For someone so visual, so image-driven—someone who knew from the age of 7 that she wanted to be an artist (“I thought I would get to wear a beret and hold a paint palette.”)—Karen Pease Marino certainly has a way with words.
“Clarity for the client is always my priority,” says Karen, a senior art director in the advertising department at Ethan Allen Corporate Headquarters in Danbury. “It’s clarity—and doing my part to make sure that words and images dance on a page.”
The 14-year EA veteran is one of six art directors whose responsibility it is to create materials—from brochures and print ads to point-of-sale pieces and posters—that visually communicate ideas, inspire, inform, and persuade customers to buy.
“Whether selling, branding, merchandising, or wayfinding, it’s all about problem-solving to me,” says Karen, 58, who credits her skills to her professors at SUNY Purchase, where she earned a BFA in Graphic Design. “I bring research to every project, I explore lots of ideas, and I try to meet with the people who can best help me get to a solution.”
It was Karen’s work style and sense of humor that drew the attention of the team assembled to launch the company’s innovative Ethan Allen | Disney collection. “Karen is one of the most imaginative people I know … she lives her life that way,” says Nora Murphy, the project’s creative director. “She’s kooky—and exactly what we needed to work on this completely new platform with a decidedly different vibe.”
“Karen is not only a talented art director, but she also has a good heart,” says her supervisor, Catherine Plaisted, Senior Director of Advertising & Creative. “She is a pleasure to work with and she always puts a smile on my face.”
Karen’s fun-loving nature sealed the deal: “Disney is playful, whimsical, colorful. I can definitely relate to the joy of Disney.” She worked exclusively on the project from March 2016 until its launch in November.
When Karen isn’t designing, she enjoys spending time with Gene, her husband of 32 years, and their two adult sons. She is also passionate about her volunteer work with Bead for Life, a fair-trade organization that coordinates the sale of lovely paper bead jewelry made by women in Uganda, to help them rise out of poverty and support themselves.
Granted, using paper beads to build a bridge to independence is a different sort of problem-solving than the kind Karen is used to, but like everything else she does, she does it beautifully.
