• Skip to main content

David Crow

Connector of dots. Maker of lines. Rider of slopes.

  • About me
  • Contact

design+jobs

Avid Life Media – Junior Designer

by davidcrow

Toronto, ON

Avid Life Media, a leading developer of some of the world’s most cutting edge dating web sites, is looking for a talented Junior Designer to join our growing team. You must be a team player who is able to communicate well, juggle multiple projects, proactively solve problems, and deliver against tight-deadlines in a fast paced environment.

This position located at our Toronto office at Yonge and Eglinton.
Your main responsibilities will be to design animated .gif banner ads/campaigns and landing pages. Other responsibilities will include designing HTML email creative, maintaining existing web properties, and other related projects. You will work closely with senior graphic designers and other departments to implement design with fast turnaround through all phases from concept to completion.

Requirements

  • Strong creative and technical skills including colour theory, typography, layout, user interface design and production techniques.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of standards compliant HTML, CSS, and Javascript, as well as expert knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.
  • Well-versed in the quirks of Firefox, IE6, IE7 and Safari, testing and assuring cross-browser and cross-platform quality and adherence.

Bonus

  • Experience with PHP.
  • Experience with Flash and Actionscript.

To Apply

Send your resume and a link to your online portfolio to: [email protected] No agencies or contractors please!

Posted on April 16, 2009 Filed Under: Design, Jobs, Toronto Tagged With: design+jobs, Flash, Toronto, web+standards

Akoha – Experience Designer

by davidcrow

Montreal, QC

Original posting on StandoutJobs

Title: Experience Designer to help design a better world.

Location: Montreal, Canada.

Languages: Must be extremely fluent in written and spoken English. French an bonus.

Compensation: TBD based on experience.

Summary: Akoha, an online social reality game is seeking a User Experience guru

Come and join Akoha as we create the game that will make the world a better place!

About Akoha

Akoha is a funded startup making the world’s first social reality game. We’re a small team of startup veterans from the Internet, venture capital and gaming communities in Montreal. We’ve hit the stage at TechCrunch50 and TED 2009 and are some of the pioneers in using games to make the world a better place. We want to change the way people think about how on-line communities can affect their real-world lives.

What we’re looking for is an Experience Designer who wants to design a better world.

You deeply believe that great design can change the world and you’re just looking for the opportunity to make it a reality.

We’re looking for a key User Experience guru to help the passionate team at Akoha take our design skills to the next level. For the right candidate this is the opportunity of a lifetime to join a well-funded, experienced team with a killer idea on the brink of a break-out success. We believe that creating incredible product design expertise throughout the company will be a key component of Akoha’s success and we’ll stop at nothing to ensure we find the right person to lead the charge.

You know you’re the right candidate if you’re a self-proclaimed design-freak. You notice great design everywhere and anywhere. From the simple pen that writes perfectly to the five-star hotel that provides your every whim before you’re even aware of it, designing these experiences makes you as giddy as a schoolgirl. You have a great combination of practical, theoretical and team management experience and has demonstrated the ability to instill a world-class internal design culture.

Reporting to the VP of Product Development, you and our development team will bring Akoha to the next level. Your primary responsibility is to delight our players in every way imaginable.

The Perfect Candidate

You know you’re the perfect candidate if you:

Push the boundaries: You’re an leader in the UX field (maybe just waiting to be discovered) but despite getting great results you’re constantly looking for ways to push the boundaries. You relish the opportunity to get together with other leaders in the field to trade ideas about how to integrate the new-new thing into your daily practice.

Lead the pack: Everyone says you’re the best at what you do. While your humility prevents you from tooting your own horn too loudly, you secretly know this to be true.

Self-proclaimed Design-Nerd: You own a t-shirt that says "Design will save the world! Just ask me how…" (and you deeply believe that). You see ways of using great design in every aspect of your life and examples of bad design make you feel physically unwell.

You’re Tough but Fair: While you understand that you’re not always right, you’re ready to make the call when necessary and you’re not afraid to ruffle some feathers to make sure that the user gets the experience that they deserve.

Awesome Facilitation Skills: While you’ve done it all before you know that getting the design right requires everyone’s input and creativity. You’ve worked hard to hone your facilitation skills but no-one would know that because you lead design sessions with the aplomb of a orchestra conductor.

You’re Never Satisfied: Your personal matra is the Fine Young Cannibals ’80 hit "I’m Not Satisfied". From your team’s performance to your own personal development, you’re constantly looking for ways to improve the things that you do. For you, "Good" is never good enough and "Great" can always be better.

