Amanda Carlson — a creative and scientific graphic designer
If you’ve walked the lush grounds of Oglebay in Wheeling and seen the logo for the park’s Today, Tomorrow environmental sustainability campaign, you’ve seen Amanda Carlson’s work.
Ditto if you’re a West Virginia University athletic fan and have purchased a Country Roads Trust Lager to support its Name, Image and Likeness collective for the Mountaineers.
That beer can? Amanda’s design.
She does great work for Wheelhouse Creative LLC’s clients – using both a creative and scientific approach.
See, Amanda Carlson has a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Chatham University. She was headed for a career in marine biology or zoology. An offer was once extended from Australia! Luckily for our clients, though, she also loved sports. After earning her biology degree in a mere 2½ years, she decided to pursue a minor in Graphic design. Further down the road, she add a Masters of Science in Communications & Interactive Media from prestigious Quinnipiac University.
“I still had eligibility for sports and wanted to keep going,” she said. “I didn’t know if I’d do anything with the minor, but after I graduated, some friends in a musical group asked if I’d do some digital ads. They gave me the first opportunity to do freelance work, and I realized I was pretty good at it. It was fun to do work for the entertainment industry. It snowballed from there. Other friends asked if I could do a T-shirt, more ads, and a website…”
Amanda always had a knack for art, helping with her high school and college yearbooks, but she began honing the craft with a twist.
Wheelhouse clients and potential clients should know she’s not only creative, but she uses that biology degree.
“I really do take a scientific approach,” she said. “Understanding the analytics, understanding the how and why things work, how and why they go together.
“There’s the creative aspect, which is the visual. However, in any campaign, you need to understand why you are building that campaign and how it will affect the client and its customers. In biology, there are a lot of scientific methods, research, and statistics, and I try to apply that to the creative aspect.”
Amanda has many admirable sides. At Wheelhouse, she’s a “jack of all trades” graphic designer with digital marketing and advertising expertise. That can run the gamut from “display ads, social media graphics and marketing, management and analytics to ensuring a website is performing the best it can for the ads we drive to it.”
Away from work, the Minnesota native plays hockey. She’s a goalie for different adult league teams, including a travel team called the Three Rivers Mudcats. She also gives back to the sport as a USA Hockey level 5 master coach for the North Pittsburgh Wildcats.
“My favorite sport,” Amanda said. “Best sport ever. When you’re born in Minnesota, they pretty much spank your butt and hand your parents a pair of skates.”
She’s one more reason to go to Wheelhouse Creative LLC.
“We’re in it for the client,” said Amanda, who now has 19 years of experience with graphic and web design. “Every company wants to make money, but we put the client first and go above and beyond to make sure they get what they want and need.” Including those added twists.
Give us a call today at 304-905-6005 to see for yourself!
