A designer and marketing partner for small brands

Always Curious

My passion for helping people and interest in being solutions- and efficiency-oriented and have led me to the freelance work I do today, where I can weave together my diverse experiences to produce comprehensive, cohesive, and affordable solutions for schools, small businesses, startups, and nonprofits.

An Imperfect Perfectionist

From diving into research to editing copy, developing SEO strategies to designing the perfect suite of collateral, I have a diverse range of skills. I’m resourceful, efficient, and a bit of a perfectionist. I’m passionate about education, the natural world, art, and food, and seek to put my skills toward supporting clients who are building a better world.

I have nearly 25 years of writing, communications, and design experience, and have worn many hats while serving important organizations and clients. I understand deeply the importance of truly integrated marketing, whether being responsible for guiding the strategy for all communications, website, and public relations messages and collateral to the development, distribution, and maintenance of them. I’ve honed the ability to take knowledge and transform it into exciting and useful messages, and disseminate it to the right audiences through the best distribution channels. Always mission-focused, I can write, design, and produce newsletters, brochures, annual report, e-newsletters, websites, donor communications, or whatever it is you’re in need of, and can put vehicles in place to create momentum and awareness.

A Winding Path

My experience and perspective amplifies the effectiveness of what I deliver to clients. Years ago, I took my degree in Art History and love of design to Harrison and Star, a New York advertising agency where I started from the ground up from Traffic Coordinator (perhaps the best learning experience ever) to Account Executive, working with clients such as Bristol Meyers Squibb and Pfizer. Switching gears – and following another passion – I earned a culinary school certification from the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) as a means to develop and test recipes and write for Cook's Illustrated Magazine and America's Test Kitchen, my all time favorites. And I did. It was awesome and I am still involved in recipe testing (and lots of cooking and eating) today. I also cooked in a cafe in Queensland, Australia for a year, which taught me so much (more than I learned as a waitperson in college). Eventually I answered a calling to delve more deeply into enrollment, design, and communications for the independent school world. I’ve worked one one coast at my alma mater, Emma Willard School, and the other, at Lake Washington Girls Middle School in Seattle. My commitment to and passion for creating community through design, messaging, and outreach has lead me to the freelance work I do today.

I specialize in graphic design, web design, copywriting, any sort of print work, event environment design, and even photography. My work has largely been focused on promoting schools, organizations that serve kids, and food products, but I haven’t met a job I haven’t liked yet.

Where I Am Today

Hazel Finch Labs came to life in a houseboat floating on Lake Union in Seattle, WA and is named after my daughter, always supplying me with creative inspiration. While we’ve moved onto land – and actually across the country in our Airstream, “Jolene,” to coastal Maine – The Lab is always cooking up one project or another.

Becky O’Boyle, Fundraising and Event Planning Specialist

When asked for fundraising strategy or to work on an event, I partner with Becky O’Boyle. Becky is the master of perfectly planned and delightfully detailed events. She manages the production of events from concept through completion in a passionate, creative, and detail oriented manner, and she is dedicated to providing superb client service at every turn. Becky is an expert in all aspects of event planning, including cost containment, venue scouting, equipment logistics, room setup, and a wealth of best practices. Becky and I have been working together for years to bring events to life through concept and design. Together we’ve manage the daily details alongside the big-picture thinking to ensure truly unique (and fruitful) experiences.