Wordfest Graphic Design Assistant – Student Job

Closing Date of Opportunity: 5/5/2022

Name or Organization: Wordfest

Contact Email: ewilson@wordfest.com

Website: http://wordfest.com/

Post Content: Wordfest is looking for the right graphic design assistant to join our team. If you love working on multiple creative projects, with the goal of bringing big ideas into the world, we would love to hear from you. About Wordfest Wordfest’s mission is to connect Calgarians — and now the rest of the world — with life-changing ideas. We are a year-round event producer, presenting a diverse lineup of generous authors and their books to inclusive audiences of all ages in a variety of professionally produced formats and experiences. Every fall, we present the Imaginairium, our fall festival.

In 2020, Wordfest launched Imagine On Air, the world’s first on-demand literary streaming channel. A key part of the Wordfest experience is the unique opportunity to engage intimately with authors and other audience members, helping to combat social isolation and seed vital connections in the community through the arts. Put simply, Wordfest is about connecting you with your best self through the sharing of ideas with other people and their best selves. It’s always done in the most creative, sensitive, thoughtful, open, exciting, and inclusive ways possible.

Job Description

This short-term paid internship is perfect for an emerging graphic & web designer based in Calgary looking to gain production experience in a fast-paced live broadcasting environment. The designer will apply their extensive training in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere) to help realize Wordfest’s ambitious vision for its 27th Imaginairium Festival (Sept. 29 – Oct. 6), as well as create the visual assets needed for producing and promoting our year-round program of online and in-person shows.

The Digital Design Assistant must be detail-oriented, professionally trained in the Adobe Creative Suite software, possess a thorough knowledge of website typography and CSS, and be familiar with production workflows and templating best practices (e.g. artboards and layer management).

The successful candidate will be flexible, hard-working, proactive, comfortable problem-solving independently, and be able to work effectively both in the Wordfest office and remotely. Wordfest will supply a MacBook Pro and all software. Day-to-day supervision and project management will be provided by Wordfest’s Director of Audience Engagement & Development, Everett Wilson. The intern will receive mentorship and creative direction from Wordfest’s Creative Director, Jason Logan (http://www.jasonslogan.com/about).

Key Responsibilities:

- Translate final design concepts, sketches and briefs provided by the Creative Director into final production-ready assets that satisfy all specs and use-cases required (e.g. for the website, printed program guide, video, email marketing, and social media).

- Ensure industry best-practices are followed consistently when creating and managing templates in Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and other Adobe software products.

- Assist with the production design of the Festival’s printed materials promoting the books, authors and shows appearing in the 2022 Imaginairium.

- Inspect the quality of all original artwork received externally that may impact final design production (e.g. headshots and book covers) and troubleshoot accordingly.

- Ensure that basic HTML tags and CSS information in any website copy appearing on the website are formatted correctly according to W3C guidelines and best-practices and are displaying as expected according to the design brief.

- Proactively identify, troubleshoot and resolve issues on the website from a user-experience perspective (e.g. broken links, image display anomalies, navigation problems, inconsistent formatting, etc). Report any concerns that may need the attention of senior staff.

Depending on the skills and interests of the successful candidate, the Designer may also support other projects and initiatives such as the development of animated audio-visual media and custom products such as buttons, pins and T-shirts.

Who Should Apply

Due to public funding criteria established for this opportunity, recruitment for this position will place a strong focus on hiring youth and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) to develop expertise and skills needed to participate in the digital economy.

This is an excellent opportunity for recent graduates or current students who have received post-secondary training in one or more of the disciplines listed in the qualifications section below.

All qualified applicants who meet the following minimum criteria are encouraged to apply:

- Be between the ages of 15 and 30 (inclusive) at the start of the internship;

- Be legally entitled to work in Canada; - Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident or a person who has been granted refugee status in Canada;

- Must not be in receipt of other employment benefits (EI) during the internship.

Qualifications

University or college student in one of the following areas: marketing communications, visual design, communication design, fine arts or multimedia with a concentration in website design.

Students who demonstrate having received formal training in Adobe Creative Suite will receive priority consideration.

Technical Skills

- Advanced knowledge or proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, specifically Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.

- Demonstrated knowledge of HTML5 / CSS. Knowledge of PHP, Java and other scripts an asset but not a requirement.

- Knowledge of content management systems an asset (WordPress) - Understanding of image formatting standards for web, video and pre-press best practices

- Familiarity with Google Analytics, SEO and W3C best practices Soft Skills

- Excellent attention to detail - Strong time-management and organizational skills - Ability to think creatively and communicate effectively

- Ability to juggle multiple projects and prioritize workload - Flexibility and willingness to jump in

- Ability to independently problem solve as well as work well in work-from-home team environment

- Interest in books, authors, music, arts and culture

Start Date: May 2022

Salary: $20/hr

Total Hours: 256 contracted hours

Duration: 8 weeks @ approximately 32 hours / week. *Note: While this internship is a short-term position, former Wordfest interns have continued with the organization in part-time and full-time contract roles.

Submit a cover letter and resume in PDF format via email to Everett Wilson, Director of Audience Engagement and Development, at ewilson@wordfest.com. Wordfest is accepting applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.