Daily Brad, the blog

The Omniture UI team is growing continually, and we’re always looking to get some talented people on-board. It seems the UI designer is one of the most difficult to find. Someone who is not only talented in the aesthetic realm (our highly graphic applications depends on creativity and innovation), but who is also adept at creating easy-to-use interfaces for a highly technical and complex web-based software. And someone who’s willing to work in Orem, Utah. (Utah rocks!)

Here’s the latest job description we’re getting out there for a new hire. If you’ve got questions about the position or what it’s like to work at Omniture, drop me a line.

User Interface Designer Job Opening

Omniture is looking for an innovative, visual UI Designer with a strong sense of graphic design, layout, color, and usability. The ideal candidate will have an appreciation for sleek and usable interfaces, a solid understanding of the design process for web applications, strong technical know-how and a great attention to detail.
The UI Designer will work closely with product managers, researchers, engineers, and technical writers to visually and creatively take product ideas to concept by rapidly prototyping through conceptual sketches and mockups. The UI Designer will continually refine concepts to reflect input from internal and end-user testing. This is a high-profile role in a company that places high importance on creating a web product that combines cutting edge graphic technique with an easy-to-use interface.

Description

• Take direction to implement the creative vision and overall look and feel for projects based on design objectives, product requirements, functional specs, and an iterative feedback process.
• Assist in defining and developing the user experience for Omniture’s award-winning web-based products. Work with product manager and engineers in drafting initial concepts.
• Convey design ideas via storyboards, and prototyping tools.
• Create deployment-quality mocks and prototypes on tight timelines.
• Maintain graphic standards and corporate branding throughout the product’s interface.
• Review completed projects for consistent and correct look and feel.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional web design experience with an emphasis on creative, visual, and interaction design.
• Prefer web product design experience.
• BA/BS or equivalent in Graphic Design or related field preferred.
• Understanding of graphical web design principles, typography, composition, and iconography.
• Ability to set conceptual design and product direction from functional requirements.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with a group of creative individuals to produce highly polished and professional finished works.
• Ability to accept and design against feedback in an iterative development process.
• Ability to produce effective ideas under tight timelines.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong computer skills and a demonstrated expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Comfortable in Microsoft Windows environment.
• Willing and able to contribute to the creative spirit and teamwork of the company.

2008 is one of the first years in a long time that I’m not taking a trip to celebrate my arrival to this world on January 31st. For those of you who know me well, you’ve already been asking, “where are you going for your birthday?” This year I decided to stick around town and enjoy this snow we’ve been having instead of lying on a sandy beach somewhere. Years past have been gloomy, gray and cold and it has been nice to escape to Florida, Cancun, Acapulco, Hawaii (all trips in years past). But while this year we’ve had plenty of the cold, in contrast to years past, we’ve also received plenty of the white stuff. I mean lots! It’s a nice change - I love the snow!

So to take advantage of the white stuff, I’m going snowboarding. Yup, hitting the slopes this weekend. I typically head to Brighton with my friend Jonathan, but we’ve also talked about trying somewhere new this time. In pulling up to check the weather for my birthday and the day after on KSL.com, I was surprised to find it was going to be a toasty day (and for the low none-the-less!):

So other than the oceans boiling and every living thing cooking in their skin, I think it just might be a good day to hit the slopes. I’ll be sure to grab my SPF 10,000 - wish me luck!

I check my lists of Utah Graphic Designers, Utah Graphic Design Firms, etc. on a regular basis to make sure that all the folks listed there are active links and still doing great design, and tonight I ran across something cool.

Though I don’t remember what EyeFX had on their page previously, what they have now is a lot of fun on a boring afternoon. The page loads up grey, and your mouse curser becomes a pen tool that allows you to create webs of designs that looks somewhat like a Jackson Pollock painting. Hovering the pen longer makes a thicker stroke, and moving quick keeps it light and thin. You’ll notice that the canvas area fits any size browser whether full screen, half screen or made tiney.

Give it a try at http://www.eyefx.com

I’ve never been much of a gadget person, nor have I been one who likes to chat, but for goodness sakes it’s nice to hear that I’m not alone. In a recent survey of 1,013 adults and 500 teens conducted online by Knowledge Networks from Nov. 30-Dec. 4., it was discovered that teens use Instant Message or “IM” twice as much as adults.

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It’s funny, I remember that Janet Meiners (the blogger who got me started doing this blog) said that one of the reasons she started blogging, is that she didn’t have that great of a memory. She said that she blogs to remember ideas she’s come across or had herself to save for reference later.

So I thought I’d blog about a recent discovery that prompted a few ideas in my brain that I thought I might forget. (That’s the funny part… at least to me anyhow.)

While poking around the web to find cool things, I ran across an offering called MOO. Moo? Yup, MOO. Even though the story behind their name is a well-guarded secret, the grand statement on their website states why they exist and what they do:

The web. You can’t touch it, write on it or put it on the mantle. You can’t hang it on the wall or pass it to the cutie on the bus and you certainly can’t give it to your mum for her birthday. MOO want to change all this. We dream up new products, personalised by your stuff on the web, that let you take that virtual life offline. We hope you like them.

So what does that all mean? Well, for starters at least, NO MORE BORING BUSINESS CARDS.

MOO allows you to make small business-like cards called MiniCards (28mm x 70mm). You create unique designs for the back of the card, and share your Skype name, Flickr pics, email, blog, and vital statistics with friends and attractive strangers, in the real world on the front of the card. There are some examples on how people are using their cards on the MOO Flickr Pool. There even seems to be a movement to collect and share these cards.

But my thought - what a FANTASTIC tool for a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, etc to show off his work. Since each card in the pack of 100 can have a different back-side… the possibilities are endless!

