Archive for 'Designers'
SharedDesks, UX Focused Coworking Space Finder
Posted on 16. Feb, 2012 by Keisuke in blog, Coworking, Designers, Internships, Japan, Startups
Out of the 1320 co-working spaces worldwide, it is very difficult to find your best match. SharedDesks will definitively be your help of searching the best fit efficiently, and elegantly. Among of many other directory services, it stands out with its sophisticated design(click the picture below to see), enables users to find the nearest co-working space.
I had a chance to interview Mr. Kia Rahmani, the CEO of this service. So I started off with a naïve question, “why is it so cool?”. He kindly answered to me by saying “it’s not about design, it’s all about user experience”. I could feel his passion toward listening to the users since first thing he said, before even starting the interview, was “so let’s hear your feedback of our service”. Of course this stylish service can not be made only by the user’s feedback. In order to perfect it’s usability, 40% of their staffs are working on UX, UI, and design.
Kia is running co-working space of his own in Vancouver and seeing whole dynamic movement of co-workers. He claims that those nomad workers are moving one place to another, seeking for 3 values; Efficiency, sharing, and opportunity. I’m sure SharedDesks will become a platform which accelerate this movement and lead all the co-workers to optimized workplace.
I think you see the word “alpha” on upper left corner of its website. It means there is lot more to come such as exciting new features and updates! Can’t wait for the Beta version? then your feedback will surely help accelerates and sharpens its product!
Keisuke
Follow all my adventures in the US here on our Facebook page.
Freelance Senior Visual Designer Needed at Citizen Space SF
Posted on 14. Jan, 2012 by tobymorning in blog, Coworking, Designers, Developers, Internships, Jobs, San Jose, SOMA
The freelance Senior Designer will report to the creative director and art director and work alongside the account team, interaction designers and programmers. The successful candidate will be responsible for brainstorming creative concepts with the project team, developing original design concepts, executing designs based on established style guides, participating in visual design presentations to clients, developing detailed design specs for production, and overseeing junior design team members.
A stealth creative services company working in Citizen Space is looking for freelance Senior Visual Designers for short and long-term opportunities.
Requirements/Qualifications:
• Strong conceptual thinking
• Intimate Knowledge of Photoshop and Illustrator
• 3-5 years of visual design experience.
• Strong leadership skills – ability to work with Art Directors and mentor Junior Designers
• A solid understanding of designing intuitive site functionality, interaction, site architecture, user interfaces, and navigation.
• Web development experience in an agency environment
• Great communications skills – both with internal teams and communicating with/presenting to clients.
• A great attitude – we value our creative talent tremendously and show it, but we operate a prima-donna free work zone.
Email us your resume, a link to your most recent portfolio, and your Linked In profile to be consider for this immediate position.
What exactly is an outstanding idea pitch?
Posted on 22. Nov, 2011 by Matthew Hunt in blog, Coworking, Designers, Developers, SOMA
So how, exactly, does an idea turn into a company? This is the road block that many entrepreneurs find themselves at when building their seedling ideas into profitable startups. Of course there are numerous prominent and successful startups that were born overnight. However, the problem for the average human being is that they cannot afford the time that it takes to guarantee success, and/or they lack the full range of skills necessary to build the startup entirely on their own — much less overnight.
The truth of the matter is that there is no possible way to establish a strong foundation for your new startup without a serious time commitment. Time, in and of itself, is most often one of the primary reasons that many entrepreneurs and startup enthusiasts experience complication in the execution of the necessary planning stages of idea discovery. A lack of time and planning in the initial phases of this tedious process can often spillover into the actual development and long-term establishment of a new startup.
Participants at an "Idea Accelerator" pitch their initial ideas
Let’s face it: we’re all busy and things in this day and age move at a very high speed- and they’re only getting faster. Without the personal time and work commitment necessary for having a systematic and well-planned approach to the many “idea-to-seed funding” stages of building out your plan of action, you could easily see a great idea fall through.
Citizen Space recently had the great pleasure of hosting Startup Monthly‘s IceBreaker 3.0, which is was the third iteration of their Idea Accelerator program. The beauty of hosting events such as this in our SoMa #coworking space is that the transformation of office space by day to startup incubator activities in the evenings (and on weekends!) allows our members to participate in these types of networking and team building opportunities, with the option for doing so being literally right at their doorstep.
