UX Designer @ I am the lead designer for SoFi's new wealth management service, and currently the sole UX designer supporting SoFi's existing loan products. I work closely with the product, marketing and engineering teams to ensure all strategic elements, user feedback, and tactical specifications are properly documented, evaluated and implemented. Tools: Balsamiq; Git & GitHub; JIRA; Confluence; HipChat; InVision; Creative Suite From July 2015 to Present (6 months) Visual, Product Designer @ Tallie is accounting software that aims to reduce the pain of expense reports for everyone from the business traveler to the financial analyst. Transitioning from a newspaper page designer to startup product designer seemed so natural. I loved everything about my new role, and seamlessly adapted my skill set to fit Tallie's design needs. I led several marketing site redesign efforts, collaborating with the Head of Marketing to produce low- to high-fidelity mockups and specifications provided to stakeholders for approval and to developers for testing and full implementation. As the company's product needs increased, I started to pick up and build solutions for smaller app bugs and feature requests. I collaborated with the lead UX designer and a product manager or the CEO for most product enhancements. For my first long-term solo product, I led the Android app redesign, utilizing the knowledge and resources made available through the company's support team. Through the support team, I gained access to direct user feedback, collected outstanding bug and feature requests, and noted the team's own troubleshooting solutions. Working with the product manager and the Android developers, we planned to roll out the redesigned app in a number of releases -- each of which focused on providing iterative improvements for both new and previously existing workflows. Tools: Photoshop; InDesign; Sketch; Bootstrap; Agile Methodology; InVision; Target Process; TeamGantt; Dropbox From August 2013 to June 2015 (1 year 11 months) Page Designer @ After achieving page designer status at The Denver Post, I never fully shook my responsibilities as a graphic artist -- merely appended them. I spent many shifts designing section covers for both news and features. I found designing for the features sections more liberating, but the news sections more thrilling (nothing like redesigning A1 with only 10 minutes to deadline!). My skill set expanded to include managing my own workflow and deadlines: pulling story lists and mapping inches with the section editors, requesting graphics from the wire, relaying headline requests to the copy desk, and shipping pages to the printer. When I wasn't scheduled for a news shift, I started learning ePub software. Imagining a world where people could interact with my designs pushed me to learn as much as I could about the available technology. During my learning time, I art directed and assisted in the production of three ePubs: Garden Colorado, Denver Eats and the Ski Guide. Tools: Methodé; Illustrator: InDesign; Photoshop From March 2013 to August 2013 (6 months) Greater Denver AreaGraphic Artist @ While I was a graphic artist at The Denver Post, I had the privilege of contributing to Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news coverage of a tragic event in Aurora, Colorado. More regularly (and usually more upbeat), my news shifts were occupied with maps and data. I worked closely with the staff reporters to develop charts, workflows and other data displays to contribute to the next day's paper. The most exciting part for me was learning about new trends, talking with the reporters and their sources to find the best way to represent any given concept to our readers. My other tasks at the newspaper included managing graphics requests, researching and developing conceptual illustrations, and never, ever missing a deadline. Tools: Illustrator; pen and paper; InDesign; Photoshop; Bloomberg; 4D Cinema; Cyberduck From July 2011 to August 2013 (2 years 2 months) Greater Denver AreaFreelance Illustrator, Design Consultant @ Write in Color is a writing and branding agency based in LA. As a design consultant and freelance illustrator, I assisted the agency with the design direction of a non-fiction book about obesity. The highly-stylized book required more than 60 unique, full-page illustrations, informational graphics, and typographical elements. I worked closely with a project manager to ensure all concepts were properly interpreted and developed. Tools: Illustrator; InDesign; Dropbox From June 2012 to December 2012 (7 months) Greater Los Angeles AreaDesigner for B Free Daily @ B was a commuter paper for the Baltimore metro area. I was one of two "presentation architects"​ (we weren't members of the guild, so we couldn't technically call ourselves page designers). Together we managed our own time, developing a system that allowed for constructive feedback, friendly competition, and divvying the daily work (which ranged from cover story conceptual illustration and data visualizations to the simple lay out of jump pages or secondary story pages) . Primary tools: InDesign; Illustrator; Photoshop From November 2010 to June 2011 (8 months) Designer for Undergraduate Admissions @ Similar to my position with WOUB, this position was a combination contract and internship program made possible through the university's PACE program. While interning for the Undergraduate Admissions office, I collaborated with the public relations intern to pitch and produce engaging content that targeted incoming OHIO students. Together we created budget-conscious regional newsletters, managed first-year student blogs, and started a man-on-the-street video campaign. After I graduated from Ohio University, my PACE mentor hired me to complete a few more projects as a contracted designer. I developed a few email templates using basic HTML/CSS, created templates for branded postcard campaigns, and redesigned a resource pamphlet that was sent to high school guidance counselors nationwide. Primary tools: Wordpress; Photoshop; InDesign; (the now defunct) FlipCam From September 2009 to December 2010 (1 year 4 months) News Graphic Artist @ Following a successful freelance project with the Dispatch, I won a contracted position on the graphics desk. It was refreshing to be in a newsroom and reporting on everything going on in the world. It was even more amazing to be in a place where not only was I learning more than I ever had in a classroom, but I was surrounded by so many talented people doing what they loved. Cartography, rapid conceptual illustration, dad jokes, interviewing over the phone, researching without the help of Google. I had the opportunity to learn from the best people in the biz (shoutout to Aaron, Tom, and Charlie!). Primary tools: Illustrator; Photoshop; NewsGate/CCI; AP style From June 2010 to September 2010 (4 months) Columbus, Ohio AreaNews Graphic Artist @ I was hired at WOUB through an on-campus career program called PACE. Through that program I spent two years learning from mentors in the television station's graphics department while maintaining a full-time academic schedule. My duties at the television station ranged from editing artwork for production to generating conceptual graphics based on news topics. I maintained image databases, participated in broadcast review and critique sessions, and quickly learned to enjoy and thrive under the stress of the fast-paced newsroom environment. Primary tools: Photoshop; InDesign; a really old CMS (the name escapes me, but let me tell you -- it was archaic) From September 2007 to June 2009 (1 year 10 months)

Visual Communication, Informational graphics, publication design @ Ohio University Danielle Kees is skilled in: InDesign, Layout, Photoshop, Art Direction, Multimedia, Graphics, Brochures, Advertising, Creative Direction, Newsletters, After Effects, Illustration, Editing, Video, User Experience, Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator