Details
Tilt is my company, a female owned and operated “one-man” shop that offers design and production support for web, advertising, and film projects. After working for years in advertising and development, I took what I learned and put it to work to help businesses and organizations find management and marketing solutions. And along the way, working closely with professionals, I’ve formed valuable partnerships. Providing incomparable service and beautiful results are at the core of what I do.
I’ve had the opportunity to:
oversee existing and established business objectives and build new brand identities by using strong management and communication skills and creating on-target initiatives.
create and manage marketing, production and development budgets.
build strong client and vendor relationships and seek new opportunities for growth.
These skills lead me to:
develop, design and maintain websites.
oversee print, digital, broadcast, collateral and social ad production.
produce film and photo shoots to include budgeting, scheduling, scouting, talent selection, tracking and run of show.
write and design employee handbooks and training manuals, working with management to build and reinforce company standards and policies.
I am:
a critical thinker, a problem solver, a supporter of great ideas.
a team player with a positive attitude.
a thoughtful communicator with peers, clients and vendors.
detail-oriented and organized, even when things are crazy around me.
proficient in Microsoft Office platforms - a rock star with Publisher.
creative and intuitive with web design. As a matter of fact, I was recently invited to join a community of creatives, developers, and designers who use Squarespace to build beautiful websites.
a small, woman-owned business, certified with the State of Virginia through the SWaM program.
Industry Experience
OWNER, TILT DESIGN, VIRGINIA BEACH, 2015 - PRESENT
Creating a niche in the local market to provide a la carte production and creative support to businesses and organizations. Work to date includes building new brands, developing websites, and overseeing research initiatives. I’ve produced print, digital and collateral work, commercial photo shoots, video/film projects for broadcast and on-site event programming. On each project I’m the client contact, the project manager, the responsible party. I connect with freelancers if needed to deliver beautiful work in a timely manner within budget.
Client List:
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art | Towne Bank | Rutter Mills Law | Suburban Capital | Virginia Beach Convention and Visitor’s Bureau | The Urban Ministry Center of Charlotte | Rutter Family Art Foundation | Atkinson Photography | Van Zandt Restorations | Gold Key
DEVELOPMENT, VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, VIRGINIA BEACH
Oversaw MOCA’s marketing and PR needs during a busy time in the life of the museum to include a rebranding campaign and new web design. Took over organizational responsibilities for MOCA’s Boardwalk Art Show in 2012 to manage every day logistics and oversee long-term planning for the museum’s largest yearly fundraising effort, raising over $400,000 annually for the museum. Became an integral part of the development team with weekly meetings for planning review and brainstorming.
ACCOUNT MANAGER/PRODUCER, OTTO DESIGN, NORFOLK
Managed design and photography projects for the creative side of the agency. Part of a small team that created and produced Distinction Magazine from its inception. Responsibilities included managing tight deadlines and budgets, building story ideas, assigning writers and editing. Wrote grant applications that provided an opportunity to travel to Haiti and document the good things an orphanage and school are doing to make a difference there. These successes are true testaments of strategic thinking, teamwork and vision.
ACCOUNT MANAGER, BCF ADVERTISING, VIRGINIA BEACH
Worked diligently with a top-notch team to create successful campaigns for clients such as Wachovia, The Chrysler Museum and Sentara Health Systems. Never doubted the potential to exceed the expectations of the client and create strong work.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, EARLE PALMER BROWN, NORFOLK
Landed on the largest account, The Virginia Lottery. Helped manage $20 million in strategic planning and marketing dollars. Garnered the respect of multiple client contacts.
ASSISTANT ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE, THE MARTIN AGENCY, RICHMOND
For someone enamored with the creative process, Martin provided an education on how great ideas come to be and an understanding of the process behind the magic. Strong, effective positioning comes from an unquestionable understanding of the target audience and the message or voice of the brand.
Testimonials
“Christie is amazingly easy to work with. She keeps her eye on the big picture and doesn’t let little surprises rattle her. She is diligent and a great motivator.”
“In addition to working in development, Christie worked with the marketing department at Virginia MOCA during a time of organizational transformation. She effectively guided all marketing activities, including budget management, advertising, and project management. Christie is dedicated and results-focused. She embraces the importance of planning and clear communication.”
“Christie brings a wide variety of experience to the table which adds a very dimensional perspective to every project. She’s extremely detail-oriented and just so darn nice to work with. ”
“You have provided exactly what I believe we need to send to our members. Thank you for your expertise on our behalf.”