The purpose of these types of events is to have seamless collaboration between people that might not have otherwise met at all. It is in this type of environment that much of the discovery, planning, and development of new ideas takes place. Having both seen and facilitated the growth of brand new ideas into concepts and eventually startups in our space, we have learned the ins-and-outs of the crucial milestones that must be incorporated into the development process of new ideas, and can summarize success for many by one simple thing: teamwork.
Having said over and over again that time and commitment are crucial in the beginning stages of implementing your new idea, it is likely a very difficult thing to do it all quickly enough to keep up with the rapid development of new technology. Many entrepreneurs moonlight with their ideas, and exhaust themselves with trying to do it all on their own- even to the extent of taking on the self-teaching method to very difficult, complex coding languages.
Team Building is Essential to Creating a Successful Pitch
While this is definitely feasible for some people to do, the easier and more well-rounded option in this case is to build and foster relationships with other people who can bring something to the table as a technical, marketing, or business co-founder. Lessening the workload on each person by working with others in the teamwork approach not only increases the technical resources that the idea will have to build upon in it’s early stages, but will also decrease the amount of total time that it takes to pitch your idea to investors for seed funding.
It is important to also remember that as you build a team around your idea, it might not always be the “best” one. Having a team brainstorm together and build upon an idea can often lead to the development of brand new, even better ideas- and this is what we see often, particularly at events such as the IceBreaker 3.0.
So, when you’re at the point that you’re ready to move forward with seeing your idea come to life, remember this Japanese proverb: “None of us are as smart as all of us.”
Still have questions? Ideas? Tweet them to us @CitizenSpace!
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Citizen Space is the world’s first coworking space, located at 425 2nd Street in the SoMa district of San Francisco. The idea of Citizen Space is to take the best elements of a coffee shop (social, energetic, creative) and the best elements of a workspace (productive, functional), and combine them to give indie workers the chance to have their own, affordable office space. Citizen Space was built on the coworking philosophy. Our residents (past and present) range from: software engineers, web developers, social media consultants/strategists, graphic designers, product designers, public relations specialists, and sustainable web hosting entrepreneurs. Check us out today!
Poll: which new banner do you dig the most?
Posted on 22. Nov, 2011 by Matthew Hunt in blog, Designers, Las Vegas, Newsletter, San Jose, SOMA
The time has come: our new banners are here! We are looking for feedback from our community, so please take a moment to check out our new banners and vote for your favorite one!
New Banner 1- The Dolls!
New Banner 2- The Coworker!
So what do you think? Let us know!
Freelance Art Director Needed at Citizen Space
Posted on 31. Oct, 2011 by tobymorning in blog, Coworking, Designers, Internships, Jobs, SOMA
CITIZEN SPACE is currently seeking a freelance Art Director to lead visual design initiatives for some innovative client projects. These are major consumer facing websites and we’re looking for someone with experience working on large-scale engagements for the internet’s most highly trafficked content properties and ecommerce sites.
CITIZEN SPACE Art Directors report to the Creative Director and work alongside the Client Services, User Experience, and Technology Teams. They are responsible for developing creative concepts and approaches with the project team, developing original design concepts as well as oversee project design all the way through execution. They are also responsible for presenting work to executive level client stakeholders and representing CITIZEN SPACE’s visual design process and integrity at all stages of an engagement. Art Directors are also responsible for providing art direction and leadership to designers working on their project teams, scoping design phases of projects accurately and efficiently as well as attend pitches and industry events as required.
Requirements/Qualifications:
• 5+ years of interactive experience
• 2 years experience at top digital agency in an Art Director role or similar
• Strong conceptual thinking– both visual and interactive
• A solid understanding of designing intuitive site functionality, interaction, user interfaces, and navigation
• Driven to define the look and feel of large, industry-leading sites
• Strong leadership skills- ability to lead a team, manage and mentor junior designers
• Strong communication skills- ability to interface with clients as well as work with teams internally
• A great attitude- We value our creative talent tremendously and show it, but we operate a prima-donna free work zone
Email us your resume, a link to your most recent portfolio, and your Linked In profile to be consider for this immediate position.
