Amy Melson
1714 11th Avenue Brooklyn, New York 11218
718 369 3220, 917 670 7102
www.amymelson.com

Proficiencies

• Studio photography and lighting
• Digital and hand rendering in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, illustration, photography
• Photo retouching and editing, print design, basic web design.
• Designing textile motif and repeats, color design, color matching and colorway development.
• Typography, page layout, print design and basic html

Employment

ABC Carpet & Home
Employed as Senior Designer, Photographer and Illustrator. Photographed furniture, accessories and jewelry for print ads and for web, managed lighting equiptment, rented strobes when necessary. Silhouetted and retouched images, adjusted contrast for optimal printing on newsprint and glossy stock, corrected color, managed image archive. Photographed product and interiors for advertising, kept photo archive of store appearance and events.

Created vector, pixel, hand drawn and painted illustrations and icons for appearance in store directories, banners, signage, hang tags and guides. Designed business cards and menus for associated restaurants, Pipa and Lucy. Worked heavily in print design, assisting in the creation of color and black and white ads for The New York Times, New York Magazine, T Magazine. Assisted Public Relations in product presentation for various magazines and press release emails. 2004 to 2010

Freelance Illustrator and Surface Designer
Created original designs for domestic fabrics including bedding for the juvenile market and fabrics for home sewers' for Mast Media. Aided houseware and textile designer in the preparation of her designs for presentation to clients by converting, recreating & painting sketches in Illustrator. Clients included Brylane Home, Mast Media, Stotter & Norse, Shamrock Inc. 1998 to present

Magazine Production Assistant
Worked in Quark, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create ads for Romantic Times magazine. Worked with Art Director to prepare cover art, silhouette and color correct images as needed. Responsible for collecting files to ship for printing. 1998 to 2001

Color Design, MTV Animation, New York, NY
Designed color for illustrations appearing in "The Daria Databases." Scanned and painted line art by applying Pantone derived CMYK formulas in Photoshop, and automated program to create traps. Designed color and painted cels for the 1997 Daria book, "The Daria Diaries," and the show’s credits. 1996 to1998

Elementary School Teacher, P.S. 101, New York, NY
Instructed second graders in art, music, reading, science, and social studies. Applied phonetic and whole language strategies, core curriculum and integrated subject areas. 1993 to 1996

Botanical Illustrator, The New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
Rendered diverse species in pen and ink for scholarly journals for scientists affiliated with the New York Botanical Garden and The Smithsonian Institution. 1990 to 1993

High School Art and Photography Teacher, Wakefield H.S., Arlington, VA
Researched, planned and developed academic and multicultural lessons for diverse student body. Coordinated projects and critiques. Submitted artwork to regional and national competitions. Managed darkroom. 1989 to 1990

Education

Parsons School of Design
Coursework in Graphic Design, 1999

Hunter College
Masters in Elementary Education, 1995

Georgetown University
BA in Studio Art and English, 1989

Maryland Institute College of Art
Coursework in painting and photography, 1984-1985