No matter how big or small the picture, everything needs to have a purpose. Otherwise it’s not worth doing, according to twenty-something graphic designer Nikki Velez. Both her tenacity and her passion for life are readily apparent upon meeting Nikki, and clearly benefit those around her. Nikki’s gift to the world of graphic design began at age 10 with a gift from her mom, a photographer: Photoshop Elements. Nikki’s keen eye and love of photography were developed early on. A love of illustration and strategy soon followed. The Regional Technical Institute in Reno, Nevada offered high school students the chance to enter certain fields like advertising even before college, which naturally captivated Nikki’s sense of purpose. And so her skills began to evolve from self-taught to formally trained. Nikki went on to the University of Nevada, Reno and earned a B.S. in Business Administration with a major in Marketing in 2012. During her college career, she was part of the AAF student marketing team that took second place at the regional competition for its work on Nissan. She also started the waterski team at UNR with her brother, and competed in slalom, trick and jump. Amazingly, Nikki found the time to get her feet wet in other ways too, working for UNR’s Inkblot Promotions, the Reno Aces and the City of Reno. In addition to enjoying the design process from idea creation to audience reaction, Nikki treasures the time she gets to spend on the surface of the water as well as beneath, scuba diving with sea lions, sharks and kelp—underwater camera readily in hand.

Verified by

My resume

  • Business consulting
  • Business presentations
  • PR
  • Infographic design
  • Web design
  • Logo design
  • Presentation design
  • Photo retouching
  • Identity
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Poster design
  • Scrapbooking
  • Website developing
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Illustrating
  • Adobe illustrator
  • Branding
  • Graphic design
  • Marketing
  • Event planning
  • Photography
  • Photography
  • Marketing strategy

My diverse marketing and graphic design work experience coupled with a Marketing degree has prepared me for a Freelance Graphic Design position. With regard to the requirement of design knowledge, I have worked in most Adobe products as well as wordpress.com, with expertise in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign. I have over eight years of graphic design, marketing and photography experience. Experience in agency and in-house marketing has given me a diverse range of knowledge from working directly with clients to presenting marketing plans and creative. Working directly with printers, and die cutters has given me a firsthand knowledge of the process, teaching me color theory and print standards. Working with the Outlets at Sparks, an outlet mall owned by LEDGENDS in Reno, NV taught me many things about retail design and property management. During my time as a freelance designer for them I prepared all marketing materials for property events, e-blasts, and corporate acquisition documents including marketing plans and property one sheets and more. During my employment at Saint Mary’s Health Network I managed branding and openings of new medical group locations as well as ensuring all branding and materials including signage met brand guidelines. I managed marketing and creative for all 25 medical group locations as well as the 280-bed hospital. This has been great knowledge with now running marketing and creative for 14 dental brands in the western region for BlueTree Dental. All of these brands have their own specialties and market segments within the same market for example Orthodontics, in both high and low income in the same city. It has been my job to differentiate each brand and run successful campaigns in new patient acquisition and internal efforts for customer retention. As well as working for the brands under Bluetree Dental I also create marketing materials and strategy for new practice acquisition for BlueTree dental, and its management group CPR dental.