Financial Desktop and Variable Print Publiching

Mark McDermott

Downers Grove, Illinois *****

Cell: 312-***-****

************@*****.***

www.markmcdermott.com

linkedin.com/in/markrmcdermott

SUMMARY

Technologically savvy, using latest and best practices to provide quality, cost-effective end product. A quick study, intuitive in learning new applications and processes, and continually exploring new capabilities and procedural efficiencies. An accomplished professional in Writing, Graphic Production, Composition, Prepress and Publishing. Now leveraging experience into online platforms and variable documents.

SKILLS

Adobe Creative Suite CC 2014: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop,

Dreamweaver, Acrobat pre-press.

Microsoft Office 2014: Word, Excel, PowerPoint

Kindle, Nook, iBook publishing

QuarkXPress, FrameMaker, FileMaker Pro

WordPress, Drupal, Google Blogger, SEO

OpenOffce, WordPerfect

Windows or Mac OS X

Basic Web Design: HTML5, CSS, Scripting, XML, PHP, SQL

Red Rock DeltaGraph

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Financial Graphic Services, Inc. Broadview, Illinois July 2015 – Present Typeset & EDGAR: Laid out corporate reports, prospectuses and other regulatory publications for fund management companies. Layout includes conversion to HTML or text for Securities and Exchange Commission’s public EDGAR database. Created templates for automated fund fact sheets in Open Text Exstream, BitstreamPageFlex and PlanetPress Customer Communication Management systems. \

Alliance for Audited Media (previously the Audit Bureau of Circulations), Arlington Heights, Illinois

(Contractor through LaSalle Network, Chicago) June-August 2015, August 2016

Desktop Publisher: Laid out magazine and newspaper circulation reports, using FrameMaker 6.0 system with cross reference links to extract plain text for advertiser data management.

Allstate Insurance, Northbrook, Illinois (Contractor through Creative Circle) March 2014 – June 2015

Rebranding Specialist: Converted Allstate insurance policy documents from old Word and PDF files. Applied current branding and output as PDFs or data merge text for new content management system. Created Word macros to speed documents formatting. Over 2,800 documents converted in 15 months.

Freelance Book Publisher March-Sep. 2014

Laid out and formatted 300-page book, The Book of Iowa Films by Marty Knepper & John S. Lawrence, to accompany “Hollywood in the Heartland” exhibit at State Historical Museum of Iowa. Set InDesign to Lulu print-on-demand, then eBook formats for Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and Apple iBooks.

Schawk!, Chicago, Illinois Sep.-Nov. 2013

Seasonal Desktop Specialist: Produced Sears and Kmart newspaper ads for “Black Friday” holiday season. Used InDesign CS with Comosoft LAGO4 for managing copy, price data, and graphic assets. Retouched photos, pre-flighted pages for printing. Helped speed production and reduce errors during contract renegotiation period.

Freelance and Contract Work, Booked through agencies Creative Circle (Chicago), City Staffing (Chicago), and Digital People (Rolling Meadows, Illinois) May 2011 – Feb. 2014

Highlights of several short-term assignments for agencies, corporations and non-profit organizations:

National Opinion Research Center, Chicago. Produced proposals, organizational charts, flyers and publications, using Adobe Creative Suite, MS Word and PowerPoint.

Reach Creative, Chicago. Edited responses to Requests for Proposals for design agency client Williams Interactive’s bids to the Delaware Lottery.

LabelMaster, Chicago. Produced Word templates for manufacturer of regulatory compliance labels to industry and transportation. Templates allowed customers to print their own information on labels.

William Blair & Co., Chicago. Rebranded 150 internal Word & InDesign forms for global investment and financial services firm.

Rivet/DraftFCB Agency, Chicago. Laid out white papers, designed Word and Power Point templates for client Microsoft Public Sector Sales.

American Institutes for Research, Naperville, Illinois. Formatted Word and PowerPoint templates.

Pearson Education, Lombard, Illinois March-May 2012 & 2013 Test Scorer: Scored 8,500 essay pages for math & reading in Illinois Standards Achievement Tests (ISATs).

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Downers Grove, Illinois

Premedia Technician, Automated Publishing division. Jan. 2005 – Apr. 2011

Laid out books and directories, and ran prepress inspections on Acrobat PDF files to ensure error-free printing under strict standards required by client or Donnelley print sites. Documents included association membership directories, HMO/PPO benefit packages with physician directories, hotel chain directories, wholesale and retail parts catalogs.

Served clients including UnitedHealthcare, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Coventry Healthcare, Gates Automotive, Archdiocese of Chicago, American Honda Motorcycle, Motor Coach International, Maryland DOT, S.P. Richards, International Society of Arboriculture.

Turned work that had been outsourced faster than overseas sites, cutting errors and revisions.

Converted high resolution printing photos and complex Illustrator vector graphics to internet-ready JPEGs for client web sites and online PDFs.

Dramatically shortened turnaround for catalog pages produced from desktop, saving office production time, and contributing to 10% annual reduction in department production cost.

Produced large health insurance documents in up to 135 local editions. Reduced production errors and inconsistencies by 90%, shortened turnaround time, earned greater client satisfaction.

Conformed insurance carrier documents to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) standards, including Section 508(c) for accessibility to people with disabilities.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, Illinois

Desktop Publishing Technician, Financial Printing division. July 1996 – Dec. 2004

Produced financial documents and supporting graphics for printed stakeholder materials in Capital Markets and Investor Services, and for filing with the SEC. Documents included Initial Public Offerings, Annual and Semiannual Reports, quarterly performance reports, and prospectuses for managed funds. Served clients including Nuveen Investments, Invesco/Van Kampen, Security Capital, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, Wanger Investment Management, William Blair & Co., Chase.

Standardized financial graphs with numerical data appended for composition system with output in print and HTML, and text markup version for reading on the SEC’s text-only EDGAR website.

Implemented tracking of Desktop department’s activities in FileMaker Pro database to capture more accurate billing information in meeting department’s budget. Increased billable charges by 40%.

Worked with transition of DTP to Press workflow; from color-separated PostScript to film; to current industry workflow of PDF to plate.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Writer and video blogger (iMovie) on Chicago’s craft beer scene on Beeronaut.com (WordPress).

Radio announcer, news writer, disc jockey, music director at commercial and NPR stations.

Academic Writer on Popular Culture topics: Spider-Man Music LPs, Star Wars, Captain America, Marvel Zombies, James Bond movie songs, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Languages: Speak some German, typeset pages in Spanish, French, edited Chinese, Japanese & Korean.

EDUCATION

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Master Certificate, Web Design & Application Development, 2013. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Master of Arts; Popular Culture. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Bachelor of Arts; Speech/Journalism.

INTERNET PORTFOLIOS

markmcdermott.contently.com behance.net/MarkMcDermott

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