Corrina Reff: Designing at Peak Performance

May 2019 Consultant of the Month

Corrina Reff is a hands-on designer and art director who helps businesses make an impact by creating thoughtful and innovative visual designs. Corrina is talented, organized and detail-oriented, yet always keeps the big picture in mind. Whether the project is big or small, she looks at it through a brand lens. She wants to understand the client, what their values are, who their audience is, and what the audience cares about. This knowledge informs every design decision made.

It’s no matter that she’s a Portland, Oregon native and resident. Distance is not a barrier for her Bay Area clients; she works seamlessly and effectively through various communication platforms. Moreover, she wins clients over with a strong work ethic that has earned her a great reputation in this neck of the woods.

Currently, Corrina freelances with Clari and has been creating a sub-brand for a video series called “Masters of Revenue.” It encompasses a full range of assets — a new logo, brand color palette, website, blog, social media and print. Corrina relishes this project, as she truly loves branding.

Not only does she do digital design, but has extensive experience with print, specifically crafting highly-detailed, 100+-page marketing books for a commercial and multi-family real estate company. With this long-time client, she has utilized out-of-the-box printing techniques. But the work is proprietary and super-secret, so you may never see this in her portfolio!

In Design, The Journey Continues

With a degree in graphic design from Portland State University, Corrina got her start in newspapers and magazines. Looking back to those analog days, she picked up skills quickly, worked with the pressure of hard deadlines, collaborated with editorial teams, and developed a love for layout and typography.

For the next eight years, she worked her way up from junior designer to art director at a small Portland design agency. When the firm got purchased, she decided it was time to branch out. This month of May, Corrina celebrates a five year anniversary of being on her own. With a previous colleague, she formed State of Assembly, a digital marketing and design consulting business.

EM Marketing’s mission is to transform the meaning of work, one meaningful relationship at a time. Two years ago, Corrina connected with an EM consultant who had transplanted to Portland. Great work was done together and the rest is history. Corrina is grateful for the exposure to clients she would not likely come across on her own. Given this partnership and the success of her own business, she envisions continuing this journey for a long time.

Flex Time for the Family

Corrina’s family is happy to be in Portland, where her parents settled and she grew up. But freelancing has afforded her flexibility to do special trips across the seas.

With their two-year-old daughter in tow, she and her husband spend extended amounts of time visiting and working remotely from Oviedo, Spain. When in college, Corrina studied there for a year and fell in love with the city. Later, in between her early jobs, she taught English in Oviedo and met her now-husband whose extended family still resides there.

Talk about true work-life balance. When you speak with Corrina, you just know that she loves what she does. She thrives on bringing new ideas to the table and creates visual work that stands out from the rest. Be sure to check out her portfolio and read the story of her nickname, Riddlesticks.