You’re a Data Junkie: Stepping into do design without the right data just makes you feel dirty. Likewise, when the team has pushed the newest changes you’re stuck to the analytics page like bubble-gum in mop-top. Your know that pushing features without being able to track the results is just plain wrong and your dedication to user testing has been described as "religious".

Have Legendary Energy: Your colleagues wonder where you get all your energy and your team suspects that you may be using illegal substances to provide you with your unfailing pep (it’s not true). Your secret is that you love your work and it’s what gives you the drive to keep up the pace.

Bonus points awarded if:

Have a Love of Games and Game Design: You love games and you’ve designed games in your spare time (or ideally you’re a full-blown game designer!) You love all types of games and you play any type of game you can get your hands on: board-games, soduko, hide-and-seek, you name it. In your spare time and you justify your urge to buy the newest console game by saying that you need to "evaluate it for work".

What the Job Entails

Reporting to the VP of Product Development, your primary responsibility is to delight our players in every way imaginable. Other top-line responsibilities include:

  • Champion the development and evolution of Akoha’s in-house design practice;
  • Ensure that product design supports product and company strategies;
  • Work with players, partners, and teammates to gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative research;
  • Create and collaborate on, clear design documents that support product development;
  • Shape Akoha into a game that is both fun and magical for its players.

You have:

  • Years of UX design experience, working with a team that produced amazing results;
  • Designed web software that people love;
  • Design experience in other fields: game, print, landscape, fashion, etc.;
  • Lead a design process in another organization;
  • Amazing facilitation skills;
  • Fluent oral and written English, with French as a great asset;
  • A tendency to work hard and get stuff done, on-time, without breaking a sweat.

You like:

  • Free snack food, drinks, and pulling delicious shots of espresso.
  • Passionate co-workers who are as smart and enthusiastic as you are.
  • Optional Dress-Up Fridays. Every day is casual day, but sometimes you just have to rock out.
  • TEDtalks (especially the design ones)
  • Working with some of the leading change makers in the world who are fighting for the environment, battling poverty, funding education, improving health-care, and nurturing the arts.

Want to work with us? We want to talk to you.

Note: This is a full-time position, available immediately and based in Montreal (A beautiful city that we are happy to help you relocate to if you are not local)

How To Apply

We will not begin setup interviews with candidates until May 4th.

Please have your application submitted before that date.  We want to give all applicants the time to put together a great application with all the trimmings.  If you have another opportunity you are considering and need to hear from us please let us know and we’ll try to accomodate your schedule.

Required elements for your application:

  • Cover letter explaining why you would be perfect for this role
  • Your CV and portfolio
  • Links to any blog posts you’ve written on user experience design
  • Links to any talks you’ve presented
  • Any examples of your work you are free to share (stuff like User Mental Model Diagrams, Navigation Patterns Documents, Paper Prototype Documents, Storyboards or Sketchboards, Wireframes)
  • Something to surprise us and show us your personality

Apply for this Job

Posted on April 6, 2009 Filed Under: Jobs, Montreal, User Experience Tagged With: design+jobs, game+design, Montreal, ux+jobs

GANZ – Creative Lead

by davidcrow

Toronto, ON

Ganz’ Webkinz has revolutionized the toy industry with its innovative and engaging combination of online and offline play. A true popular cultural icon, Webkinz has been featured on every major television network and was ranked number 2 on Google’s 2007 Zeitgeist list of most popular searches.

Now is your chance to join the creative team that has brought this vibrant world to life. Ganz is seeking a talented and motivated person with a proven love of online entertainment for this position:

Creative Lead – Webkinz

Responsibilities

  • Work with the creative writing team to execute the vision of the Creative Director to the high standards established for Webkinz.
  • Will represent the Creative Team in project meetings and will enforce the spirit of the creative in these meetings.
  • Will report regular status of projects to the Creative Director, and will bring the Creative Director into disputes as necessary.
  • Bring new, fresh interactive ideas to the Creative Director for possible inclusion in the Webkinz Plan.
  • Provide the day-to-day creative leadership required to execute the Webkinz Plan.

