Myplanet Digital: Better organizations through technology.

Creative Lead

Location

Toronto

About the position

Attention well-dressed designers and/or futurists! Did you doodle logos and take notes on a PDA with a fold-out keyboard in high school?  Do you judge a sportscar by the design of its dashboard, not its top speed? Do you think cyborgs are more awesome than awful? We're on an ongoing search for adept Creative Leads who know equally the blasphemy of a mis-kerned letter pair and the path to technocultural nirvana in the land of front-end code. If you've channeled the harmony of both sides of your brain to produce beautiful, unique interactive work, then we're looking for you.

A Creative Lead acts a permanent member of a scrum team, liasing between his or her team and the creative crew to help facilitate the creation, adaptation, and implementation of design work on a variety of projects. When working with designers, the Creative Lead is the voice of development, helping to introduce opportunities and voice technical limitations. When working with the scrum team, the Creative Lead is the voice of and responsible for quality implementation of design systems—both interactive and interaction-focused.

• Producing visual design for interactive: web, mobile, and tablet form factors.
• Conceptualizing & prototyping interactive systems with flexible, production-ready code; integrating visual identity systems into user experiences with an emphasis on usability and creativity.
• Understanding and extending interaction design systems across a variety of platforms.
• Design problem-solving: Adjusting the user experience, accounting for edge cases, and preserving the integrity of a unified visual system as changes happen.
• Thought leadership including regular contribution to the Myplanet blog, experimentation with and participation in Myplanet Labs projects, and aiding in the evolution and growth of Myplanet’s practice areas. Critical thinking is a must.
• Ongoing opportunities for professional development and exploring new platforms for digital design (interested in motion? Augmented reality?) Experiment, pursue independent projects, and challenge yourself to become a thought leader in your field while wearing many proverbial hats.
• Enjoying a flexible schedule of full-time hours, health/dental benefits and private US coverage.
• Exploring weekly yoga sessions, standing desks, Awesome Days, Geek Grants, and an open-concept social atmosphere.

About You

• You’re rationale-driven but inspired: you see your work as an adaptable, elegant solution to a problem (which may change), not a finite art piece. You jump at the opportunity to reconfigure, re-approach, or try completely new ideas. You have method to your madness (and some madness to your method).
• You consume design theory and art like a kid in a digital candy shop. The sight of a new typeface or charming colour palette inspires experimental fervor. Likewise, you have a voracious appetite for new interactive technologies and an informed opinion on current events in the interactive world. (So Apple won’t support Flash, who cares? Google is getting behind WebM, does it matter?) Finally, interaction logic is second-nature to you. You despise the counter-intuitiveness of a ‘push’ door mounted with a ‘pull’ handle.
• You’ve got a knack for working with a creative team & developers but you’re equally adept at independent work. Your ability to give and take creative direction from team members is strong and you can communicate your design decisions effectively. Your capacity to sustain continuity and see the big picture for an interactive system is unparalleled.
• You may be creative, but you sort your socks by Pantone colour code and never miss the bus. You are insanely detail-oriented. As a designer, you consider limitations and opportunities for developers, and vice-versa.

Qualifications/Skills

• A strong portfolio demonstrating clear understanding of interactive design principles, both graphical and technical, with examples of work prepared on a commercial or volunteer basis (we’ll want to see more than your hypothetical band website).
• Typographic and compositional mastery (you’ve got Müller-Brockmann tattooed on your back).
• Expert proficiency in design software including Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Proficiency in HTML5, CSS3, jQuery (and other libraries) & Javascript.
• Lightning-fast coding reflexes for iterative prototyping. Your code is as flexible as an American Apparel bandeau dress and clean as a Bauhaus lamp.
• BA/BFA or advanced degree in Multimedia Graphic Design, Interactive Design, or related field from an accredited program (bonus if your program was interdisciplinary).

Bonus

• Experience designing and optimizing for mobile platforms.
• Experience theming CMS's and platforms such as WordPress, Drupal, Magento.
• Experience playing happy birthday on Casio Keyboard or equivalent.

About Us

We are change agents. With offices in Toronto and Chicago, Myplanet is a rapidly growing provider of technical and creative services for web and mobile platforms. Along with a top-notch user experience/interactive team, some of our main specialties include the Drupal Social Publishing Platform, the Magento E-Commerce platform, mobile development for Android and iPhone devices, PHP and Python-based web applications and integrating weird legacy systems (hello RPG code, how did you get in there?).

Our clients range from large public companies to startups, non-profits and government agencies. On any given day, we work on projects ranging from building creative new web and mobile experiences, to launching startups for clients, to helping clients understand and plan for adoption of new interactive technologies. We are, in essence, one part technology specialist, one part interactive agency, and one part business model incubator.

We like to work on things that matter with people who care.

To apply, submit your cover letter and resume to talent@myplanetdigital.com with the subject heading "Creative Lead”.