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Independent creative practice · Chicago / Everywhere

KevinHalstead

Art Direction
Design
Image Making

Let’s make something matter.↓

Selected work

Four bold visual chapters establish the point of view behind the portfolio.

01HALSTEAD
Brand systems & campaigns — environmental work presentation 1
Identity systems — brand marks and applications presented as one connected portfolio.

01 — Identity / Advertising

Brand systems& campaigns

Concept, identity, print, packaging, and digital work for agencies and direct clients.

02RETAIL
Retail at full volume — environmental work presentation 1
Cricket Wireless — campaign and production portfolio.
Retail at full volume — environmental work presentation 2
Cricket Wireless — retail, transit, outdoor, and environmental applications.

02 — Cricket Wireless / TPN / Omnicom

Retail atfull volume

Senior art direction across in-store, promotional, and full path-to-purchase environments.

03EDITORIAL
Information made clear — environmental work presentation 1
McDougal Littell — educational marketing and publishing systems.
Information made clear — environmental work presentation 2
Information design — screen, exhibit, print, and dimensional applications.

03 — Holt McDougal / HMH

Informationmade clear

Art direction and design systems for educational marketing, publishing, and exhibitions.

04IMAGE
From comp to output — environmental work presentation 1
Design and media workflow — from traditional comp through final print and digital deployment.

04 — Image Making / Production / Deployment

From compto output

One connected workflow—from concept and image direction through retouching, prepress, production, and final digital delivery.

About

Ideas deserve
a point of view.

Kevin Halstead is a Chicago-based Art Director and Senior Art Director with 25+ years across print, retail, brand advertising, and production. His work spans campaign concepting, brand identity, in-store experiences, packaging, educational publishing, photo retouching, prepress, and generative image and video workflows.

Campaign concepting

Brand identity

Retail & packaging

Image making

Production & prepress

Generative direction

Tropicana campaign shown across packaging, transit, retail, and editorial environments
Tropicana — campaign thinking carried through packaging, out-of-home, retail, and editorial applications.

Experience

25+ years.
Still curious.

2001—Present

Art Director & Designer / Freelance

Identity, print, packaging, digital, environmental design, production, and generative image/video for agencies and direct clients.

2010—2014

Senior Art Director / TPN / Omnicom

Retail creative for Cricket Wireless across the complete path to purchase.

2004—2008

Senior Designer / Holt McDougal / HMH

Design standards and art direction across a large educational marketing catalog.

2000

Art Director / Douglas–Danielle

Websites and microsites from concept through preproduction, with freelance art direction and image-library stewardship.

1997—2000

Studio Artist to Art Director / Havas

Built an in-house high-resolution photo studio and advanced into art direction and project leadership.

1990—1993

Production & Design / McKnight Kurland / Vision Production

Print layout, electronic publishing, packaging mechanics, typography, and production for major accounts.

Selected clients & collaborators

NikeJohn Moore, Attorney at LawSomfyBoyd'sSchawk!Hohenfield Inc.Ambrosi & AssociatesCoca-ColaBaird & Warner Real EstateCNA InsuranceFord Motor CreditAllstate7-ElevenTropicana
Request full résumé ↗

Capabilities / Tools

Concept first.
Craft all
 the way through.

Direction

Concept development, campaign art direction, creative leadership, brand identity, corporate branding, editorial and advertising design, storyboarding, and team supervision.

Identity and brand systems presented in an environmental portfolio book
Direction — identity systems developed across marks, print, digital, and presentation.

Retail, CPG & Production

Shopper marketing, in-store POS, packaging, photo retouching and compositing, prepress, press-ready production, exhibit and convention creative.

Prepress & Color

Preflight, color management and ICC profiles, Pantone and spot-color specification, and press checks.

Information design translated into screen, exhibit, print, and dimensional applications
Prepress and color — information translated consistently across physical and digital output.

Image Making & Workflow

Traditional comps, image manipulation, retouching, prepress, print production, and final digital deployment directed as one connected system.

Ovation musical theatre identity developed across desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile, ticketing, merchandise, and logo systems
Ovation — one identity system carried through screen, ticketing, merchandise, and logo development.

Method

A brief before a file. Concept, then craft, then correct specs—in that order. Generative tools get directed and finished like any other source material; nothing ships raw.

Environmental & Experiential

Campaign systems translated into retail, transit, out-of-home, exhibit, and dimensional environments with a consistent idea at every scale.

McDougal Littell literature exhibition booth with product towers, displays, and meeting space
Environmental design — literature exhibition system and product presentation.

Tools

Design & Production

PhotoshopIllustratorInDesignAcrobatFigmaCanva

Photo

LightroomCamera Raw

Motion & Video

After EffectsMedia Encoder

Generative AI

Adobe FireflyMidjourneyGeminiVeoKlingRunway

Web & Digital

WordPressSquarespaceHTML / CSS

Presentation

KeynotePowerPointGoogle Slides

Brand, editorial, digital, and environmental work presented together
Tools applied across identity, editorial, digital, and environmental systems.

Project Index

Selected stories.
Defined by the idea.

01

Cricket Wireless / TPN / Omnicom

Retail at full volume

Senior art direction across promotional campaigns, in-store graphics, sales contests, digital placements, and complete path-to-purchase environments—from concept and key art through production-ready retail execution.

02

Tropicana / Shopper & OOH

Wake up the city

Beverage campaign imagery carried from key art into large-format transit, shopper, and environmental placements.

03

Independent / Image Making / AI

Ideas with an edge

Concept-led posters, social commentary, collage, typography, and information graphics exploring new visual workflows.

04

Holt McDougal / HMH

Information made clear

Design standards and art direction across educational marketing, publishing, interactive learning, convention environments, and complex product families.

05

Corporate / Cultural / Cause

Stories with a purpose

Campaign and communication design for nonprofit, cultural, financial, and professional audiences, balancing a distinct voice with clear information hierarchy.