Gina M. Laster
User Interface/User Experience Designer
Independent Contractor
I’ve spent most of my career as an Independent Contractor. I enjoyed the fulfillment I got from working in a wide variety of industries, doing different kinds of design. I broadened my horizons as a designer, and provided me with a wealth of skills I would not have gotten working at one job with the same company.
My Work
Clients
Years of experience in graphic and brand design led to a career creating beautiful images and amazing user experiences. But times change. So does design. Virtual reality is the new frontier. It’s the next level in user experience and digital design. Innovation has no rules. Neither do I. I push design boundaries to create exciting new experiences with technology.
Computing Solutions
Adobe Certified Instructor
Allen Interactions
Adobe Certified Instructor
Ogilvy & Mather
Graphic and Web Design
Areas of Expertise
Over the years, my contracting with different companies exposed me to tech I’ve always wanted to work with, and gave me a level of expertise that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Among the work I’ve been lucky enough to get are the following:
Branding is what people say about you when
you are not in the room
I learned that important truth during the time I spent in advertising. Everything has a brand…even people. What I took away from my agency experience is the understanding that my brand is and always will be Excellence. I made sure that all anyone ever said about me when I wasn’t in the room is that I’m always on time, on task, and on top of my game, no matter what job I do.
Design
Advertising
The time I spent in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather and Doyle Dane Bernbach & Needham was grueling in the extreme. You’re really only as good as your last touchdown in the advertising world. You don’t get to have a bad day, or someone will take your place. I loved every minute of it. This is where I “made my bones” in brand design and development. I never worked so many overnighters and weekends in my life. But they made me the designer I am today!
Development
Marketing
Supporting the marketing teams as a designer at any advertising agency is non-stop stress. Competing to get the really good campaigns can make you cut a lot of throats to get ahead. But as a contractor, I could sail above it all and just enjoy whatever assignments I was given. They paid my company top dollar for me, so they worked me hard for TD Ameritrade, Budweiser, and other high-profile clients.
I've created my own STUDIO as a VR Experience Designer
because I'm that good...and because I CAN
I've learned from some of the best companies in the country. Now, I'm doing what I love most...designing VR experiences
- Discover Card
- First Chicago Bank
- Bank One
- Walgreens, Inc.
- Northrup Grumman
- Boeing
- Pearson Publishing
- World Book Encyclopedia
- Ogilvy & Mather
- Doyle Dane Bernbach & Needham
- Northwestern University
- The Chicago Tribune
- La Raza Newspaper
- Allen Interactions
- Ascend Training
- Computing Solutions
- U.S. Air Force Engineers (USAFE)
- Hire Knowledge
- Whitman Hart
- Jack Morton & Associates
- Sterling Ledet & Associates
- University of Illinois (Chicago)
- The Vineyard Cincinnati
- Dynegy Energy Brokers