If someone asks me how I feel about the last 5 years since I dove into the world of design, I’d say “everyday I am thankful for the tough love that art school showed me”.
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Tag / design
We’re Hiring a Digital Art Director
Who We Are
gskinner is an award-winning digital studio in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We are a team of just under 20 talented, passionate professionals who get out of bed every day eager to work together and create innovative digital solutions which expand creative and technical boundaries.
Great Pumpkin Showdown 2017
Hallowe’en at gskinner means two traditions:
The first tradition is our annual pumpkin carving afternoon. Earlier in the week, we announced some teams, and on Friday we brought in food, drinks, snacks, and some classic Tim Burton Hallowe’en movies. The day was punctuated with visits from Dodo, our office dog for the day, on loan from Chris K.
The second tradition is the design and development of our Pumpkin Voting App. This privilege falls on our newest team member(s). They manage all the project stages, from initial sketches and ideation, right through deployment! It’s a great opportunity to provide some training and practice with real deadlines.
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Why I Practice Design After 25 Years
It’s been 25 years since I first double-clicked a desktop icon that changed my life. The year was 1992 and I had just opened up Photoshop 2.5. I had no idea what I was doing. Fascinated by computers and making digital art, I didn’t care if I could make something look great. I just clicked on a tool and tried making anything. With each attempt, I increased my abilities and the outcomes became more complex, meaningful, and intentional. Practicing became the foundation for my education, career, and part of my ethos as a Creative Director—here’s the impact it’s had, and how you might be feeling if you’re not practicing.
Continue reading →Job Posting: Visual Designer
We are currently seeking to fill a job opening for a full-time visual designer in Edmonton.
The Role
Are you passionate about designing amazing digital experiences? Interested in creating engaging, usable UI on emerging platforms for incredible clients like Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, Adobe, NASCAR, Atari, and EA? Want to build best-of-breed apps, games, and experiences that run on everything from desktop, tablets, and phones, to smart TVs, VR, and robots?
It can be a challenging role, but you’ll be part of one of the best interactive teams on the planet, ensuring you have the training to excel, and the support to do it without too much stress or OT.
Requirements
Strong visual / aesthetic UI design skills. A passion for designing interfaces that are genuinely usable, engaging, and beautiful on a variety of platforms and screen formats. A working knowledge of typography and how to leverage it appropriately.
Any experience level is welcome (passionate junior to proven senior), but some industry experience is valued.
Bonus Points
Experience with any of the following get you bonus points, but aren’t a necessity: motion design, HTML / CSS experience, illustration, formal UX / interaction design experience, sketching (paper & pen), writing skills, prototype / walkthrough presentations.
Compensation
We offer competitive wages based on experience and proven ability. We strongly believe in a work / life balance and offer regular hours, benefits, and performance bonuses.
Applying
You can apply by sending an email to jobs@gskinner.com. Please share a few examples of interesting or innovative visual designs that you think best reflect your skills and interests.
Game Design and Life
I spend a lot of time browsing through offshore sports betting apps, thinking about video games, from concept to completion and then some. Whether making, playing or being involved with the community, there are a few things I have noticed that I’d like to share.
Game design is equal parts organic and structure, but the more time I spend with both the process and the end product, the more I realize that there are hidden, underlying core values in game design that closely resemble the six human needs. The more of these values/needs the game hits, the subjectively “better” the game is.
Thoughts on Responsive “Art Direction”
In the creative community, there are discrepancies in how people use design-related lexicon. Terms like “Creative Direction”, “Asset Production”, and “Design” are often used interchangeably and inaccurately. It can be confusing.
“Art direction” in particular, means different things to different people, and there’s a recent trend in using this term to describe specific processes surrounding the production of scalable assets in responsive systems.
For example, according to the Google Developer’s documentation on responsive images:
“[c]hanging images based on device characteristics, also known as art direction can be accomplished using the picture element. The picture element defines a declarative solution for providing multiple versions of an image based on different characteristics, like device size, device resolution, orientation, and more”. – Google Developer Documentation.
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