Contract Illustrator — St. Louis or Portland

Posted June 23, 2011

Summary:
Take your passion and drive for information design and storytelling to new heights by joining XPLANE as a contract illustrator to illustrate visual solutions to the communication needs of clients, using a mix of creative skills and commercial awareness. Participate as a member of an X-Team to create innovative and meaningful communications. Work with top managers from Fortune 500 companies around the world to understand and illustrate complex challenges with visual solutions. Requires imaginative flair, awareness of current trends in the visual arts, working knowledge of the latest illustration software packages, and an understanding of material costs and time limits, all of which can impact the design. The ideal candidate will possess solid design skills with a sharp attention to detail, positive attitude, and innovative thinking.

Essential Duties:

• Create innovative designs that are useful, usable, engaging, and appropriate for a variety of complex business processes and goals.
• Advocate and design for the user’s goals from concept through development. Employ problem solving and design methodologies as appropriate for each project.
• Design and conduct user research, synthesize and report insights.
• Facilitate communications internally, with clients, and with vendors to enable the creation of innovative design solutions. Collaborate with creative team members across multiple time zones to ensure final deliverables reflect user, client, design, and internal business goals. Manage the client relationship and function as client liaison when appropriate.
• Help create and revise project workflow process and best practices as necessary. Push the work creatively while staying realistic about budget, resources, and schedules.
• Keep abreast of changes and innovations in research, design and technology and evangelize those changes as appropriate.
• Presentation skills — engaging phone presentations, sessions with clients in live drawing, face-to-face interaction.

Requirements & Responsibilities:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, equivalent or similar.
• 3+ years experience in a design studio or equivalent.
• Ability to generate strong, strategy-based concepts and design for a variety of mediums. Fluent in drawing illustrations for use by various media to explain or adorn printed or spoken word.
• Ability to study layouts, sketches of proposed illustrations, and related materials to become familiar with assignment.
• Ability to determine style, technique, and medium best suited to produce desired effects and conform with reproduction requirements, or receive specific instructions regarding these variables.
• Experience in formulating concept and rendering illustration and detail from models, sketches, memory, and imagination.
• Ability to communicate internally and externally, both visually and in writing, about a wide variety of concepts, processes, and products across multiple studio locations. Ability to discuss illustration at various stages of completion and make changes as necessary. May select type, draw lettering, lay out material, or perform related duties. May be identified according to specific style, technique, medium, subject material or combination of variables.
• Ability (specifically) to oversee the output from illustrators, programmers and animators to communicate concrete and abstract ideas.
• Excellent client interaction, leadership and teamwork skills. Ability to define tasks, organize complex projects and meet deadlines.
• Have a finger on the pulse of emerging design technologies and presentation tools.

Think you’re a fit? Apply now by submitting a cover letter, résumé, and portfolio to http://xplane.catchthebest.com/apply/daa9/7dae.

We’re seeking candidates in Portland and St. Louis.