Creative Director at Idea MechaniX
Springfield, Massachusetts Area
- Current
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- Creative Director at Idea MechaniX
- Past
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- Design Director, Great Source Education Group at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
- Art Director (consultant) at Aqua-Leisure Industries, Inc
- Managing Art Director at Channing Bete Company, Inc.
- Editor/Designer at Marvel Comics
- Education
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- School of Visual Arts
- Pratt Institute
- American International College
- Recommended
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13 people have recommended Marcus - Connections
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248
connections
- Industry
- Publishing
- Websites
Marcus McLaurin’s Summary
ART DIRECTOR and Digital Designer with a strong knowledge base and experience in print and web design, illustration, project management, photo-shoot art direction and high-level photographic compositing and manipulation. Specializing in creating total publishing packages, blending strong content organization with dynamic visual communication to produce high-quality, and cost-effective, creative product.
Marcus McLaurin’s Specialties:
Magazine/Publication design, Project management, Logo creation, Freelancer management, Prepress preparation, Image manipulation, Story structure, Staff training & development, Character design, Digital photography, Photo-shoot art direction, Model recruitment, PhotoShop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, HTML, MS PowerPoint, MS Word
Marcus McLaurin’s Experience
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Creative Director
Idea MechaniX
(Design industry)
January 2009 — Present (11 months)
Independent Creative Digital Design Professional. Creating audience-specific dynamic design solutions and engaging interactive experiences for print and online media. Specializing in comprehensive project, talent, and resource management from conceptualization through go-live implementation.
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Design Director, Great Source Education Group
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
(Publishing industry)
August 2007 — January 2009 (1 year 6 months)
Managed staff of Senior Designers and Senior Archivist as well as external design vendors in the creation of full K-12 Supplemental education programs. Identified as a High Performance Employee.
• Directed and executed redesign of the Houghton Mifflin logo, following merger with Harcourt in January 2008, to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt logo. Developed HMH logo usage guidelines, palette, font standards and usage restrictions for logo suites across all business units.
• Managed instructional design (including iconography, illustration style selection and wayfinding methodology), from templating through printing of full programs.
• Developed and coordinated training in division-wide Adobe CS3 upgrade, providing instruction in workflow-specific benefits in InDesign, Photoshop and Acrobat Pro. -
Art Director (consultant)
Aqua-Leisure Industries, Inc
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Consumer Goods industry)
June 2007 — August 2007 (3 months)
Art direction and management of a staff of 3 Graphic Designers in the production of packaging and catalogs and brochures for aquatic toys and games.
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Managing Art Director
Channing Bete Company, Inc.
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Publishing industry)
March 1997 — June 2007 (10 years 4 months)
Art Direction and management of 8-13 Designers and Illustrators in the creation of booklets, magazines and PowerPoint presentations for the Health and Education markets.
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Editor/Designer
Marvel Comics
(Public Company; Publishing industry)
1986 — 1996 (10 years )
Edited a stable of 10 monthly illustrated titles. Responsible for creative hiring and new talent development, story and art editing, and product design and art direction.
Marcus McLaurin’s Education
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School of Visual Arts
NA , Design , 1987 — 1988
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Pratt Institute
BFA , Communications Design, Education , 1982 — 1986
• Graduated with honors
• Founded Comic Illustrators Guild and co-created Pratt comic magazine Static Fish (still in publication)- Activities and Societies:
- • Member, Tau Delta Phi fraternity
• DJ at radio station WPIR
• Travel and Recreation committee
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American International College
liberal arts 1981 — 1982
Additional Information
Marcus McLaurin’s Websites:
Marcus McLaurin’s Interests:
new technology, digital design, children's books, Illustration, painting
Marcus McLaurin’s Groups:
NAPP (National Association of PhotoShop Professionals), Boston Bookbuilders
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eOffice -
Apple Professionals -
CreativeBLVD Graphic Design Group -
Book Publishing Professionals -
Brand 3.0 -
Friends of Bookbuilders of Boston -
Pratt Institute Alumni -
Adobe Photoshop Group -
Children's Publishing -
Comic Book Business for Creators and Creations -
Graphic Design Professional Group -
Art&Design Lounge Club -
Great Source Alumni -
Digital Art Teachers Association
Marcus McLaurin’s Honors:
• Editor of the Year, Diamond Distributors, 1996
• Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) certification
in PhotoShop 2004
• Identified as High Performance Employee,
Houghton Mifflin 2008
Marcus McLaurin’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
