Karie Jamison

She speaks RGB fluently. Her heart pumps CMYK. She dreams in pixels. Karie Jamison works as the interactive art director at Atomic Curve in Irvine, California. The communications firm specializes in modern brand architecture to optimize clients' sales and marketing efforts. Their services include collateral strategy, brand re-imaging, advertising, on-demand marketing, interactive solutions and integrated marketing solutions.

"My title is interactive art director, but at this agency we all wear many hats," explained Jamison. "In fact, lately I have been more involved on the print side of things. I do find interactive work to be more interesting of a medium - working with time and transformation. However, as long as I'm designing I'm happy.

"Our clients range from real estate to restaurants to design for artists and designers alike. It's a nice change for me because most of my 12 years of experience has been rooted in the automotive industry back in Detroit."

In her position, Jamison is involved in both hands-on design as well as leadership activities. She is responsible for directing the creative side of projects, leading the development of visual concepts and overseeing deliverables produced by a team of designers. She works mostly with design applications while her team of programmers work with Flash and Flex.

"Essentially, I get to design 'complete brands' for clients (it includes literally everything for your brand) and they only get one round of changes - it keeps our prices low," Jamison said. "The result is always great because the brand doesn't get botched. And I get to design without limitations."

Jamison was first introduced to Atomic Curve through the Internet. Before relocating to California, she researched numerous design firms. She was drawn to Atomic Curve's laid-back philosophy and opportunity it presented to work on a variety of accounts. Years of experience combined with the knowledge she gained at CCS are what she believes landed her the job.

"My situation was different from many of the other students at CCS," Jamison explained. "I went part-time 'every night,' so that I could work full time as a designer. Although it was tough, I feel I made the right decision by working in the industry while I was a student. I have seen many cases where students can't get that 'dream job' after graduation due to lack of experience so I am glad that I took that direction.

"CCS was design boot camp. I took it very seriously and it reflects in my work ethics today. The instructors were tough and I'm still recovering from being tired. But it was completely worth it because once I graduated I already had the experience and the book (portfolio) to get the right job."