Officers
Karen Alves | Founder, President & Creative Director
Our clients call her indispensable. We call her the creative powerhouse behind Design Principles.
With over twenty years experience, Karen’s capabilities stretch beyond basic advertising, marketing, design and training. She’s a creative visionary who has provided Design Principles with inspired design and proven results since 1997.
Today, Karen brings her creative vision and passion for excellence to clients ranging from start-ups to multi-billion dollar corporations. Her proven formula begins with developing brilliant branding and supporting it with eye-catching, results-driven, multi-media marketing.
In addition to founding Design Principles, Karen has transformed years of talent and an in-depth understanding of technology into a comprehensive curriculum through the Certified Graphics and Web Professional Program at Bridgewater State University. A natural instructor, Karen’s co-authorship and teaching of the program has enriched the lives of hundreds of students for over a decade.
Karen’s dynamic leadership and motivational management can be seen in the work of our stellar team. Her ability to develop and execute innovative policies and procedures for streamlining work flow and creating cooperative environments supports a culture of boundless creativity for our clients.
Michael Cronin | Partner, Vice President & Director of Internet Technologies
If you can dream it, Mike can make it happen. That’s why he’s our resident Internet Genius.
With over twenty years of web design and programming experience, Mike leads our Internet Services Division. His expertise in motivating our team of solution-minded thinkers has resulted in the development of award-winning, standards-based, findable and inherently usable websites.
Mike’s technical repertoire is impressive. His background in computer hardware, software and networking is coupled with a deep and broad knowledge of markup languages including XHTML, CSS, HTML5; programming languages including PHP and Javascript; content Management Systems including WordPress, Joomla and ExpressionEngine, and database driven web application development.
His knowledge of what is possible opens vast opportunities for our clients to leverage technology in the most cost effective way.
A co-author and educator at the Certified Graphics and Web Professional Program at Bridgewater State University, Mike has shared his technical prowess with hundreds of students for over a decade.
Principal Collaborators
Wendy Cullum | Founder & President, Michel Cullum Associates, Inc.
A strategic and award-winning marketing professional with over thirty years of marketing and sales experience in both client and agency environments, Wendy has worked and consulted for many of the largest packaged goods companies in the world before starting her own marketing agency in 1999.
She is the creative side of Michel Cullum Associates in terms of concept development and copywriting. An accomplished promotional marketer, she can develop an idea into a fully expanded public relations or marketing campaign that will meet the goals and objectives of the client. One of her core talents is writing persuasive and compelling copy across multiple formats. These include Websites, Marketing Materials, Press Releases, Advertising Copy, Video & Voice-over Scripts etc.
Wendy’s dynamic leadership style combined with her knowledge of what can work in the marketplace make her a valuable member of Our Team.
Ray Cullum | Partner, Michel Cullum Associates, Inc.
A strategic marketing and sales professional with over 35 years experience, Ray has worked in Fortune 100 multi-nationals, privately-held companies and agency environments. He has advised municipalities in their development and execution of environmentally sensitive infrastructure upgrades. Ray’s ability to lead and build teams is unsurpassed. He has an excellent ability to identify key issues, provide strategic direction and implement solutions. He is technically savvy and has been at the forefront of social media since its inception.
Ray stays very close to the changes in the marine industry as he is a Coast Guard Captain with a 100 ton Masters license with a Sail Endorsement.
He is also an involved community leader, serving on boards or being an officer of local sailing related non-profit organizations such as Community Boating Center (CBC) of New Bedford.
Key Personnel
Jenny Spurling | Project Manager
A true “jill-of-all-trades,” Jenny Spurling continually impresses clients with her impeccable communications, design savvy, problem solving prowess and friendly and compassionate nature.
Her background in marketing is perfectly blended with a deep understanding of and love for the nonprofit sector and she brings that passion to every project. A skilled communicator and leader, Jenny’s able to keep our team on task so that our work continues to delight.
Amy Keighley | Art Director
Amy’s work is the definition of effective visual communications. And her enthusiasm and motivation? Simply contagious.
As Design Principles’ Art Director, Amy combines proven design theory with high-impact and fresh ideas to clearly communicate our clients’ messages to their target audiences.
Amy has the ability to render creative solutions for even the most daunting challenge. As a result, she is an expert in educating our clients to learn the ins- and-outs of programs to become more efficient and effective in their own work.
Amy’s work ethic and dedication to project goals is unsurpassed and has earned her the reputation of an exceptional designer.
Dan Cooley | Senior Programmer
A gifted programmer, Dan has both the vision and the discipline needed to see a project from start to finish. When out-of-the-box software proves too inflexible or is not the right fit, Dan crafts robust custom applications that save our clients time and money. (Our latest project saved a client millions of dollars. Talk about a great ROI.)
Dan’s an expert in programming, middleware and scripting language including Javascript, jQuery, PHP, SQL, MySQL, ColdFusion, ASP, ASP.NET, C#.Net, VB.NET and Actionscript 3.0. In other words, he speaks the language of the latest technology to ensure that our clients have the very best web solutions.
With over ten years experience in the field, Dan continues to be a passionate learner, researcher and experimenter; keeping abreast of new and emerging web technologies for our clients.
Anna McKay | Senior Interactive Designer
If functionality and creativity is your design goal, then look no further than Anna McKay for passionate, powerful and proven work.
As Design Principles’ senior interactive specialist, Anna brings expertise in video editing, animation, web development and interface design, site structure and organization and e-commerce deployment to our clients.
With over 14 years of successful business experience, Anna ensures that our clients are informed and involved throughout the design process and she consistently exceeds expectations. Anna shares her passion and knowledge of web design best practices, site traffic and analysis and custom animation with clients and students at the Certified Graphics and Web Professional Program at Bridgewater State University.
Kate Lysakowski | Senior Graphic Designer
With her background in direct mail, Kate is our go-to print designer. But that doesn’t slow her down from turning out incredible designs for both our print and web clients.
A multi-faceted, award winning designer with a keen eye for detail, Kate also brings experience in project management and copywriting to our team. She’s an expert in Adobe’s Creative Suite and has a penchant for clean, modern layouts. Fun fact about Kate? When she’s not busy creating inspired designs, Kate’s an accomplished competitive cyclist.
Alex Cronin | Junior Designer
As one of the youngest participants of the Certified Graphics and Web Professional Program, Alex quickly rose through the ranks to become a junior programmer and designer here at Design Principles.
Alex is the glue between our design department and web department, offering solutions and ensuring the seamless transition between vision and execution. Additionally, he supports the office and manages our day-to-day operations.
Andrea O’Connor| Junior Designer
With a background in publishing and writing, Andrea’s multi-faceted approach to visual communications is key to our clients’ success. As a junior designer at Design Principles, Andrea supports a growing client-base with energy, creativity and passion.
Andrea also helps manage and support our growing library of content management system software, e-commerce solutions and custom programming modules.
Lisa Bates| Accounting Assistant
With a background in business, accounting and human service experience, Lisa is a perfect fit for our accounting team at Design Principles. She’s the friendly voice who welcomes new clients and is only a phone call away for our existing clients who may have questions related to the business side of the design process.
She’s managed billing department for companies with project budgets in excess of $1 million and has created procedures and systems that have saved thousands. At Design Principles, her knack for numbers keeps our team on track and her positive personality is a joy to be around.