This is just another one of those in a long-line of new personalization products that are out there that I just love. I’m excited to give these a try myself and see how it goes. I also like their web-page design - very fresh.

I’ve been adding a few links every week to my lists of Utah talent (have you checked lately?), so keep checking back. I’m always doing Google searches trying to find more to add that I’ve missed. Tonight I ran across a directory called Salt Lake Sites at http://slsites.com where I was able to find a few more design firms, a photographer, and an illustrator I was missing.

Salt Lake Sites
Salt Lake Sites claims to be the largest open directory for Salt Lake City, Utah and surrounding communities. While it may not be the prettiest directory I’ve seen, with over five thousand listings in 280 categories, it well could be as it claims. The site was created by Kevin Delaney as a non-commercial hobby site. All he asks for being listed is a shout-out on your blog or website, or a small listing fee in return. There was a couple ill-fated links in the design section that I reported to Kevin - I’m sure he has plenty on his hands to do just approving new links.

So in an effort to get more people to find my site, I’m listing it there tonight. I’ll let you know how it goes (I use Google Analytics to track it).

Utah Designers, Illustrators, Design Firms and More
And keep checking back for my continued lists of Utah Talent! (I add a few new ones every-so-often, and verify their existence at least every week.)

And please let me know if you have any suggested links of other Utah talent!

100% Cotton

Originally uploaded by chezrump.

Did you ever play with Adobe Photoshop to create a third eye in the middle of someone’s head? Yup, that clone tool can be a lot of fun to the first-time user.

But it’s amazing to see the handiwork of someone who has really harnessed the photo-editing power of Photoshop like this image entitled “100% Cotton”. Check out some more of Paul Hollingworth’s photos on flickr and see other samples of his amazing work.

Kind of surreal, don’t you think?

I posted on a previous occasion some of my favorite design quotes. I had several of my friends comment to me personally that they were a big fan of the one by Steve Jobs. When I did this post, I did a quick search online for a few more design quotes and ran across the design section and the graphic design section of Wikiquote. Here are a few of the quotes I found of note listed there:

• “Design is the contrast of the core of limitations therefore there are no boundaries. It is simply an interpretation of creativity.”
  - Jenaiha Woods
• “An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
  - Dr. Edwin Land
• “I think so many of the objects we’re surrounded by seem trivial. And I think that’s because they’re either trying to make a statement or trying to be overtly different. What we were trying to do was have a very honest approach and an exploration of materials and surface treatment. So much of what we try to do is get to a point where the solution seems inevitable: you know, you think ‘of course it’s that way, why would it be any other way?’ It looks so obvious, but that sense of inevitability in the solution is really hard to achieve.”

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KFC Boldy Goes where no brand has gone before by unveiling astronomical, 87,500 square-foot, contemporized Colonel Sanders logo in Area 51 desert to launch “KFC of the Future”.

Kicking Off a New Brand Image Campaign
The event marks the official debut of a massive global re-image campaign that will contemporize 14,000-plus KFC restaurants in over 80 countries over the next few years.

KFC’s new fresh look updates one of the most recognized, respected and beloved brand icons in the world and spans all visual elements from logo to restaurant design, advertising, packaging, uniforms and more.

The new logo depicts Colonel Sanders with his signature string tie, but for the first time, replaces his classic white, double-breasted suit with a red apron. The apron symbolizes the home-style culinary heritage of the brand and reminds customers that KFC is always in the kitchen cooking delicious, high-quality, freshly prepared chicken by hand, just the way Colonel Sanders did 50 years ago.

The Logo Construction
It took a team of nearly 50 designers, engineers, scientists (including astrophysicists), architects and other professionals working nearly three months to conceive, create and execute building the world’s largest logo.

The “Face from Space” took more than 3,000 hours to create from inception to launch and was built by Synergy, a leading event company.

The logo consists of 65,000 one-foot by one-foot painted tile pieces that were assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle: 6,000 red, 14,000 white, 12,000 eggshell, 5,000 beige and 28,000 black.

The logo took 24 days, working around-the-clock, to manufacture and ultimately produce. It then took six days on site to construct the logo, during which time the logo design pieces were kept hidden and under cover from identified and unidentified flying objects.

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Attention illustrators and designers - if you need to promote yourself and your illustration skills (and make a few extra dollars as well), why not give Threadless a try? What is Threadless? Threadless was created by a couple of guys called “the Jakes” under their DBA Skinny Corp. to give designers and artists an opportunity to unleash a little creativity and display it to the masses. Anyone can visit the site, download their templates and submit a t-shirt design. Then, the designs are voted on. The winning designers receive $2,000 in cash and prizes, huge amounts of notoriety and their design printed and sold on a tee.

Since they launched the site, Skinny Corp has received over 60,000 tee shirt design submissions. It’s been a great way for designers and illustrators to get their name out there. Over 300 winning designs have been printed and sold so far, with 6 new ones coming out every week.

The site features interviews with some of their designers, some who’ve won only a few times, while one guy from Louisianna has won over 13 times. (That’s a hefty chunk of cash and prizes) Plus, it worked into a job for this particular guy - and now he works at Threadless.

One of their winners, S. Bradley Askew when asked if he thinks Threadless helps designers:

Honestly, its one of the best things in the design community right now. Some of publicity T receives helps catapult designers who get featured in magazines like ‘GQ.’ PR like that is great and to tell clients you had work featured in publications like that, that wasn’t some sort of paid advertisement, it’s golden.

So if you’ve ever had a good idea for a t-shirt design - design it, enter it. There could be some recognition as well as a little cash in your future. (Heck, I’ll give it a try and post my design - wish me luck!)