Much of Karl’s marketing communications experience has been for clients in technology. He has specific experience in chemical processing, computer software, architecture and civil engineering. He has the unique ability to distill the customer benefits of his clients’ products and services from the technical features. Karl also has also extensive experience in the organic agriculture sector, particularly commercial egg production.
Karl has been an avid photographer throughout his career. His photographs have been published in calendars, featured on websites and sold in galleries. He loves all kinds of music from jazz to blues to folk to classical. He has also personally restored an antique car that he has owned for more than 40 years.
Karl’s blog reflects his many interests. His posts include personal experiences, poetry, politics, education, history and photography.
Karl graduated with honors from this intensive three-year design program.
While Karl has writing experience in many industries, manufacturing is where a great deal of his experience lies. He has written dozens of ads, brochures, case histories, blog posts and technical articles about chemical, pharmaceutical and polymer processing. His fascination with and understanding of manufacturing technology has led him into paper mills, plastic extrusion plants, semiconductor facilities, chemical processors and commercial printers.
Karl started his personal blog in 2008. Since that time, he has posted 250 blog posts about his personal experiences, politics, history, education and folk art. His posts can be humorous, revealing, entertaining and poetic depending on his mood. He also includes many of his photographs of New England rural landscapes.
Karl’s background in graphic design allows him to productively work with graphic designers to create brochures and marketing literature where the copy and graphics work together to communicate the client's message. This can include suggestions for supporting photographs, illustrations or other graphics. His photography experience helps him plan photographs that enhance his copywriting.
Karl enjoys interviewing people and turning their ideas and opinions into personal profiles. While working for Pete and Gerry's Organics, Karl interviewed and wrote profiles of more than 50 of their supplier farms for the company newsletter and website. He visited the farms, interviewed the families and took photos of their operation. To make the profiles more engaging, he wove a lot of personal anecdotes from the families into the profiles. He used a similar approach developing member profiles for a nonprofit organic farming association. He has written 25 of these profiles to date.
As a former ad agency creative director, Karl has written ads for both consumer and trade media. These include product, institutional, services and direct response ads. In his experience, the opportunity to catch the reader/viewer’s attention can be less than a second in many cases. Ads that don’t get seen, don’t get read.
As part of Karl's work at Pete and Gerry's Organics, he researched wrote, edited and produced the company's quarterly newsletter for more than five years. Content included a president's message, new product introductions, employee news and profiles, industry updates, supplier profiles and customer comments. Karl was also responsible for taking or securing all photographs.