November 12, 2019

I had the privilege of working with Kara for more than a year while rebranding Amerifirst Home Mortgage headquartered in Kalamazoo. Kara is one of the best designers I’ve collaborated with. She led the design function with 12 other team members. Her design skills and collaborative spirit delivered work that created impact and built preference and equity for the Amerifirst brand.

As a senior designer, Kara led, coached, and collaborated with other designers and copywriters. She is enthusiastic and creates an environment that is fun and productive for the entire team. Kara is also self-directed and has great problem solving skills. During my time with Kara, she:

  • improved and implemented the Amerifirst rebrand across multiple mediums, separating the company from the other lenders in the industry to help increase the overall business by more than 15%, outpacing the industry by 21%.

  • drove excitement across the 700 member organization by creating Amerifirst’s annual sales meeting theme, materials, and presentations for company leaders.

  • helped to grow Amerifirst by leading the design of multiple digital and social campaigns, which grew online loans by $10MM or 14% from the prior year.

  • produced several videos in-house that drove qualified leads to the sales team across seven states.

  • developed the theme and materials for Amerifirst’s elite Chairman’s Club sales meeting in Miami.

I’m grateful to have worked with Kara — she’s amazingly talented and fun to work with. I am confident that Kara will add great value to your team. 

Sincerely,

John J. Torre
Marketing Director, GFB
Previously Director of Marketing at Amerifirst

February 1, 2018

I had the pleasure of mentoring, managing, and working alongside Kara Collins at Newell Brands. She is an extremely innovative, detail-oriented, and insightful employee who makes great design look easy. Depending upon the market and brief, Kara’s design solutions intelligently and consistently delivered. Her quick wit and positive attitude made her an excellent team member and helped to make our environment a fun and productive place to be.

As our company doubled in size and teams were forced to be agile, Kara quickly grew from design intern to lead designer on our Calphalon brand. As such, she proved herself to be completely reliable, exceptionally creative and invaluable by any standard.

Kara was an integral part of our design team at Newell and would be an asset to any company or employer. She was great to work with and I can easily recommend her as one of the best designers I know.

Sincerely,

Kristina Scobie
Senior Art Direction, Design
Appliances + Cookware
Newell Brands

February 5, 2018

Kara has been an exceptional graphic designer and team member at Newell Brands. She began as an intern, and due to her great work-ethic and high talent level was hired on as a Design Contractor upon completion of her internship. Following her contract work Kara was brought on as a full-time employee as soon as a role become available. Kara worked for me directly on the Appliances + Cookware Division for over two years.

Newell Brands is a leading global consumer goods company with a strong portfolio of well-known brands, including Paper Mate®, Sharpie®, Dymo®, EXPO®, Parker®, Elmer's®, Coleman®, Jostens®, Marmot®, Rawlings®, Oster®, Sunbeam®, FoodSaver®, Mr. Coffee®, Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Graco®, Baby Jogger®, NUK®, Calphalon®, Rubbermaid®, Contigo®, First Alert®, Waddington and Yankee Candle®.

As a Graphic Designer, Kara excelled with leading projects and being flexible in her design style. We could always depend on Kara to create great design solutions and present projects intelligently and professionally. In any situation, I felt comfortable handing over a project to her and walking away with minimal supervision. She is extremely dependable and her work was always done thoughtfully, cleanly, and at the world-class quality expected from the Newell Designers. She will be truly missed on our Appliances + Cookware team!

Kara’s daily responsibilities were to develop ground-up creative for Newell’s 200+ world-class brands, including graphic design concept development, presentation, photography art direction, development of brand production standards, supervision of outside vendors, and simultaneous self-management of multiple design deliverables. Her projects encompassed everything from small product-line updates, to new product-lines and product innovations, to full rebrands and brand-refresh projects.

We have been proud to have Kara on the Newell Brands Graphics team and think she exemplifies the best qualities the Design Center could hope to find in a designer and employee.

Sincerely,

Grace Engels
Art Director, Graphic Design
Appliances + Cookware
Newell Brands

January, 2018

It has been my pleasure to work with Kara Collins from 2015-2018 at Newell Brand in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Where we designed graphics and packaging collateral for such brands as Rubbermaid, Calphalon, Sunbeam, Oster and Mr. Coffee products.

Kara is a creative powerhouse, who’s work ethic and determination to creatively solve whatever design challenge she takes on, is truly contagious. Consistently delivering thoughtful design work, that inspired designers working alongside her. I appreciated the high-level of organizational and communication skills that Kara brought to our team, and her willingness to assist others.

Kara’s drive and passion for design make her a valuable creative asset, and has my highest recommendation.

If there is further information needed regarding her background or qualifications, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Sarah Monfore
Senior Designer, Graphic Design
Newell Brands

 

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