“Christie was a perfect representative for the museum when meeting with city officials and those in the industry. Her superior organization and project management, excellent written and oral communications skills, strong marketing knowledge and creativity, confidence, and the ability to work with diverse personalities is the “perfect recipe of skills.” If I had to hire a person to manage a large project, I’d reach out to Christie without hesitation. In fact, she’d be my first choice.”
Portfolio
I’ve been fortunate while owning TILT to work with many clients, both independently and with the help of some talented and creative art directors, filmmakers and business professionals. Here’s a sampling of some of these projects:
Gold Key | PHR
In the process of opening a new hotel, Gold Key | PHR required training materials for their new hires, over 50 associate positions. Thoughtful meetings with managers and operators created the basis for the content and a better understanding of how to divide important information into learnable segments and standard operating procedures. By using the PC design platform Publisher to lay out the content, handbooks were created that could be easily edited by staff when updates were needed.
Planning, Technical Writing, Design: Christie Kelly
Van Zandt Restorations
A growing business in Fredericksburg, Virginia needed a fresh look. Their existing website had most of the content to share with potential customers but the design of the site didn’t provide the aesthetic to match their brand. Through a review of their goals, a new website was launched that better fit their identity.
Website Design, Construction, Content Management: Christie Kelly
Rutter Mills Law Television
The Rutter Mills Law Firm contacted Tilt with an interest in sharing a broad message not specific to their law practice specialties, but one that would ring true with people across Hampton Roads. Rutter Mills believes in the same things you believe in - family, community, taking care of those who are near and dear, the things that matter most. With the help of filmmakers and the Rutter Mills advertising department, TILT created a :60 television spot that highlighted this message while showcasing the Hampton Roads community with local footage to make the spot personal and emotionally driven. Rutter Mills received more positive feedback on this one television message than any other TV spot produced.
Production Management, Account Service: Christie Kelly
Filmmaker: Mark Edward Atkinson
Post Production, Sound, Color Correction: Studio Center
White Gate Farms
A start-up Black Angus Beef operation in Orange County, Virginia needed to establish credibility with its potential customer base. In addition to pertinent information regarding the ordering process, it was important that the website enforce the small, family-owned aspect of the business.
Website Design, Construction, Content Management: Christie Kelly
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
I was asked to step in as a freelancer and support the marketing needs for the museum until a full-time marketing director was hired. In that interim 3-month period, the museum launched a new exhibition. From a marketing perspective, I planned, produced and purchased ads using traditional placement in magazines both nationally and locally, newspaper and radio. I oversaw a social schedule including Instagram paid and organic posts, Facebook event promotion, live feeds, as well as some digital placement and paid ads targeting various audiences. Several collateral pieces were produced to support the programming over the 6-month life of the exhibition. Opening night was a huge success on both a national art scene and local entertainment level. During this 3-month period, I also worked with freelancers to create a new logo for the Boardwalk Art Show and a new identity for the Museum’s fall fundraiser, House of Blues, moving it away from a blues music theme to a more art-centric event celebrating the mission of the museum.
Account Management, Planning, Creative Direction, Media Buy, Budgeting: Christie Kelly
Art Direction, Graphics: Freda Shaver
Social Posts, Web Updates: Alex Pierschalla
PR: Sallie Wiggins
Urban Ministry Center, Charlotte
The Urban Ministry Center is a non-profit organization helping the homeless in Charlotte, NC. Each fall, UMC invites City Center businesses and individuals from the community to a well planned and executed luncheon with the goal of raising funds to end homelessness in the City. For several years, I produced a documentary film that is projected on screens to over 1000 people in attendance. Our task year after year was to share the story of being homeless and to tell it with compassion. To produce the film, multiple meetings with the client determine story direction. I was responsible for client communication, scouting, pre-interviews, run-of-show. I organized multi-day shoots and scheduled multiple players, including the very difficult to contact homeless population living on the streets in Downtown Charlotte.
In the process, I became friends with many homeless neighbors, and with each event, the client met or exceeded their fundraising goals. We felt success in many forms.
Direction/Shooting/Editing: Mark Edward Atkinson
Client Management/Budget/Scouting/Run of Show: Christie Kelly
ESLAND Website
A new website was needed to provide the best look for an expanding development firm on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Content from the existing site was reimagined to make the site user-friendly and visually appealing - multiple properties and projects needed to be presented in their best light. The site I built, using a Squarespace template model, gives the client lots of options for expansion and content updates.
Website Design, Construction, Content Management: Christie Kelly
Photography: Mark Edward Atkinson