Katie Spence — Mentor profile, Title: Lead Designer, Company: Seattle Kraken, Industry: Sports Organization, Mentor Type: Sport and Entertainment

Background

Job Description

As the lead graphic designer for the Kraken, I'm responsible for creating both internal and external graphics for every department in the organization -- social media, marketing, sales, community, game presentation, and more. I work with my Art Director and our VP of Brand to ensure that the visuals we design are consistent, representative of our team's identity, and serve the business needs that are required of them.

Company Description

NHL Team

Employment History

Coming up on five years at the Seattle Kraken, with over three of those as lead designer. Prior to moving over to brand side, I served as the partnerships graphic designer for the Kraken corporate partnerships team for my first year and a half, where I built sales and activation collateral for them.

Before moving to Seattle, I spent nearly six years with Monumental Sports and Entertainment (which owns the NHL's Capitals, NBA's Wizards, WNBA's Mystics, Capital One Arena, and various other sports and entertainment properties) as a graphic designer on their global partnerships team. There, I built sales and activation collateral to help our sales team close multi-million dollar sponsorship deals, including the arena's naming rights deal with Capital One and the Wizards jersey patch deal with Geico -- I also won a Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018 :)

Before entering the sports world, I worked as a marketing associate at a small paper company in the Boston area doing marketing, technical writing, and graphic design.

Education

BS in Journalism, concentrating in photojournalism and minoring in psychology, Boston University 

No civic involvement entered

Mentoring Objectives & Scope

I'd love to work with students who want to know more about breaking into the creative space in sports, the opportunities that are available that may not be top of mind, and the best ways to go about making connections in the field in this current landscape.

I'd also want to discuss professional expectations in this field and what types of things to expect based on the league and level of sports you're interested in.

I'd be happy to review resumes and portfolios as well. Ultimately though, I'd want to work with whatever student or students feel I'd be a good resource to and use my knowledge and experience in the field to help guide and advance their own careers in whatever way they feel would be most helpful to them.

When and where do you hold meetings with your students?

I can be fairly flexible! In-person in our office, an on-campus space, or a neutral site is totally fine with me, as well as just meeting virtually if it works best. I don't have meetings very often and most of my gameday responsibilities are in the evening, so weekdays between 10-3 are generally a good time for me, but I can be open to what works best!

Additional Information

I didn't have a super traditional entrance into the industry -- I didn't intern in college in the field and got my first real role in sports without connections on a cold application. I'm passionate about the reality that there's no one right path to start working in sports, and would love to talk about all the options available to build a resume and portfolio that aren't as "traditional" but can still be major benefits to building a career in this space.