Skill Set: Creative Design

Digital Design

• Website layouts / application layouts / eblast layouts / ecard layouts and elements: banners, icons, buttons, graphics, images, etc.
  Concept / sketches  >  Design in Photoshop / Illustrator  >  Slice  >   Optimize final graphics for web
• Banner ads
• Photo manipulation (colour correcting, airbrushing, cosmetic application and touch-ups, separating figures from a background, etc.)
• Optimized graphics that are still of good quality for the web to facilitate short load times
• Pixel-based and vector-based graphics

Print Design

• Posters
• Album artwork

• Proficient in establishing site architectures with wireframes, flow charts, and mock-ups.
• Skillful in creating designs that cater to the needs of the intended users and not to the designer's personal tastes.
• Knowledgable in designing with focus on human-computer interaction in order to help users successfully reach the client's desired end goal, e.g., visiting a website and filling out a form in order to receive more information, as efficiently as possible without deterring obstacles, e.g., unclear hyperlinks/instructions, requiring users to fill in info they may not want to provide to submit a form, and slow load times.
• Experienced with design research and usability/quality assurance testing prior to releasing the design to users in order to investigate if there are areas in a design where they may become confused and not know how to proceed.
• Proficient with creating clickable elements, e.g., buttons and icons) that are familiar and expected by users so that they can interact with the design with ease and efficiency.
• Well versed in creating icons with symbols—instead of written language—that can be understood universally by large audiences.
• Experienced in creating user interfaces tailored for broad or niche audiences that are either intuitive and simple for users to understand and navigate, or easy for them to learn as they go along.
• Skillful in following mainstream conventions for what users expect to see on a website e.g., navigation, headings, and footer area.
• Experienced with creating an exciting experience for the intended target audience while focusing on the business goals of the client.
• Proficient in developing designs that connect with the target audience on an emotional level through careful use of colour, movement, shape, typography, symbols, etc.
• Experienced with organizing navigation and content in a way that makes it easy for users to find the information they require as easily and efficiently as possible.
• Well versed in creating engaging designs that remain within the bounds of corporate style guides.

It takes more than just design and development skills to produce media that effectively captures the interest of your target demographic and assists with your marketing needs:

• Knowledgable with visual persuasion and working with how messages can be used to capture a specific emotional response from the target audience.
• Experienced with creating designs using visual cues (e.g. colour, movement, shape, typography, and eye contact of characters) to direct how a viewer navigates the design in order to plan what their expected emotional response should be.
• Skillful in acknowledging of the importance of iconography and using symbols and colour without language to communicate visually with universal audiences.
• Experienced with creating and using colour pallettes/themes to help caputre a specific emotional repsonse from the user.
• Proficient in the awareness of personal, historical, technical, ethical, cultural, and critical perspectives.

Design/Production

• Experienced with collaborating with creative design, programming/development, copyediting, and marketing agencies/departments.
• Proficient with using strict, contemperary coding standards that are neat, clean, and easy to read—an essential practise when multiple people are working with the same files.
• Skillful in slicing and optimizing Photoshop design files (.psd) for use on the web.
• Well versed in designing from scratch/collaborating on a variety of deliverables including: websites, applications, eblasts, ecards, banners, icons, buttons, graphics, and images.
• Experienced with reviewing design files and breaking down which elements should remain static and which ones can be dynamically generated with code
• Proficient with working within the bounds of corporate style guides.
• Well versed quality assurance testing for cross-browser compatibility in a variety of the current mainstream browsers.

Adobe Photoshop

• Well versed in making adjustments to .raw files from digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras.
• Proficient with manipulating digital photography, e.g., colour correcting, airbrushing, cosmetic application and touch-ups, separating figures from a background.
• Experienced with creating website layouts, e.g., designing, slicing, and file size optimization.
• Proficient in creating files from scratch as well as editing assets or stock imagery provided by clients or other designers.
• Well versed in building compositions that combine or blend photography and graphics. This includes bringing in smart objects containing vector graphics created in Adobe Illustrator.
• Skillful in creating print design including album artwork and posters.
• Experienced with adjustment layers, blending modes, masking, pen tool, rubber stamp, vector shapes, and more!
• Well versed in keeping neat, organized files with clearly labelled folders and layers.

Adobe Illustrator

• Well versed in using the pen tool to create intricate shapes.
• Skillful in creating graphics that can be converted into smart objects and used in Adobe Photoshop.
• Experienced in creating art with a gradient mesh.
• Proficient in executing print design such as posters.