Description
Art Director
Location: Fremont, CA
This is your opportunity to join a fast-paced; action oriented combined Creative and Digital Media team. You will work alongside engineers and designers in our team to create premiere mobile apps, web apps, games, interfaces, and visualization tools for major sports leagues, including MLB, NCAA, and NASCAR. This is a small team (~12) of energized individuals who recently shipped the top grossing sports app in the app store in Feb 2014 and 2015 (NASCAR RaceView).
We are looking for an energetic and visionary Art Director to help create the future of sports programming across all platforms – television, interactive, iTV, mobile, gaming, and more. You must have a proven track record of excellence in creative vision, conceptual development, leadership, and a passionate interest in and knowledge of sports. The Art Director will serve as the creative catalyst for the Sportvision team, providing innovative solutions for sports programming across all media platforms. The role requires diversity in creative styles and significant experience in leading high-performance teams in the creation of compelling content. You must also have demonstrated ability collaborating with lead engineers to drive technology decisions and executions that enable you to bring your team’s innovative new designs to market.
This individual will be a strong leader who can provide overall supervision across multiple design disciplines while being personally responsible for specific projects in their specialty area(s). This is a hands-on position, where you will be expected to design from concept to execution alongside your team. Your team is a small group of senior, experienced designers (4 FTE plus 1-2 contract) who are responsible for broadcast effects, 3d experiences, motion graphics, and product design. All of our designers wear multiple hats and cross-train and help each other, so expect to learn and pitch in across mediums!
Responsibilities and Skills
- Maintain a high standard of overall creative excellence that reinforces Sportvision’s reputation as the provider of the most innovative and creative solutions for the sports industry.
- Lead art/creative direction of products by facilitating the translation of company and client vision into product design and functionality across traditional and new media platforms.
- Lead the envisioning stages of projects; brainstorming, design sketches, and explorations, mood-boards, and concept design. Also includes envisioning new IP and working with our CTO to acquire it.
- Manage the end-to-end creative development of the presentation layer for all products, working with Engineering, Operations and the Business Units as appropriate.
- Establish and manage relationships with key client creative and production personnel to help lead the effort of determining future products and enhancements.
- Troubleshoot design and technical issues, breaking down complex problems into smaller parts and working across teams to solve.
- Manage the Creative team to meet production needs, budgets and schedules as well as their performance and growth goals.
- Provide hands-on design, from concept to execution (including flows, wires, asset production, technical art direction, etc.) in two or more of the following specialty areas:
- Mobile and device design (console, tv, tablets, phones)
- Visuals and information design
- 3D design (modeling, texturing, game engines)
- TV/Broadcast design
- Web and social design
- Video and motion graphics design
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience leading and managing high-performing creative teams through the end-to-end creative process.
- Proven design & aesthetic sensibility; creative vision.
- 5+ years of experience in creating compelling content across one – and preferably more - media platforms, including interactive, digital and broadcast.
- Knowledge of and practical experience in video and web production, animation, layout, motion design and web graphics.
- Ability to mentor creative and front-end engineering personnel and foster learning and excellence among team members.
- Bachelors in Fine Arts or higher in interaction design, industrial design, motion graphics, multimedia design, 3d design, or other design related discipline required.
- Experience creating and managing consumer products.
- High level of proficiency with designer’s tools such as, but not limited to Adobe Production Suite (expertise in Photoshop and Illustrator required; Flash, Premiere, and After Effects desired).
- Passion for sports. While this position does not require experience designing for sports, a passion for sports and learning about sports is required.
- Online portfolio required prior to interview. Portfolio should include samples of work from all stages of various projects (sketches, art, assets, etc.) and should include both your hands-on work as well as work you art directed (be ready to point out which is which). Depending on area(s) of specialty, must show real-world examples such as:
- iOS and Android applications and shipped titles (mobile specialty)
- 3D models and textures in shipped titles, games (3D specialty)
- Video reel that shows on-air assets and motion graphics for major broadcasts (TV/broadcast specialty)
Nice to have's, BUT not required!
- Experience with UI and 3d design in games engines such as Unity, Unreal, Scaleform, etc. desired
- Experience working in the demanding environments of remote, live television production
- Familiarity and technical understanding of broadcast technology and operations; experience managing software development or products that include software; facility with computers and management tools.
- Experience working with clients and products outside of the United States a plus!
Applicants for this position should be excited working in a casual, fast paced, and result orientated environment on-site in our Fremont, CA office, where their work can be seen by millions.
Due to the weekend and seasonal nature of sports, this position can require on-site and remote weekend coverage. Some travel is required for client meetings as well.