About JULIE

MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS + TRAINING

Julie Shaffer is an Adobe Community Expert and a CompTIA Certified Trainer

Julie Shaffer

Julie Shaffer, FSMPS, CPSM

Owner | Creative Director | Knowledge Bomber

Who else dissects ads for fonts, color, and design? Anyone? What about choosing food or wine based on the label’s graphic design? Just me? Thanks to learning how to communicate with analytical thinkers at a very young age (engineers everywhere!), I have an innate ability to marry creativity with technical messaging. So, even though I’m the girl who picked a university because of the school colors, it only makes sense that I would land in a career that allows me to communicate—through creative strategy, messaging, and design—in an analytical environment. And it’s a blessing that I get to work with clients who do work that matters: projects that enhance our lives by improving our environment.

When I’m not creating projects or collaborating with a stellar team of marketers, you can find me hanging out with my adult children, my engineer husband, or my two rescue dogs. Or, you might spot me getting creatively inspired—my camera in tow—in some far-reaching locale, preferably one with a beach, mountains, interesting architecture, or… well, basically anywhere.

My ideal start to the weekend: I’m pretty simple on a Saturday morning – I love to enjoy a hot cup of coffee while sitting on my patio listening to the sounds of nature…and watching my dog freak out at every squirrel she sees.

My favorite hobby: I LOVE traveling and photography, so I tend to nerd out with one (sometimes two) cameras in my carry-on, photographing anything from the smallest details that capture the essence of the location to the grandest architecture and landscapes. You can often find me on the flight back, processing my photos in Lightroom and creating an album of our journey in InDesign.

What I’m known for: Styles and weeds—not in the fashion or gardening sense—but in the efficient use of InDesign and in the details of important decisions that further a marketing department’s efficiency. Apparently, not everyone finds the discussion of font selection and “which Pantone blue is ideal for our brand” interesting.

My favorite vacation destination: From the Southern Alps of New Zealand to the Amalfi Coast in Italy, how do I possibly choose my favorite destination? They are all spectacular in their own right, and I love immersing myself in each place I visit.

Connect With Julie

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Over the last couple of years, ESA has emphasized more visually impactful proposal development, and Julie Shaffer has been our partner along the way. Her trainings around the importance of graphic design and layout have turned the heads of team members who had previously not put as much emphasis on this part of proposal development. She also developed a completely new, user-friendly InDesign proposal template and user guide for us, incorporating bells and whistles many of our team hadn’t even seen before. In fact, Julie’s mastery of the program is evidenced by beginner InDesign users diving in and delivering proposals within a matter of weeks of the template being completed! We are thrilled with the direction our marketing and graphics efforts are moving towards, and it simply would not have been possible without Julie on our team. She’s a pleasure to work with, and I can’t wait for our next project together. Thank you thank you thank you, Julie

Jocelyn Seltenrich
Communications Manager
ESA | Environmental Science Associate

Julie has helped us to develop proposals over the past year. I admire Julie’s ability to make InDesign workflows efficient by doing something once and then keep reusing them throughout the proposal development. I was most interested in learning how Julie did this and enrolled in her Intermediate InDesign class. I walked away with a treasure box full of Julie’s shortcuts and tricks, which will make me more efficient when using InDesign.

Laura Weber
Lane Construction

After initially engaging Shaffer Creative for strategic proposal development, we also discovered their strengths in additional marketing/communication services for Southland’s rebrand including creative design, strategic positioning, new brand standards, and collateral design. These combined efforts have yielded award-winning results with significant impact to our company footprint – bidding size has increased by 100 percent, bonding capacity has doubled, and teaming invitations have increased by 32 percent.

Rachel Sackett
Southland Holdings, LLC

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