​kristymctaggart
+ photoshop
Recounting a long and productive
love affair
with some software
1994 - 2013
Principal and Creative Director, McTaggart Design Group Inc. dba Artiface.com
Artiface is a high end custom stationer in Orange County, CA which I founded in 1994. As a result of running this company for 19 years I have formidable experience in all things print, from design and branding and all things paper, to color management, image editing, typography and layout, and final preflight/file conversions to presses of all types. My experience also extends to finance, sourcing and vendor relations, management of a staff of creatives, and successful client acquisition and retention. Designed UI for all web marketing for the company.
My role at the company
Designed unique high-end invitations and direct mail marketing pieces to client spec.
Employed and directed 4 employees, financials, venÂdor sourcing and design/buildout of 1700 sf commercial showroom and production facility. Grew the company from zero to $300K in annual revenues.
What about Photoshop?
Photographs of invitations have to be about the most boring product images since bicycle spokes. Using photoshop, I pioneered a technique to make paper look interesting, still in use at the company today. You can see examples of our enhanced photography at www.Artiface.com.
1993 - 2000
Graphic Designer and Print Buyer, Care Ambulance Service Inc. / Orange, CA As contract provider, designed and produced Proposal books to city government spec used to pursue municipal and county contract awards. Managed all photography and branding. Reported to the Director of Operations. Assisted Care Ambulance to win $20 million in contracts for over 20 cities in the greater Los Angeles area as well as designed and printed the winning entry materials for the coveted 2012 Malcolm Baldrige Award for Management Excellence for Healthcare in the state of California. Care Ambulance has quadrupled in size in this time.
1993 - 2000
Graphic Designer and Production Artist, The ColorEdge, Costa Mesa, CA. Display advertising and catalog design, music packaging design, copywriting, image work and prepress production services for a small specialized creative agency. Fashion retouching and photographic special effects for extreme sports, cosÂmetic, fashion and music industry clients: GT Bicycles, Felt, Nirve, Citreshine, ClearLogix, Fender, Roland, Elixir, Frontline Records, YUM! Brands (Taco Bell), PepsiCo (partial list)
EDUCATION
Brainerd High School, Brainerd, MN
St. Olaf College, Northfield MN - 2 years - emphasis in English
University of Minnesota, St. Paul MN
B.S. Animal Science Degree with highest honors
After relocating from Minnesota to southern California in 1990, I met Photoshop briefly at MacWorld. A guy was changing some girl's eye color. I was in awe. But it wasn't until I started working as a music packaging artist for Frontline Records in Newport Beach in 1993 that Photoshop and I began our relationship in earnest.
Coming up with crazy effects for album covers and retouching acne on rock stars prepared me well for my next gig at The Coloredge, a boutique agency specializing in fashion, music and extreme sports clients. There Photoshop and I were thrown at some crazy assignments, like taking sunglasses off a model and stripping out and repainting bicycles (think about all the spokes) that had been shot in China. Good times.
RESUME
About Us
COMMERCIAL DESIGN
AS A PROPRIETOR
