Hi! I'm Karen Michael.

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My adventure into the Wonderful World of Graphic Design began in middle school, where I experimented with Photoshop filters, questionable fonts, and hand-coded HTML fan pages for my favorite bands (because drag-and-drop wasn't hardcore enough, nor had it been invented yet).

That early passion led me through a technical high school major in Communications & Multimedia Design, a college degree in Visual Communication & Design, and then ultimately being released out into the wild.

After several years in print and production shops, I made a big leap into government contracting as an onsite graphic designer — and spoiler alert: it was a very different vibe.

Thriving in that environment meant leveling up — not just creatively, but strategically. I sharpened my communication skills, dialed back the glitter (just a little), and focused on understanding the business side of design. Somewhere between sending approximately 84,000 emails and decoding layers of bureaucracy, I discovered SharePoint — and that’s when things really got interesting.

What started as curiosity became a full-blown side quest. I dove into SharePoint (and all its wonderfully weird integrations), rekindled my love of coding, and eventually became part of a SharePoint & Web Development Team. It all came full circle — back to HTML, back to problem-solving, and back to building things people actually use (unlike those middle school fan pages).

Today, I bring a hybrid skill set that blends visual design, web development, and strategic thinking — because good design isn’t just how it looks. It’s how it works, how it communicates, and how it moves people.