About Spitshine Design
Spitshine Design is an online project of Mike Stickney, a graphic and Web designer based in Fairfield County CT. With over 10 years in commercial printing and another 6 years in Web design, Mike Stickney can bring a unique perspective to any graphic design, online marketing or Website design project.
Mike Stickney
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About Mike Stickney
A graphic and Web designer located in Fairfield County, CT with an extensive background in both print and Web design. As a marketing and design professional, I am constantly striving to advance my knowledge and understanding of not only the creative aspects of the Web design and marketing industry, but also how it relates to adverstising and marketing and their combined impact on the end-user or customer. A self-proclaimed “jack-of-all-trades” when it comes to graphic design, I am comfortable handling the simplest of items such as image optimization for the Web or creating PDFs for approval purposes, to managing large-scale projects such as designing a full sales brochure or an entire Web site. Although I consider myself a designer first, I also have the technical understanding of what is necessary for the completion of a project whether it be for print or the Web. With an extensive background in commercial printing, combined with assignments in print design and production, experience re-designing a large-scale Web site and a strong knowledge of online direct marketing, I feel I have the ability to look at projects from several points of view and provide valuable input to find the best solution for the initial task and beyond.
Professional Experience:
10/13/09 - Present: Currently employed as a Web Designer for an online wine retailer
- Work closely with online marketing departments in the creative execution of online marketing materials for the Web.
- Produce online marketing materials for current customer marketing as well as new recruitment marketing.
- Update and maintain promotional marketing components of company websites for the U.S. market (www.4seasonswine.com, www.zagatwine.com, www.wsjwine.com)
- Design new landing page creatives for both existing and new business initiatives
- Design, coding and deployment of HTML customer marketing email campaigns.
- Flash animation for online banner advertising
08/08/2007 – 10/13/09: Employed as Art Director within the Creative Department for a large online marketing company
- Manager of a small team of designers for the Online Acquisitions Department
- Work closely with various online marketing departments (Display, Search, Affiliates) in the creative execution of online mareting materials for the Web.
- Design banner ads for existing and new business initiatives
- Design new landing page creatives for both existing and new business initiatives
- Flash animation for online banner advertising
05/31/02 – 08/08/2007: Worked in various roles within the Creative Department of a leading luxury international travel company. Immediately following college graduation, began as a Print Prodution Artist in May of 2002 and departed as the Creative Web Manager in August of 2007.
- Was highly involved in the rebuilding and redesign of consumer Web site (www.tauck.com)
- Managed all content and ongoing maintenance of b2c and b2b Web sites
- Lead designer and production artist for several consumer Web sites
- Designer and production artist for online marketing including emails, banner ads and directory marketing listings
- Print production for marketing brochures, sell-sheets, self-mailers and various direct marketing sales pieces.
09/01/1992 – 10/01/2002: Worked within the commercial printing industry in various roles throughout the offset printing industry.
- 2+ years in bindery and finishing
- 7+ years as lead press operator on 2-color to 6-color offset sheetfed printing presses
- 1+ years as pre-press mac operator
Computer Skills
- QuarkXpress
- Adobe Creative Suite (CS3)
- Macromedia Studio (now Adobe Creative Suite)
- Microsoft Office Suite
- HTML
- PHP
- CSS
- FTP Transfer programs
- Internet Browser constraints
- SEO recommendations
- Web Analytics
- SlideShowPro
- Concrete (Web content management system)
- Bronto email marketing software
- WordPress blogging platform
- Mac and PC operating platforms
Education
Associate of Arts in Graphic Design, May 2002
Norwalk Community College, Norwalk, CT
GPA 3.6
In addition to core curriculum for a degree in graphic design, completed college level courses in Web Programming, Internet Commerce Technology, Business & Marketing and Advanced Graphic and Web Design.