Developed the brand voice across all channels for Petalura, a boutique catalog and online retailer of artisan-made apparel, home decor, and jewelry, founded in 2017 by the creative team behind the former National Geographic catalog.
I write product copy, email campaigns, headlines for print and web, Facebook and Instagram campaigns, company brand messaging, training materials for customer support agents, order confirmation and shipping emails, and the occasional email response in tricky customer service situations.
With hundreds of individual labs, offices, divisions, departments, groups, and clubs all maintaining independent websites, digital communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is constantly evolving. Since 2015 I’ve worked with MIT staff and other consultants on several web redesign, rebranding, information architecture, and content management projects.
Recent highlights
2018-2019: developed new brand messaging, information architecture, and wireframes for a full redesign of the MIT Women’s League website, in collaboration with designer Wing Ngan and developer Susan MacPhee
2019: developed new brand messaging and revised content for a full redesign of the MIT Ombuds Office website, in collaboration with communication strategist and developer Tom Pixton
2019-ongoing: assisting with content migration for a massive site redesign for MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program, to be launched in early 2020
2016: copyedited and refreshed written content for the MIT Washington Office website, redesigned by Tom Pixton
My museum career began as an undergraduate work-study student in the MFA Boston’s visual archives. After graduation I came onboard full time as an Image Research Specialist, later as the copywriter at MFA Enterprise, and later still as the writer and editor for the film program.
Since moving into freelance consulting, I’ve remained connected to the MFA through frequent collaboration with the creative services team on ad hoc projects.
Portfolio highlights include exhibition brochures, video scripts, the members' magazine Preview, film calendar, web event calendars, invitations and development packages, the annual report, and the store catalog and shop signage.
Proofreading and XML formatting of donor, employee, publication, and exhibition information for the museum's annual report. View The Museum Year 2018 online.
Proofreading and XML formatting of donor, employee, publication, and exhibition information for the museum's annual report. View The Museum Year 2017 online.
Heavy copyediting of the 24-page publication accompanying the MFA's 2017–2018 exhibition "Follow the North Star: Inuit Art from the Collection of Estrellita and Yousuf Karsh"
Video captioning for 2017–2018 exhibition "Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics" multimedia tour
Proofreading and XML formatting of donor information for the museum's annual report. View The Museum Year 2016 online.
Copyedited exhibition teasers, program promotion, and calendar listings for several issues of Preview
Copyedited various exhibition and fundraising printed collateral
Wrote and copyedited film synopses and acquired/selected film stills
Copyedited various exhibition brochures and other collateral
Edited curatorial essays about new museum acquisitions, reports from the director and board of trustees, and acquisition, staff & volunteer, and donor lists. View as a PDF.
Selections from a multi-piece higher-level membership recruitment mailer. View as a PDF.
Wrote product descriptions and vignettes about museum collection source material. View as a PDF.
Notecard box copy, Paris to Provincetown woodcut prints
Wrote product descriptions and vignettes about museum collection source material. View as a PDF.
Cards accompanying various MFA Store products, detailing the museum objects that inspired each product. View as a JPG.
Back cover calendar copy, Japanese Fan Prints
Edited and managed production of quarterly members' magazine, annual reports, and the book Keepsakes and Treasures: Jewelry from the Collection of Historic New England, including developmental editing, copyediting, coordinating photo shoots, and art direction.
Articles and highlights:
"Ladies First," Winter 2016
"Q&A: Lyman Estate Greenhouses Staff," Winter 2016
"Q&A: Preservation Carpenters," Summer 2015
"Hooray for the Quincy Cats!" Summer 2014
Design by DeFrancis Carbone. Read online.
Article by Mary O'Neil, photography by Brett Simison, design by DeFrancis Carbone. Read online.
Design by Leigh Mantoni Stewart. Second place, Annual Reports category, 2016 New England Museum Association Publication Awards. Read online.
By Laura E. Johnson, design by Wilcox Design, published by University Press of New England, September 2016
Design by DeFrancis Carbone. Third place, Newsletters and Magazines category, 2016 New England Museum Association Publication Awards. Read online.
Article by Susan Baker, design by DeFrancis Carbone. Read online.
Design by DeFrancis Carbone. Read online.
2017, Year-End Fundraising Appeal Letter
2016, new and edited content for a full website redesign, including featured object teasers and artist profiles.
Highlights and articles:
MoMS was a real-life micro museum and museum lab in Vernon Street Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, a place to experiment with museum technology, exhibition design, interpretation, and audience interaction. It was to the public during Somerville Open Studios and by appointment from 2010 through 2013.
