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Karuna Sharma

Design with Compassion
Creative Director | Brand & Packaging Design
Orange County, California(562) 833-1979karuna@karunadesigns.comkarunadesigns.comlinkedin.com/in/karunadesigns

Creative Director with two decades of brand and packaging design for beauty, wellness and consumer products sold through prestige, specialty and mass retail, and on Amazon. Builds the whole system: identity, primary and secondary packaging, retail display and planograms, Amazon and Shopify creative, and the campaign, email and education materials that carry a launch. As sole in-house designer at Vitality Institute, led the VI Peel brand evolution across six product lines and twenty-two SKUs, supporting launches associated with more than $20 million in annual revenue. Concepts with AI, finishes by hand, and judges the work by the result.

Core expertise

Creative DirectionBrand Identity & Visual SystemsPackaging & Product DesignPrint Production & PressRetail Display & PlanogramsAmazon & Shopify CreativeE-commerce & Web DesignCampaign, Email & SocialArt Direction & PhotographyEducation & Sales CollateralTrade Show & EnvironmentalBrand Guidelines

Experience

Focus Industries  ·  Marketing & Digital Designer
2025 – Present
Commercial & landscape lighting manufacturer
  • Design digital marketing: email campaigns, regional email versions for leadership, social graphics and web assets.
  • Maintain product literature on the web and keep spec sheets current; build and assign QR codes that link printed literature and booth materials to live web content.
  • Own the trade-show checklist and coordinate print marketing shipments for booths; allocate individual marketing QR codes to track engagement at the booth.
  • Design select pieces for the Senior Graphic Designer and leadership on request.
Vitality Institute  ·  Senior Graphic Designer & Art Direction
2019 – 2022
Sole in-house designer · VI Peel · VI Derm Beauty · VI Peel Body · The Brown Skin Agenda · ToxBooster · Glow Getters Rewards
  • Led creative for a full brand evolution across identity, packaging, retail, Amazon, Shopify, education, photography, motion and trade shows.
  • Designed packaging and label systems for 22 products across pre-care, treatment and aftercare lines, including color systems that improved differentiation at the shelf and in the kit.
  • Built the practitioner reference book, patient and practitioner brochures, sales sheets, counter cards, posters and bilingual (English/Spanish) collateral.
  • Created integrated launch campaigns for VI Derm Beauty, VI Peel Body, The Brown Skin Agenda and ToxBooster: pre-order and launch email, webinar programs, social and rewards communications.
  • Directed product and campaign photography, retouching and educational visual storytelling for a consistent global brand experience.
  • Supported launches contributing to approximately $12 million in 2020 revenue and more than $20 million in annual revenue in the following launch period.
Karuna Designs  ·  Founder & Creative Director · Independent practice
2007 – Present
Orange County, CA · Brand, packaging and e-commerce creative for consumer and professional brands
Takeya · Thermoflask2023 – 2024Packaging production design and product photography for retail drinkware; press-ready artwork across the line.
True Innovations2023Amazon product storytelling, PDP and carousel graphics and below-the-fold brand content supporting sell-through.
Kerr | Metrex2022 – 2023Integrated campaigns and collateral across email, social, web, motion and print for medical-device and infection-prevention lines.
Tala · Murad2018 – 2019International social campaigns (Mexico, Philippines, Kenya, India); primary and secondary packaging production for a global relaunch.
Juice It Up2017Seasonal campaign: launch poster, menu board, print, social and web banners.
Highglow USA2016 – 2019Storefront signage and posters for Pro-Hunter / Rolex retail; e-commerce brand, weekly ads, 18K–22K jewelry photography and social.
Paragon Law Firm2016Identity, stationery, social and web design for a corporate law practice.
Forever 212015Global holiday promotion production: retail signage in 30 languages, price-point labels.
Nestlé North America · Sexy Hair · Conversion Systems2015Nutritional-guide brand development and Maggi wholesale graphics; education and sales collateral; conversion-focused web design.
Intuit QuickBooks Self-Employed2014Responsive web design, landing pages, banners and email campaigns.
AAAZA · DIRECTV201410th-anniversary community campaign: poster, microsite, invitations, sweepstakes, print.
CAbi · Wedbush Securities · Hallmark Feeln2014Fall look book production; HTML email and social ads; subscriber email and banners.
Intermedia Advertising · 1-800-Dentist · Beauty 212011 – 2013Newsletters, landing pages, banners and ads; cosmetics packaging and POP shown at CosmoProf Las Vegas.
Beachbody  ·  Graphic & Web Designer
2011 – 2013
Santa Monica, CA
  • Designed weekly email campaigns, landing pages, offers and banners for mobile and desktop across P90X, Body Beast, Shakeology and seasonal promotions, targeting conversion.
Markwins Beauty Products  ·  Graphic Designer
2007 – 2011
City of Industry, CA · wet n wild · LA Colors · Black Radiance · Beauty Benefit · Tropez
  • Designed packaging, point-of-purchase displays and planograms for color-cosmetics lines with 900+ SKUs per brand, matching product color true to print for national retailers.
  • Produced launch catalogs, promotions, trade-show graphics, web assets and brand-guideline applications, including the Halloween launch and LA Colors at CosmoProf; assisted product photo shoots.

Education

Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design — California State University, Fullerton, December 2007

Tools & process

ConceptChatGPT prompting, Adobe Firefly
CraftIllustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, Lightroom, Bridge
BuildClaude; Figma, Adobe XD; working HTML/CSS
Motion & commercePremiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut; Shopify, Amazon Seller Central

Recognition

  • Published Artist — artwork featured by the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs in the LGBT Heritage Month and Asian Pacific American Heritage Calendar & Cultural Guides (2013, 2017, 2018)
  • Selected Artist — Cerritos College Alumni Art Exhibition, 2021
  • Speaker — University of Southern California, Coming of Age: Models of Pride Youth Conference, 2013
  • Peace Over Violence — community engagement and speaking, 2013–2015