Meet Kate Carpenter    Kate Carpenter, award-winning art director and founder of Kate Carpenter Design, has never met a color she didn’t like. Or a design style that didn’t strike her fancy. Kate’s interest in art stretches back to her days growing up as a Navy brat, when she carted around a 64-count box of Crayolas and sketched in her notebook whenever she thought her teachers weren’t looking. They were—and their reaction was unanimous: “You’re an artist!” Kate thought so, too. But she put her passion on hold, choosing to follow a more practical career path as a speech pathologist. After several years working in the public schools, Kate was ready to follow her bliss and become a full-time designing woman. At Virginia Commonwealth University, she studied illustration/communication, with the intention of making the world more beautiful, one business card at a time.

After graduation in 1999, Kate launched Kate Carpenter Design, a full-service graphic design and branding firm that creates marketing communication materials and websites for non-profit organizations and small businesses. The driving force behind the creative team at KCD, Kate has built her reputation on delivering premier design and personal service at an affordable price. Her diverse clientele includes the Virginia Society of CPAs, the Richmond Symphony, The Massey Cancer Center, the Richmond Jewish Foundation and the Faison School for Autism, among others. Kate received the “Certificate of Merit” from both the Society of Illustrators and the Illustrators Club for her work as an art director with illustrator Robert Meganck.

Kate lives outside Richmond, Virginia with her husband, a professional photographer, and their two children, who are artists in training.  She loves folk music, chocolate chip cookies and, yes, her kids' Crayolas.