Kevin T

Graphic Designer

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium • Tiempo completo

Sep 2023 - Present • 2 yrs 8 mos

My current role is as a Graphic Designer for Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida — a nonprofit aquarium and research institution with over 36 scientific programs. It's a place where the work actually matters, and the design work reflects that. On any given week I might be designing a donor appeal headed to 60,000+ mailboxes, laying out a multi-page magazine article for 17,500 subscribers, building signage for one of six campuses, or creating infographics that make deep-sea research accessible to the general public. The range keeps things interesting. Some highlights I'm proud of: a Spring Appeal that raised $130K in its first two months and won both a Hermes Creative Award and a Graphic Design USA Award. A donor event invitation that also took home a Hermes Platinum. A membership campaign that drove a 15% lift in sign-ups within three weeks of the letter drop. Beyond the campaigns, I handle dieline development, fold mechanics, production-ready file prep, vendor coordination, photography, and the occasional WordPress update. Basically, if it needs to look good and work in the real world, that's where I come in. Adobe Certified Professional in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Visual Design.

Graphic Design Lead

Gilbarco Veeder-Root • Tiempo completo

Jun 1996 - Dec 2020 • 24 yrs 6 mos

Before Florida, I spent the better part of 25 years in Greensboro, North Carolina as a Graphic Design Lead at Gilbarco Veeder-Root — a company that manufactures gas dispensers. Yes, gas pumps. And honestly, it's more design-intensive than it sounds. My job was to create the cosmetic graphics that go on those dispensers — everything from simple branded panels for smaller companies to full custom builds for major names like ExxonMobil, Texaco, and Sunoco. These things shipped all over the world, so I like to say I'm internationally published. (It's a stretch, but I'm sticking with it.) The work required a level of precision that pushed me in ways a typical print job doesn't — dimensional dielines, material constraints, second-surface polycarbonate printing, UV-laminated vinyl for outdoor durability. Everything had to be exactly right before it went to production, because fixing a mistake on a printed gas pump isn't exactly a quick turnaround. Beyond the design work, I helped develop a standardized file system that supported over 100,000 printed graphics annually, collaborated with IT on an internal order tool that hit 50% adoption in its first six months, and mentored newer designers coming into the department.