jrtdesign : : : resume

J.Robert Theobald

summary

Creative Art Director and Designer with expertise in developing profitable, market-leading programs and products for consumer product, E-commerce, toy, print, and packaging companies. Passionate, analytical innovator who uses extensive design experience in multiple fields to consistently produce strong results.

Art / Copy Direction	Team Leadership	Graphic Design
New Product Development	Image & Product Licensing	Creative Staff Management
Brand Identity & Logo	Package Design	Web Design & Products

experience

jrtDesign - Bay Village, Ohio - 2000-present
Design and Consulting services.

Principal
Creative program and product development; corporate identity and logo; art/copy direction; web design and advertising graphics; packaging and graphic design for business and individual needs.

AmericanGreetings.com - Cleveland, Ohio - 1999-2000
A top 20 international website.

Senior Program Director, Creative
Direction of creative teams and programs; corporate identity and design; concept development.

Led creative development teams in product innovation for Internet start-up.

Collaborated with small team of Program Directors to concept, develop and produce over 18,000 original products that contributed to overcoming a 40% marketshare gap, achieving market leadership in one year.

Recognized as a finalist in the American Greetings 2000 Chairman's Awards for innovative contributions to product development for the web.

American Greetings - Cleveland, Ohio - 1986-1999
World's largest publicly held manufacturer and distributor of greeting cards and social expression products with sales in excess of $2.5 billion.

Senior Program Director, Product Concepts (1994-1999)
Program management and new product development; supervisory responsibility for various in-house and international teams; project support for domestic and international clients; departmental budget responsibility.

Created the "intuitions" product line, recognized as one of the most innovative, dynamic and best-selling alternative card programs in years. Intuitions reduced the average greeting card consumer age from 50 to 30 years, doubled sales to men, and quickly became one of AG's highest rated promotions. Led all program management, design direction, editorial development, and finished art production.

Directed the American Greetings/Carlton UK (United Kingdom) Alternative Humour Project. Helped to grow UK humorous product nearly 1,500% from £895 thousand to over £13 million in less than 4 years. Responsible for program management, design development and direction of 4,000+ cards. Worked closely with Senior Management to develop cost-cutting measures in production that substantially improved profits.

Designed Corporate Identity Standards for the new AmericanGreetings.com corporation. Comprehensive program included corporate logo development, design standards manual, stationery and related design

Directed the creative design development of the award-winning, original website for American Greetings. Launched in 1995, it is now the leading and largest provider of personal expression products on the web.

Developed numerous package design programs, including best-selling greeting card software and print products for CreataCard, American Greetings and AmericanGreetings.com

Senior Graphics Director, Those Characters From Cleveland (1989-1994)
Program and product design; new product development; supervisory responsibility for in-house NPD and photographic staffs; direction of design freelance base; support for in-house and client creative licensing needs.

Directed and supervised the creative staff of 20.

Developed a massive stream of creative new toy, package and product concepts, licensing solutions, and related graphic products to meet corporate and client needs.

Designed and directed product packaging and identity programs for all toy and licensing properties, including the development of original structural designs and treatments.

Packaging Graphics Director, Those Characters From Cleveland (1986-1989)
Program packaging and logo design; new product development; photo studio development; direction of design freelance base; support for in-house and client creative needs. ·

Established in-house package design capabilities (previously outsourced) resulting in savings of over $100,000 per year.

Directed all package functions: structural and graphic design, photography, print and paper management.

Designed and developed packaging and logo solutions for toy programs including My Pet Monster, Holly Hobbie, Cozy Bows, Nosy Bears, Popples, Madballs, AmToy brand product and many others.

Aladdin Industries, Incorporated - Nashville, Tennessee - 1979-1986
A leading developer and manufacturer of thermal insulated food and beverageware products.

Manager, Design & Graphics (1985-1986)
Design and implementation of product and graphic systems; P/L and supervisory responsibility for Industrial Design, Graphic Design and Printing departments; marketing and administrative project support.

Designed first products for company using soft construction/insulation; successful introduction helped secure entirely new distribution into upscale merchandisers. ·

Introduced procedures to manage productivity of Screened Graphics department; output increased in excess of 50% within two weeks of implementation.

Senior Industrial Designer (1983-1985)
Development of product and graphic projects; P/L responsibility for Industrial Design department; systems analysis.

Created color guidelines which improved product aesthetics, while reducing inefficient production over 70%; proposal resulted in the design of the best-selling thermos bottle in America.

Redesigned thermal product line employing standardization of component parts; prototype study reduced necessary parts over 40% while improving manufacturability and appearance.

Industrial Designer (1979-1983)
Product conceptualization and design; corporate identity development; presentation support.

Wrote and designed Aladdin Standards Manual, establishing company-wide product and identity guidelines.

Designed the original 12 oz. Aladdin thermal mug. This design was later used as the foundation for the Aladdin licensing program. Resultant business created the most widely used insulated mug in the world.

education

BA, Industrial Design - Purdue University - West Lafayette, Indiana, 1979
Completed 4-year degree in less than 2 years with accumulative GPA of 3.8/4.0

Ball State University - Muncie, Indiana - Teaching/Math concentration (1977)

United States Coast Guard Academy - New London, Connecticut - Math/Science concentration (1975-1976)

computer skills

Comprehensive understanding of design for the web and print; skilled in Adobe Photoshop, ImageReady and Illustrator, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash and Freehand, Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as other digital image manipulation and layout applications on both PC and Mac; familiar with Quark XPress, Adobe InDesign and Acrobat, HTML, and Javascript.

All images, concepts and designs shown are for portfolio preview use only and are the property of their respective owners. Images and designs may not be repurposed, altered, borrowed, modified, used or reused for any purpose without permission of the owner or licensor. If you are interested in obtaining the rights to use something you see, drop me a line and I'll do my best to hook you up with the original source.

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