Qualifications

  • MUST HAVE 5+ years of proven creative excellence working in the interactive entertainment or children’s marketing industry.
  • 2+ years in middle or higher management position.
  • Experience working in children’s entertainment strongly preferred.
  • Must possess a strong knowledge of interactive media including interface design, usability, writing for the internet, game and activity design.
  • Must be able to present ideas clearly and concisely to senior management.
  • Must understand the technical abilities and limitations of today’s online interactive tools; Flash in particular.
  • Should show an affinity and interest in children’s entertainment and kid’s culture.
  • Must exhibit a clear understanding of the technical, business and artistic needs of interactive development.
  • Bilingualism is an asset (French, Italian, Spanish & Portuguese).

Interested candidates must email their resume and online portfolios to [email protected].

Please check out our website www.webkinz.com.

Posted on March 20, 2009 Filed Under: Design, Jobs, Toronto Tagged With: design+jobs, Toronto

BeSocial.com – Visual/Interaction Designer

by davidcrow

Mid-town Toronto, ON

Summary

besocial Own the visual design that defines BeSocial.com as well as art direction and brand identity for the company.

About Us

Interested in working for a startup technology company with lots of energy and excitement? BeSocial.com is looking for the brightest and most talented candidates to join our team. We’re a small company based in Toronto with a great opportunity for anyone who joins to make a big impact.

At BeSocial, we value efficiency, working smart, and exceeding the status quo. We place great emphasis on maintaining a transparent and autonomous environment where everyone’s opinion is respected and where people’s contributions are acknowledged and rewarded. BeSocial is also proud to be an equal opportunity employer; we’re not influenced by race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, or any other factor irrelevant to doing a great job.

If you feel you’re up to the task, we’d love to meet you. If this is not a fit for you, please feel free to forward this message along to others who may be interested in learning about this opportunity.

The Ideal Profile

  • You’re an experienced user-centered designer focused on both visual and interaction design for the web.
  • You think strategically, deliver pixel-level detail, and have a passion for visually defining a brand. You also have a talent for understanding users and identifying their needs so that you can design and document solutions to real-life problems.

Responsibilities

  • Design various aspects of our online presence, such as web user interface design, page layouts, promotional landing pages, email newsletters/campaigns, and Flash banners.
  • Design (occasionally) graphic print pieces for marketing, developer communications, presentations at conferences and high profile meetings.
  • Maintain working knowledge of CSS and HTML (although another team member will be responsible for production code).
  • Quickly understand the constraints of a design challenge and identify the tradeoffs.
  • Monitor visual design consistency across all projects and mediums: layouts, color palettes, typography, iconography, etc.
  • Communicate your design thinking via thorough specifications and reviews. Produce design deliverables that are easily accessible by anyone in the company.
  • Provide feedback to the product development process and contribute to prioritizing work.
  • Work under the pressures of deadlines, handling multiple responsibilities simultaneously.
  • Contribute to a culture of innovation and teamwork.

Qualifications

  • 3+ years visual design experience at an agency, studio or contractual work.
  • Extensive knowledge of visual design, information design, and interaction design.
  • BFA or MFA in Graphic Design, Digital Media Design or Visual Arts.
  • Required software and technical knowledge: Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks.
  • Strong portfolio featuring design samples.
  • Experience with a version control system such as Subversion.
  • Proven ability to define problems and solutions independently and with teams.

Assets (not required)

  • Experience creating or maintaining visual interface guidelines.
  • Extensive knowledge of (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX and DOM. Also knowledgeable about degrading functionality and presentation gracefully when needed.
  • Full understanding of W3C standards, specifications, and best practices with respect to security, scalability, maintainability, reliability and usability, as well as cross-browser compatibility issues.
  • Desired software and technical knowledge: Flash.
  • Academic background in human factors/ergonomics, cognitive science, psychology or HCI.
  • Experience conducting user testing.
  • You love food and dining out, otherwise known as a Foodie.

Availability

Part-time, with the opportunity (and willingness) to join our growing team full-time.

Location

You’re preferably located near central/downtown Toronto and will work remotely from your home/office.

Compenstation

A competitive compensation and equity package will be negotiated based on experience and performance. Comprehensive health and dental benefits are available for full-timers.

Join Us…Apply Today!

Want to join us? Please send your resume and a cover letter with the subject "Your Name – Visual Designer – via BeSocial.com" to [email protected]. You must include a portfolio that shows deliverables you directly worked on. All communication and correspondence is held in the strictest confidence to ensure that you can connect and learn more without exposure.

Only those candidates who are considered for an interview will be contacted.

