� Celemi Tango

� Leadership [TTL, LO]

� MBTI and Time Management

� Landmark C4L

O’Levels � English

� Maths

� Art

� Drama

� Theatre Studies

� Stage Design

HE | FE � BTEC|OND Graphic Design

� A’Level Graphic Design

� A’Level Art

External Courses � PMM, SPM100 Project Mgt

� DSDM Project Mgt

� SEO - Hallam

� CAP|CPP Comms

� Celemi Tango [Finance]

� MBTI and Time Mgt

� Curriculum 4 Living

Internal Courses � Strategic Planning

� Presentation Skills

� UAT Methodologies

� People Change Management

� Taking The Lead

� Lead On

Skills and Competencies

Qualifications

Personal Development

MarketingStrategic Marketing Management: Planning, Implementation and Control by Richard M. S. Wilson and Colin Gilligan

Product Marketing for Technology Companies by Mark Butje

AnalyticsMarketing Analytics: Strategic Models and Metrics by Stephan Sorger

SEO SEO 2015/2017: Search Engine Optimization With Smart Internet Marketing Strategies by Adam Clarke

Digital MarketingUnderstanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation by Damian Ryan

UIUI is Communication: How to Design Intuitive, User Centered Interfaces by Focusing on Effective Communication by McKay, Everett N.

Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software by Jonathan Anderson

BusinessThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization by Peter M Senge

Fyi for Your Improvement Handbook: A Development and Coaching Guide by Michael M. Lombardo; Robert W. Eichinger

Recognising that it is important to continually update your knowledge within the fast-paced and dynamic design / marketing industry I keep myself well read - investing in the latest research and resources available. Below is my bed-time reading past and present.