about cynthia J. kwitchoff "cindy"
I am a full-time Freelance Graphics, Print & Website Designer
I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History degree with a minor in Art from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1988. While there, I designed graphics and print materials for the organizations I was involved in. I also worked on a newspaper on campus and in my hometown during summers in the editorial and layout section.
After graduating from college, I came to Washington, DC and worked for a year at a public relations firm on K Street where I was tapped, as a side job, to create branding for the company, print materials, and take photographs.
For the following ten years, I was a CIA staff employee working as a Security Officer and in counterintelligence. Once again, I ended up (as a side duty) creating a variety of graphics and print materials, newsletters, flyers, PowerPoint slides, photography and more for the offices I worked in.
In one of my jobs (Program Manager in the Counterintelligence Center), many of these side graphics duties took more of a forefront as I ran what was essentially a very large marketing, advertising, communications and educational campaign designed to increase the counterintelligence awareness of the entire CIA workforce. To do this, I created and/or managed an internal website, a TV series, commercials, multiple advanced training courses, special auditorium lectures and events, a video documentary and a professional survey, all the while utilizing my creativity and graphics skills.
I then worked as a CIA and DOD contractor for eleven years at a counterintelligence and counterterrorism training company. I was the Director of Productions where, on a daily basis, I used all my graphics, print, website, photography, video and marketing skills along with doing in-depth research on counterintelligence and counterterrorism topics.
As a volunteer for outside organizations, I offered my abilities to design and create newsletters (including writing their content), invitations, advertisements, event programs, brochures, directories and more.
In September 2011, I began working full-time as a freelance website, print and graphic designer, also working on video.
I am available for freelance, contract, gig, part-time work remotely—whenever you need a creative service done, contact me. I’m your on-call design department.
I’m highly experienced and disciplined in working from home, which I’ve done since 2000. I have a fully-equipped, advanced home office in the Tysons Corner, Virigina area (near Washington, DC).
To see my resume with more details, click on the button.
My Mission
My mission is to understand your business or organization and make the message you want to convey to the world both effective and attention-getting.
I can also handle many important things for you — like your website, branding, print materials, social media/email marketing, video, photography, creative brainstorming and much more — so you can focus on your main work and leave the rest to me.
Who Am I
I am creative, artistic, efficient, organized, a very hard worker, independent, responsible, a self-starter, self-disciplined and self-directed. I’m a deep thinker, an idea generator, a reader, and self-taught. Integrity, honor, honesty and doing the right thing are very important to me. I like things to make sense and work right. I’m honest about my strengths and weaknesses and will tell you whether I have the abilities to do something.
I love to see the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of things — I have a passion for taking things that don’t look good or work right and make them better.
I’m a behind-the-scenes person who likes to support, enhance and promote the client to make them look and be the best.
"If you have the right people, you don't need to spend a lot of time 'motivating' or 'managing' them. They'll be productively neurotic, self-motivated and self-disciplined, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it's simply part of their DNA."
- Jim Collins, author of "Good to Great" and "Built to Last"
My Skills
I have worked with Adobe and Microsoft software since the mid-1990s.
I’ve worked on websites since 2000, and WordPress since 2011.
Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe InDesign
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Adobe Acrobat Pro
- Adobe Lightroom
Website Software
- WordPress
Microsoft Office
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Outlook
- Office 365 Administration