Central Piedmont Community College Rebranding

Carolina Day School New Brand Story, View Book

UNC Pembroke Alumni Magazine – UNCP Today – Redesign

Charlotte Water Branding Design

Belmont Abbey College Adult Degree Program Brochure

Affinity Energy Branding Design

CCOG Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) Plan

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STRATEGIC BRANDING & GRAPHIC DESIGN

Boost student enrollment, engage alumni and raise more money

Imagine having an ongoing creative partner at-the-ready to support you and/or your in-house team with proven branding and graphic design—empowering you to focus on the high-level directives you were hired to do.

Whether your priority is attracting and enrolling more students, strengthening alumni pride in their alma mater or building a greater sense of community around your institution—we can help you get there.

We can meet you anywhere along our 3-phased brand development process.

Brand Strategy

Brand Identity

Creative Implementation

Whether you need a go-to creative partner for strategic brand development and campaigns or additional support for your existing team to meet deadlines and increase productivity, we’ve got you covered! We can drop in and level up your brand development anywhere along our 3-phased process:

If you need to strengthen your brand positioning and align your messaging, view our Brand Strategy Process.
If you’ve honed your school’s brand story and are ready to bring it to life visually, check out our Brand Identity Process.
If you already have a comprehensive brand strategy paired with a strong visual identity and need additional bandwidth to get more work done more quickly, we can help with Creative Implementation.

Ready to lead with confidence, focus and ease as we work toward your enrollment, alumni engagement and fundraising goals?

Let’s Talk

Hi, I’m Karen.

I help educational institutions boost student enrollment and retention, engage alumni and raise more money through strategic branding and graphic design.

With almost 30 years of brand marketing experience and a specialty in schools and nonprofits, I am your go-to creative partner for strategic campaigns. I also extend the bandwidth of marketing teams.

If you’re ready for focus and ease as we work toward your enrollment, alumni engagement and fundraising goals, let’s talk.

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Our communication- driven process

We believe winning results begin with open communication—so much so, we’ve built our process around it.

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Are we a good fit?

The clients who love us typically have these things in common.

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Karen was wonderful to work with in the creation of our new view book for Carolinas College of Health Sciences (CCHS). Her attention to detail was excellent and her eye for design exceptional. What I found most beneficial was how she listened to what we were looking for and so wonderfully captured the essence of our college.

— Hampton Hopkins, Ed.D; President, Carolinas College of Health Sciences

Karen is an excellent designer, very professional, very skilled at translating ideas into stimulating and engaging visuals. She has gone above and beyond for us coordinating our projects from start to finish, bringing in quality writing to help us bridge gaps. She also will jump in at a moment’s notice if she can to get us out of a bind.

— Rolando Rivas, Director of Marketing & Communications, Belmont Abbey College

Karen joined my team as lead designer on an ongoing, plain-language initiative for a Fortune 500 bank. After completing the corporation’s brand certification workshop, she hit the ground running, designing a multitude of customer-facing pieces with efficiency and accuracy. Karen has an excellent eye for detail AND design, making her a rare creative asset. She’s flexible, organized and offers valuable input. Maybe most importantly, she’s a team player and a pleasure to work with. You can’t go wrong hiring Karen!

— Deborah Bosley, Principal, The Plain Language Group

My firm worked with Karen to create a warm and professional intro to our company through a Client Welcome packet. Throughout the process Karen was patient and provided expert design and project management support. The end product is above and beyond what we had envisioned and we are already receiving raves from our clients and advisors alike!

— Erin Haubner, Director of Operations, Summit Financial Group

km design was great to work with producing our latest issue of UNC Pembroke's alumni magazine, UNCP Today. We were looking to modernize our publication and worked with km design to refresh the look and feel. The end result is a fresh, new magazine that tells our story and is a great representation of our brand!

— Jodi Phelps, Executive Director of University Communications and Marketing, UNC Pembroke

The Annual Report was a big deal for us. It marked the end of one journey and the beginning of another. km design understood how important it was to keep the fundraising energy going with donors. What they delivered was far beyond our expectations, and everyone was blown away.

— Jenna Westbrook, Executive Director, Union Academy Foundation

Karen did a great job designing our annual report, and working with our staff to bring a lot of disparate elements together to create one cohesive document. One board member said, ‘I think this digital annual report is one of the most attractive, focused and readable I have seen. The graphics, layout, pictures and text are superb, and most important, it is “on message.’ Congratulations to you and your colleagues for your work on the report, and to the whole staff for the work featured in the report.

— Cordelia Anderson, Director of Marketing & Communications, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

Karen brought great success to our rebranding process. Although she has a very calm demeanor, we learned to greatly appreciate the passion and talent she brings. Through her exceptional graphic design and inspiring integrated identity work, she far exceeded our expectations.

— Rob Johnson, Principal, Boomerang Design

I have had the pleasure of working with Karen on several projects. She consistently provides creative designs that capture the essence of the product or service. I can always count on her to provide me with honest feedback and a willingness to listen. I highly recommend her work!

— Yvonne Levine, Principal and Marketing Strategist, YGL Enterprises, Inc.

I've had the pleasure of working with Karen for more than 15 years. Her designs are clean, elegant and strategically sound. She truly understands the magic of blending the message with the visuals to create great work for clients. Karen is especially gifted when it comes to branding. She designed Tivoli's logo, which instantly communicates who we are (partners working side-by-side, while paying homage to our Italian heritage). She's also a delight to work with—smart, flexible and fun!

— Lisa Bell, Owner and Creative Director, Tivoli Partners

Karen isn’t just creative, she’s smart. I would recommend her for just about any design or branding project and look forward to working with her in the future.

— Bob Davies, Principal and Marketing Strategist, candescence

Karen’s work is amazing. I keep coming back to her because she has a fresh, inviting style that is perfect for our organization, and she always does a great job of completing projects on time and within budget.

— Sarah Goldstein, Branch Marketing Specialist, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

Karen is easy to work with and able to take a vague idea with little direction and create professional-looking pieces that work for the audience intended. I worked with Karen over the span of several months until I was able to hire a full-time graphic artist and I was consistently impressed with the quality of the work she produced and her ability to complete effective pieces quickly with minimal direction. Karen is a top-notch graphic artist.

— Amy Wright, Marketing Communications Director, Wastequip

KM Design

Charlotte NC Graphic & Web Design for Business, Fundraising, Nonprofits

Home

Boost student enrollment, engage alumni and raise more money

We can meet you anywhere along our 3-phased brand development process.

Hi, I’m Karen.

Our communication- driven process

Are we a good fit?

Want an annual / impact report that inspires and ignites giving?