Job Title: User Experience Designer
Location: Redmond, WA
Zip Code: 98052

Description:

Job Title: User Experience Designer
Job Category: Product Design
Product: Surface
Date Posted: 02/29/2008
Job Code: 224808
Location: WA - Redmond
Travel Required:

Visual Designer - Microsoft Surface User Experience team
Do you want to really change the way people see the future? Do you have exceptional visual design skills? The Microsoft Surface creative design team is looking for a Visual Designer to help us as we build and deliver the look and feel for the next generation of computing and entertainment technology. Haven't seen it yet? Take a look at www.surface.com http://www.surface.com.
You should have at least 6 years production experience as graphic designer, compositor or motion graphics designer. You will work closely with the Creative Director and the Art Director to apply the visual language of Surface to a suite of applications and experiences that are unlike anything that exists on the market today. This is a key role in our creative team. You must be comfortable working at the highest production values, passionate about your craft and be able to give and take direction while working with people from a wide array of backgrounds.
You'll need to combine a childlike curiosity and imagination with a dedicated work ethic. You should have a gifted eye for design and details, along with strong work practices and production discipline. You must have a proven record of delivering innovative solutions on time for demanding and complex visual problems. While you do not need experience designing interfaces and/or menu systems, you should have a firm understanding of how they work and what makes them work well. You should have excellent visual problem-solving skills, be able to multi-task and work with minimal supervision. The ideal candidate is a strong, dynamic personality who sees a set of design constraints as a challenge for creativity.

Requirements:
To be considered for this role, you must submit a portfolio/reel (including shot breakdown) that demonstrates excellent skills in the following areas:
o Composition
o Color, typography and line
o User Interfaces
o Pre-Production methods
o Craftsmanship
o Breath of creative styles
o Strong understanding of storytelling (story, continuity, timing, gesture)
o Brand Identity
A minimum of 6 years experience in graphic design, compositing, broadcast design, motion graphics or similar production. A successful candidate must have a proven record of contributing great design on world-class entertainment products. You should have shipped at least 6-8 titles/productions with excellent production values on time and budget.
Excellent working knowledge of Illustrator and Photoshop.
Good working knowledge of Shake or similar compositing package.
Strong working knowledge of Flash is required. The ideal candidate has experience with Silverlight, Expressions, WPF and/or or XAML.
Ability to present complex information in a consistent and cohesive fashion
Ability to visually communicate without a computer (drawing preferred)
Ability to work within in wide array of visual styles, including a style set by another artist/art director
BA from an accredited school in either Graphic Design, Industrial design, Film, Post Production or related fields
Responsibilities:
Adapt the strategic Surface visual design language to the specific tactical needs of either a large application or suite of smaller ones. This will include hands on implementation and production of visual design solutions.
Ensure that all work delivered by you and your team conform to the creative needs of the project, are of highest possible production values and meet all technical requirements.
Use a variety or digital and non-digital methods to fully explore and propose specific look and feel solutions for assigned projects. As appropriate, create/produce visual prototypes in either sketch, linear formats (animatics, comps) or interactive (WPF or Flash) for review and refinement prior to implementing in production.
Using good design process, creativity and craft, you proactively work across the organization to preemptively eliminate problems in the production cycle, ideally before they occur.
Provide clear, consistent and constructive feedback and line leadership for a small team of full time and/or contract artists.
Establish strong working relationships with leads and team members across disciplines (PM, Development, Test, etc.) to add value to your assigned projects through your core design skills and creative input.
Documenting comprehensive visual design specifications.
Work to educate our partners and "clients" as to best design practices and benefits.
Assist in recruiting for Creative Design team and mentoring junior staff members.

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