Final Exam – Mock Interview

LinkedIn, via Indeed.com
SunGard
URL: http://www.sungard.com
http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=681918
Used keywords: “graphic designer”. Located within 50 miles of Philadelphia, PA

What do they do?
SunGard is one of the world’s leading software and IT services companies. SunGard serves more than 25,000 customers in more than 70 countries, including the world’s 25 largest financial services companies.
SunGard provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.
With annual revenue exceeding $5 billion, SunGard is ranked 435 on the Fortune 500 and is the largest privately held business software and services company on the Forbes list of private businesses. Based on information compiled by Datamonitor*, SunGard is the third largest provider of business applications software after Oracle and SAP. Continuity, Insurance & Risk has recognized SunGard as service provider of the year an unprecedented five times.
SunGard is comprised of four businesses - Availability Services, Financial Systems, Higher Education and Public Sector - that provide IT services and infrastructure, and software and processing solutions.

Who are their clients?
SunGard is comprised of four businesses - Availability Services, Financial Systems, Higher Education and Public Sector - that provide IT and infrastructure services, and software and processing solutions.
SunGard Availability Services has been a pioneer and leading provider of information availability solutions for over 25 years. With acquisitions such as Comdisco (2001), InFlow (2005) and most recently VeriCenter (2007), SunGard Availability Services continues to enhance its product/service offerings combining dedicated and shared resources tailored to specific customer information availability needs.
SunGard Financial Systems provides mission-critical software and IT services to institutions in virtually every segment of the financial services industry. The recent acquisitions of System Access (2006), a universal banking solutions for financial institutions worldwide, and Kingstar (2006), a leading provider of software and processing solutions for China's financial services industry, have strengthened SunGard’s footprint in Asia-Pacific.
In 2006, the Higher Education Public Sector Systems (HEPS) group was divided into two separate businesses. SunGard BSR, which was acquired in 1999, was merged with the newer acquisitions of Collegis (2004) and SCT (2004) to form one business dedicated to Higher Education. The new Public Sector business brought five SunGard acquisitions together - BiTech (1995), Pentamation (1999), HTE (2003), Open Software Solutions, Inc. (2004) and the UK-based Vivista Holdings Limited (2005).
SunGard Higher Education provides software and support, systems implementation and integration, strategic consulting, and technology management services to help colleges and universities build, unify, and manage their digital campuses.
SunGard Public Sector serves a wide range of customers - school districts, nonprofit organizations, and local, state and federal government agencies - with a range of specialized enterprise resource planning and administrative solutions for functions such as accounting, human resources, payroll, utility billing, land management, public safety and criminal justice, and grant and project management.

What size is the company?
Headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, SunGard has 20,000 employees in more than 200 cities and 30 countries.

What will your role be?
Junior Graphic Designer, Associate
Job Functions: Art/Creative: Branding & Corporate Identity, Web Design

Description:
The Junior Designer will report to the Creative Director and be responsible for layout and design for print, web and interactive materials.
This person will be part of the shared services design team and collaborate closely with senior designer and other marketers to produce clear and compelling materials while ensuring that the established look and feel of the SunGard brand is consistently applied across mediums. Candidates should have well developed skills in graphics software, strong graphic design skills, and demonstrated interpersonal skills.
This position will work on multiple projects simultaneously. The qualified candidate must be able to execute individually or within a team setting and be 100% proficient in preparing documents and files for press and the web. He/she must also have excellent time management skills, the ability to discern the level of importance associated with different tasks and be able to work under sudden, and short time constraints.
No financial industry experience is required.

Responsibilities:
• 1-5 years experience in graphic design, (preferably in a corporate environment)
• Produce quality work in a fast-paced environment, meeting deadlines and expectations for creativity and accuracy
• Attention to detail and strong organizational skills
• Assist with project management when appropriate, coordinating multiple resources and ensuring consistent communication and deliverables
• Complete associated administrative tasks
• Work closely with other design professionals to share best practices

Specific Requirements:
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Ability to take initiative while working both independently or within a team environment
• Ability to multi-task, work well under pressure and within tight deadlines
• Excellent communication skills (written, verbal and interpersonal)
• Must be highly organized and motivated, able to “take the ball and run”
• Comfortable in both Mac and PC platforms
• Proficient in Adobe CS (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver), Quark and MS Office
• HTML, CSS, XML, Flash, Basic Action Script a plus
• Working understanding of current web standards and best practices a plus

NYC Field Trip, 4/14/09

Large Animal
AIGA National Design Center
MakerBot
Studio 5-in-1

Revised Navigation

Revised Homepage, below.


Upon selecting "Print" (or Websites or Motion) from Homepage, user is immediately greeted with a project. Cascading Project navs (left) ActionScript functionality needs to be addressed.

Flash Homepage

Started putting the Home/Welcome page together in Flash... working buttons etc. Screen capture below.

Let's Try This Again (again)

"Home" (or "Welcome") page allows the user to get to the Portfolio (immediately upon opening the site) by selecting a specific thumbnail (right) directing user to a specific section of the Portfolio. Or they may click "Bio", "Resume" or "Contact" to access those pages (not shown) skipping Portfolio entirely.


After selecting a thumbnail (in this case "Print") from the Welcome page, user is directed to the entire Print section. The first project (in this case, "Nutrition Newsletter") opens the section. Other Print projects are selectable from the menu at left. Navigate through Nutrition Newsletter by means of two thumbnails at bottom, left.


Navigating back to Portfolio (by means of nav, top), first image user sees is the "Nutrition Newsletter" (with "HOW Magazine", "Menu" and "Admit One" sub navs automatically dropping down upon arrival at this page.) If the user wishes to view projects other than Print, they'll have to select "Websites" or "Motion" (similar to Print, sub navs under "Websites" or "Motion" will automatically drop down inviting user to narrow down his/her choices to specific projects contained in those sections... if they don't want to look at the first project featured, they'll move onto other projects contained in those sections.)

I could revert to a "Welcome" page layout here to facilitate navigation through the Portfolio (thumbnail/navs on right) but that would leave me with an empty area in the middle of the page, where "Welcome" copy used to be... thus the need to have a project (any project) greet the user upon re-arrival in the Portfolio section.

Color Comp

Wireframes

Wireframe # 1 (below):
Based (more or less) on the 12-column, 960px wide format. Navigation in blue.


Wireframe #2 (below):


Wireframe #3 (below):