Junior Production Designer

Overview

We’re Central Station and we’re a different kind of agency with unique skills. For clients looking for branding, innovations, physical experiences, or digital marketing - and when it has to be best in class - we’re here for them.

We’re independently owned by four partners from different disciplines. We knew there was a better way of creating work that is Central to clients today, so we built an agency around it. We’re 45 people and growing. We have a talented team of designers, developers, strategists, art directors, writers, account managers, project managers, digital marketers, and production people.

Our client roster spans a broad range of product categories. Most are Canadian, some are North American, and a handful are Global. Some use us for B2B, some B2C and others, both. Most have been with us for 7-20 years, others we’ve targeted and acquired over the past 2-3 years. Our top clients include Hudson’s Bay, Nike, KPMG, Arterra Wines, Deciem, Christian Dior, Humber River Hospital, IKO Industries, Wajax, Dyson, and Two Bears Coffee.

Logistics

Our office is located at 14 Birch Avenue, in the Summerhill area of midtown Toronto, but we’ve mostly been working from home/remotely since March 2020. Now that it’s safe to return to the office, we have implemented a Flexible Work Options Policy that give our team a desirable balance between primarily working from home with the option for collaborative time in the office.

Job Description

Reporting to the Head of Studio, the Junior Production Designer position serves as a key role within the production department to ensure all collateral meets client expectations, style, and brand. The Junior Production Designer is responsible for creating and maintaining master templates, colour correction, small- and large-scale rollouts by creating final press ready assets. Other technical duties may include scaling, cropping, retouching, repositioning and preflighting, or eliminating defective and excessive imaging. This role also has the responsibility of archiving completed work and uploading files to various printers/fabricators.

• Responsible for the delivery of final, press ready assets, on time, to high level of quality and contractual targets
• Understanding of brand design and branding principles, command of layout and typography
• Seeks knowledge beyond design principles and into advertising trends
• Maintains a thorough understanding of job history and information
• A demonstrated interest in approaching design problems through a well-researched approach; consults with Senior Designers, ADs and CDs
• Demonstrates an understanding of how Central Station can support and deliver added value to the client
• Ensures best practices in conjunction with wider Central Station operating group
• Communicates ideas effectively and confidently as a member of the team
• Takes accurate information from account/project managers/senior creative staff/our Clients, and formulates workflow plans, estimates production hours, and helps develop overall budgets for specific projects
• Participate in both client and internal meetings
• Ensure all client requests are met in a timely and service-oriented manner
• Develops a good understanding of the client’s business and industry sector
• Keep up to date on new software and hardware technology

Lead Full-Stack Web Developer

As Lead Developer at Central Station you will work with a team of designers, SEO and PPC specialists, front-end, and back-end developers in a fast-paced ad agency environment. You’ll work on your own projects and collaboratively to produce a wide range of client solutions. You’ll build and maintain WordPress websites, design and develop custom applications, work closely with our internal team as well as external technology teams. As Lead Developer your voice will be heard and directly influence the development of projects and solutions.

Who Would Make a Good Fit

• 10+ years of experience in full-stack web development and working with a team in a corporate environment.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to transform client requirements into recommendations and strong technical solutions.
• Team leading experience, great communication skills and the ability to lead internal and client meetings.
• Highly organized and self-motivated with strong attention to detail.
• Mastery of modern web development practices with focus on producing highly optimized and maintainable projects using best practices.
• Well-informed of accessibility requirements to build inclusive projects.
• A strong understanding of the web development lifecycle.
• Knowledgeable in web application security.
• A drive to explore opportunities, techniques, and technologies which add value to the team and products produced.

Minimum Technical Requirements

• Knowledgeable in ground-up WordPress theme and plugin development.
• Ability to create and manage core-PHP applications with MVC architecture.
• Experienced with back-end technologies (core-PHP, MySQL).
• Skilled with front-end technologies (JS, jQuery, Sass, Gulp).
• Comfortable with version control (Git, BitBucket).
• Experienced with the LAMP stack and server management (WHM, cPanel, phpMyAdmin).

Nice to Have Skills

• Familiar with creating user focused wireframes (Adobe XD or Axure).
• Basic knowledge of Photoshop or Illustrator.
• Familiarity with PHP frameworks (Laravel or Symfony).
• Knowledge in using AWS and WPEngine.
• Understanding of DevOps processes and Agile workflow.
• Experience in working with RESTful API’s, particularly with SalesForce.
• Overview understanding of graphic design principles, SEO best practices outside of code, and basic marketing principles such as conversion funnels.