Posted on January 28, 2009 Filed Under: Design, Jobs, Toronto, User Experience Tagged With: besocial, design+jobs, Toronto, ux+jobs

Avid Life Media – Designer

by davidcrow

Toronto, ON

avidlifemedia

Want to make a huge difference? Want to work with fun people on a fun product?

Then you want to be at Avid Life Media.

Avid Life Media has some of the world’s top dating sites:

  • Millions of people date through Avid Life Media.
  • Thousands of people find matches every day.
  • We make money and AREN’T advertising supported.
  • Avid Life Media is a fast-paced company that measures releases in days not weeks and rewards individual initiative and gumption.

This is key member of the team, and a growth position. You will have your fingers in the entire breadth of Avid Life Media’s offerings: our website, social networking apps (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc) and iPhone and other mobile apps.

You will:

  • Design and develop a world class user experience
  • Create detailed specifications, wireframes and visual mockups
  • Execute your designs’ HTML, CSS and JavaScript (as your skills allow) in collaboration with the engineering team
  • Create graphics, logos, and icons
  • Be responsible for all brand-related creative at the company for both print and web
  • Finally, you will likely manage a team of designers as the company’s needs grow
  • The ideal candidate is an experienced hands-on designer who is excited about new concepts and can think in terms of both wireframes and visual designs. You have worked in a product development group for leading brands, websites, and mobile devices. The position requires a strong design background in visual and interaction design and a portfolio of work demonstrating the range of experience.

You need:

  • At least four years experience in web design
  • Strong information architecture skills. We would like to see specifications: wireframes, site maps, etc
  • Strong visual design skills with demonstrated ability to create graphics and icons with attention to detail
  • Good understanding of current web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
  • Demonstrated ability to design simple and engaging user interfaces
  • Located in mid-town Toronto.

No agencies or contractors please.

Applicants must live in the Greater Toronto Area or be willing to relocate.

To apply:

Send resumes to jobs at almlabs.com

Make sure to tell us why you think you are a fit and any relevant url’s to your portfolio, blog, work, resume, etc.

Posted on January 23, 2009 Filed Under: Design, Jobs, Toronto Tagged With: design+jobs, Toronto, ux+jobs, web+design

Kenna – Senior Art Director

by davidcrow

Mississauga, ON

kenna The Kenna Group is a full service Customer Management Agency that provides end-to-end solutions for optimizing its clients’ customer relationships. Using problem-solving skills and technology, Kenna helps clients develop an integrated, measurable and profitable approach to relationship management.

The Senior Art Director, in collaboration with the Creative Director, conceptualizes and develops creative ideas and oversees the design and visual look of the final product. They will present creative concepts internally, contribute to internal brainstorm sessions and present externally at creative client briefings. They will generate and execute creative solutions for clients while ensuring creative cohesiveness of the product from concept to production.

Responsibilities

  • Develop strategic visual solutions that deliver on communication objectives and the brand in partnership with a copywriter
  • Work as part of a multi-disciplinary team
  • Work within budget parameters
  • Attend all internal creative meetings and presentations
  • Present work to internal and external clients with effect and passion
  • Work with Creative Director to develop and design layouts and creative boards for clients
  • Prepare art direction style guide and propping lists for Producers and style out meeting
  • Must review first and final colour Proofs falling between weeks 6 and 3
  • Participate with creative briefs and brainstorms
  • Oversee the graphic design team including design production, promotion and advertising production
  • Accountable for managing the timelines as well as ensuring the effective prioritization of all projects under your care.
  • Leading in-house designers and freelancers as well as directing outside support services
  • Provide art direction and execution of Graphic support
  • Communicate all progress and/or concerns to the team in a timely and efficient manner as it relates to any work under your care
  • Maintain knowledge of new technologies within your area of expertise

Requirements

  • Degree or Diploma or equivalent combination of relevant experience and education. Education in Graphic Design preferred
  • 8 – 10 years experience in the industry specifically in digital and/or graphic design
  • Proficient with MS Office and design products: Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, Lettershop and web media programs
  • Able to present ideas/creative to clients
  • Able to produce creative ideas appropriate for the marketing channel and project
  • Strong time management skills to manage multiple projects within a deadline oriented environment

Apply

Anyone interested to send a copy of their resume to Wendy Smith at [email protected]

Posted on January 16, 2009 Filed Under: Design, GTA, Jobs Tagged With: design+jobs, marketing+jobs, Toronto

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to Next Page »

Copyright © 2023 · WordPress · Log in