MoMS v2 is in the works for 2020. What form will it take? Stay tuned.
www.museumofthemodernsnowglobe.com
Press and featured blogs:
"Viewing Global Warming in a New Light," Boston.com
"Collections: The Museum of the Modern Snowglobe," Junkculture
Wrote and edited a DOT grant-funded website and printed material to promote road trips along Western Massachusetts's seven designated scenic byways, with Hifinit Design and the New Arts Collaborative.
View the full site at www.bywayswestmass.com.
View the full site at www.bywayswestmass.com.
From 2004 until 2017, was the primary writer and editor for all catalog and e-commerce product copy, as well as behind-the-scenes blogs, headlines and kickers, email blasts, and escalated customer service correspondence.
"Kris is the voice of the National Geographic Catalog." —Tracy Stephen, former Vice President, Merchandising, Creative and Inventory Planning at National Geographic Society
"If you haven’t seen this catalog, you still believe that being able to educate and sell in the same copy-blocks is a lost art. National Geographic seems to have found and restored that capability. ... The 'sell' is built into the verisimilitude." —Herschell Gordon Lewis, Multichannel Merchant
Wrote staff and patron profiles, exhibition and event promotion, and fundraising messaging for several issues of Worcester Art Museum's quarterly members' publication, Access.
Highlights and articles:
"Arms and Armor Programs Offer New Perspectives," Winter/Spring 2016
"Connecting With Students' Lives," Summer 2015
"Conservation Spotlight: Turkish Kalkan," Summer 2014
"Q&A with Artist Andy Fish," Summer 2014
"Making Room for Art," Summer 2014
"Conservation Spotlight: Turkish Kalkan" and "Making Room for Art." Read online.
"Connecting with Students' Lives," profile of museum educator. Read online.
"Arms and Armor Programs Offer New Perspectives," profile of museum educators. Read online.
Q&A with artist Andy Fish. Read online.
Author of The North Shore Literary Trail, part travel guide, part literary history book, published in 2009 by The History Press. Available in paperback or ebook at Amazon or by emailing me.
You've devoured their pages of verse and prose—now witness firsthand the inspiration for those perfectly penned lines of Longfellow, Frost and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Discover the strong feminist voice of Judith Sargent Murray as you stroll down Middle Street in Gloucester, or navigate the narrow, winding streets of Marblehead and flip through the eighteenth-century journals of the sailor Ashley Bowen. Plan a literary-themed cultural outing or simply take a closer look at your town's local landmarks. From the "gem-emblazoned shore" of "lovely Lynn" to the gleaming gables in Hawthorne's Salem, Bierfelt uncovers some of the North Shore's most precious literary treasures.
Copyedited and managed production of PEM's members' magazine, Connections, exhibition collateral, invitations, and annual appeals. Wrote copy for the launch of PEM's online shop.
Articles and highlights:
"The Empowering Influence of Travel and Fiction"
"Yin Yu Tang: An Image of Home"
"Mother and Daughter Discover Lost Heritage"
Staff writer/editor 2003-2005. Design by Leeann Leftwich.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. Download PDF.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. View as a PDF.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. View as a PDF.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. Download PDF.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. View as a PDF.
Design by Leeann Leftwich. Download PDF.
Wrote literature-themed content for a North of Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau cultural tourism initiative.
With Bonnie Hurd Smith of History Smiths/Hurd Smith Communications
NEA Member Benefits offers educators programs and services that help them plan for a secure future, maximize savings, receive support in times of need, and live their best life.
In 2018 NEAMB embarked on a rebrand and website relaunch with digital customer experience agency Cake and Arrow. I worked with Andrea Lenco and Piper Editorial Services to recast NEAMB’s product and resource offerings in a new, fresher, and more benefit-forward voice.
Chaired the communications committee for the Boston Derby Dames, a start-up women's roller derby league now called Boston Roller Derby.
The forthcoming First Amendment Museum near the Maine State Capitol in Augusta is dedicated to fostering a greater awareness of—and active participation in—our First Amendment rights.
Working with lead content developer Rainey Tisdale, exhibit designer Dan Wallis, and graphic designer Helen Riegle on the design development phase of the project, I developed interpretive text, helped conceptualize and prototype interactives, and produced sample museum labels as FAM’s official voice and vision came to life.
A capital campaign is underway to secure funds for moving in to the construction documentation phase in 2020.
