Sr. UI Designer at IBM
Ireland
- Current
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- Sr. UI/UX Designer at IBM
- Creative Director at KTdesigner (Sole Proprietorship)
- Past
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- Senior Designer at Webzone Ltd. (Carzone.ie) Now owned by AutoTrader (Trader Media Group)
- Company Founder / Creative Director at Actov8 Ltd.
- Designer at Labyrinth
- Designer at Various Companies
- Education
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- Adobe Training
- Digital Exchange
- Digital Exchange
- Colaiste Dhulaigh
- Senior College Ballyfermot
- Recommended
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- Industry
- Design
- Websites
Karl Thompson’s Summary
Senior Designer.
17+ years experience in the design industry - designing and producing user interfaces (UI/UX), websites, identities/logos, multimedia, illustrations, print work, presentations, digital photography, signs, interiors etc. The complete package.
I can undertake the design of a companies identity, websites, software etc. whatever is required.
This can typically involve:
1. Creating a company logo and product logo(s).
2. Creating a corporate style guide to be used any person or company that produces any future work for the company.
3. Creating a new company website - design user interface, build and maintain the site (or advise on a suitable CMS solution to enable the client to update).
4. Design and produce company stationary, business cards, letterheads etc.
5. Design and produce product/services brochures.
6. Produce a template for corporate presentations.
7. Produce any required illustration work.
8. Produce any required displays or signage designs (or advise on signage).
9. Shoot any required digital photography (products, locations etc).
10. Consultancy - maintain relations with the client and train staff (when required) or train-in a replacement "in-house" designer, to continue any ongoing work in the style and quality of my work (using the corp style guide).
I always aim to be professional and courteous, and complete my work with "more than expected" results.
Karl Thompson’s Specialties:
User Interface / User Experience Design, Web Design with HTML, CSS and Flash, Print / Graphic Design, Illustration, Digital Photography. Client liaison and consultation. Ideation. Full creative services solutions. Vast experience and knowledge.
Karl Thompson’s Experience
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Sr. UI/UX Designer
IBM
(Public Company; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)
July 2007 — Present (2 years 1 month)
Senior User Interface (UI) User Experience (UX) Designer building future releases of web 2.0 and Social Networking software from IBM. Main focus is on Lotus Connections, Quickr etc. but also working on various projects for different teams/departments/countries to help improve the standard of design output across all areas of IBM and its products.
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Creative Director
KTdesigner (Sole Proprietorship)
(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Design industry)
January 2004 — Present (5 years 7 months)
Contracting for various companies. Designing and developing websites, logos, illustrations and print media, such as brochures and stationary.
Clients include:
AIB, Aer Lingus, BMW, Bank of Ireland, Board Failte, Chrysler, Dublin Airport, Esat BT, Eason, Guinness, Jeep, Mitsubishi, NTL, National Toll Roads, Jameson, Spar, O2, Design agencies, Publishing houses, Marketing and Advertising agencies, Hotels, Construction Companies, Recruitment agencies, Travel agents etc.
View my portfolio here: http://www.ktdesigner.com -
Senior Designer
Webzone Ltd. (Carzone.ie) Now owned by AutoTrader (Trader Media Group)
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
June 2005 — June 2007 (2 years 1 month)
Senior Designer leading a team of designers, designing and building websites for the European (and global) automotive industry. All major manufacturers including: Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Daihatsu, Dodge, Ford, Hyundai, Jeep, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, VW etc.
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Company Founder / Creative Director
Actov8 Ltd.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
October 2000 — August 2003 (2 years 11 months)
In the year 2000, I setup and ran a graphic design & web development company which I called Actov8. At first it was just myself and an investor, but within six months we had a staff of eight full time employees. We also used contractors for development work.
Duties:
My primary duties were dealing with the clients, managing all projects and running the company. I also managed, directed and trained staff (when required), as well as designing and building websites, flash presentations, logos, cd-roms, magazines etc. for various clients.
Some of Actov8’s clients included:
Bank of Ireland, Hibernian, Century Homes, Manor Park Home builders, Property Magazines, NTL, Spar, Roland, as well as other design and marketing agencies. -
Designer
Labyrinth
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
January 1998 — October 1999 (1 year 10 months)
Designing and building websites for large and varied clients. Here I also won awards for website design. As one of the first members of Labyrinth, I helped build up the company’s reputation, and develop standards and practices.
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Designer
Various Companies
(Design industry)
December 1991 — January 1998 (6 years 2 months)
I worked as a Graphic Designer for various companies, mostly designing magazines, brochures, advertising, posters, marketing merchandise, signs, illustrations etc. As soon as I found the web (around mid 90's) I moved straight into web design.
Karl Thompson’s Education
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Adobe Training
Certificate , Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended , 2008 — 2008
1 Day training course. Adobe Certified.
- Activities and Societies:
- Official Adobe training course covering Acrobat 9 Pro Extended and Adobe Connect (web conferencing). Course covered optimizing work flow, creating portfolios, form creation, 3D, video and flash within PDF format, OCR, image and file optimization, security features, redaction, templates and customization, geospatial collaboration etc.
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Digital Exchange
Advanced Presentation Skills 2008 — 2008
1 Day training course.
- Activities and Societies:
- Design Ireland, Natural Training & Digital Exchange knowledge and skills acquisition.
This course was about building presentations focused on target audiences/groups and specific types of attendees. How to build a presentation that is memorable, to the point and much more interesting.
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Digital Exchange
Experience , Advanced Adobe InDesign, Bridge and Photoshop , 2007 — 2007
- Activities and Societies:
- Advanced Adobe products (InDesign, Bridge, Photoshop) techniques including:
Work flow optimisation.
Colour workflow - RGB, CMYK colour profiles.
Advanced Retouching techniques.
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Colaiste Dhulaigh
VETOS / FETAC Cert , A+ & Net+ , 2004 — 2005
- Activities and Societies:
- Learning how to build, maintain and upgrade PC’s. Setting up and running (administering) Networks. This course also included ECDL, Communications and Customer Care.
This course may seem like an odd choice for a designer, but I wanted to know more about how networks and computer systems work, and apart from design, some of my main interests are computers, current and future technologies.
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Senior College Ballyfermot
Cert , Classical Animation, Art and Design , 1990 — 1991
- Activities and Societies:
- One year course in Classical Animation, Art and Design.
Additional Information
Karl Thompson’s Websites:
Karl Thompson’s Interests:
Design, art, technology, travel, gym, games
Karl Thompson’s Honors:
Golden Spider Awards, 4 nominations, 1 win (as part of a team).
Karl Thompson’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
