CDG is looking for some new talent - specifically a new senior designer and a user experience architect/designer. Know someone or want to apply? Send your resume and links to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

Senior Designer

CDG Interactive is looking for Senior Designer to join our award-winning creative team. We’re looking for someone with a strong creative perspective, a drive to innovate, and the ability to work collaboratively with clients and co-workers. 5+ years of graphic design experience and formal design training is required. 

As senior designer, you’ll be responsible for conceiving, designing, and executing innovative visual environments for landing pages, banners, email campaigns, interactive demos, microsites, mobile website and full website builds. You’ll need the flexibility and imagination to develop a range of concepts and designs for projects, and the ability to exercise creativity within constraints (i.e., respect client brand guidelines, technical requirements, etc.) .

Also required: right-brain/left-brain balance, as you’ll work with creative, marketing and technical types to ensure your design is transformed into an effective interactive execution.

Skills:

• Black-belt mastery of Photoshop, Illustrator & related programs.
• Orange-belt understanding of Dreamweaver to create presentation postings. Understanding of Flash, After Effects, and Video production is a plus.
• A sense of humor as big as—or preferably larger than—your ego.
• An overall understanding of web production and the capabilities within digital channels.
• The curiosity to learn, discover, and grow as a digital designer.

User Experience Architect/Designer

CDG Interactive is also searching for a seasoned User Experience Architect/Designer to round out our award-winning creative team. The ideal candidate will possess confidence and ingenuity developed over 5-10 years in the interactive industry. We expect you to challenge conventional wisdom and help us develop brilliant interactive environments that delight the end user.

Initiative, enthusiasm, and experience working with large corporate clients/organizations are a must. A background in design or experience in a creative environment is a plus.

Skills:

• Think creatively to transform the caterpillar of functionality into the butterfly of amazingly usable graphic interfaces.
• Possess in-depth knowledge of user experience rules and best practices-and have the guts to break them when you need to.
• Quickly understand a range of client organizations and their business and organizational challenges. Our clients are like snowflakes. Respect their uniqueness.
• Collaborate enthusiastically and effectively with clients and the creative team. (Passion is great. Arrogance, not so much.)
• Be a believer in CDG and what we're trying to do. Help us create interactive environments that break ground, blaze trails, and achieve great things.

About CDG:

CDG is recognized as an industry leader in the creation, implementation, and marketing of interactive environments that enable our clients to grow their business. Our innovation efforts are focused on achieving our clients' goals through user-centered design. In all aspects of its work, CDG seeks to help our clients deliver high value to end-users.

Working at CDG, you’ll find we’re serious about what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Perks and benefits include: generous vacation leave, health insurance (with flexible spending account), Metro-accessible office, casual dress code, free soda and snacks, and the best-looking co-workers in the DC-Metro area. Interested? Send your resume and a link to your online portfolio to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

How to Transition From One Creative Agency to Another

Looking for the right creative agency can feel like looking for the right mate. You need mutual respect, shared goals, and above all, chemistry. And like romantic relationships, your relationship with a creative agency can run its course.

We have several clients who have come to us fresh from a breakup with another creative agency. We’re always happy to welcome new clients who are “on the rebound,” but we can also offer tips on how to make your break up as painless as possible for all parties.

Tips for Leaving Your Creative Agency & Starting with a New One

• Talk to your agency. This is the first and most important step! Let your agency know what your plans are. Your account team can then help you plan for the transition, from website hosting to social media account ownership—and all of the other little details you might miss if you try to do it on your own.
• Plan for your website transition in advance. If part of the transition includes moving your website from one hosting company to another, or even just moving the DNS for your domain name, plan ahead. There are a number of implications for such moves, from search engine optimization (SEO) to analytics accounts tracking to transferring files, like PDFs, that are hosted with your site. The tech teams at the old and new agency may even need to have a conversation to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
• Bring your files. Especially if you want the new agency to work with your existing creative—and especially if it’s in Flash—you’ll want to provide the original source files, such as Photoshop, Illustrator or Flash. The more your new creative agency has to re-create, the more expensive it is for you.
• Allow for some wrap-up time. Even after you’re fully ramped up with your new agency, there will be some loose ends that pop up. Allow for at least 30 days of final maintenance time with your old agency in case they need to hunt down a last file or answer questions.

If you follow these tips, you’ll make it much easier for us to hit the ground running with your account and start turning out great work on your behalf.

And if—GASP!—it’s us you want to leave, well then follow these tips too. We’re professionals, and we know that not all client relationships last forever. Just be up front with us and we’ll help you transition to your next relationship.

Your Turn

• What steps do you use when you start a new agency relationship (or end an existing one)?

CDG works with new clients every day. Contact Us to get started on fresh new work for you!

[Photo credit: Alex E. Proimos]

To all of our clients, partners and friends, thank you for another great year.

Highlights of 2011 include the launch of new sites for CQ Roll Call, GastroKids.org and the US-Ireland Alliance, a second iAd mobile campaign for GEICO featuring the Gecko's Secret Savings Society (and winning a Platinum Award for the first one), and the continued growth of Zeus, our custom-built content management system.

From all of us at CDG Interactive, we hope your holidays are delicious and your New Year is sweet.

(And speaking of delicious, check out the entries to our third-annual cookie smackdown competition, above.)

It’s a sad day at CDG, as we remember the passing of the great Steve Jobs—someone who truly lived up to the overused descriptors of visionary, genius, game-changer, and legend. None of us ever met Mr. Jobs in person (although some CDG-ers had  a sighting of him at Apple headquarters while working on one of the first iAds), but we feel a palpable sense of loss for someone who moved our industry—and our culture—so far, so fast.

Thank you, Steve, for shepherding us into the future. We will miss you.

There was a whole lot of shaking going on yesterday at CDG's offices, thanks to the once-in-a-century 5.8 earthquake. No injuries or significant damage to report, here or elsewhere. So, from the creative team that brought you Snowpocalypse '10 apparel (also the creative team that ran panicked down eight flights of stairs in seconds flat), comes a snazzy T-shirt to commemorate DC Earthquake 2011. Hopefully, we will not have to add to the line of natural disaster swag for a long while. Get your Earthquake T-shirt today!

Matthew Snyder's presentation at Ignite DC on "11 Ways to Bridge the Physical & Mobile Worlds with QR Codes" is just a week away. And that's a nice way of reminding you that if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, now's the time.

In the meantime, Geoff Livingston of Zoetica interviewed Matthew about his presentation and more. Read it here on Geoff's Tumblr blog.

Many submit proposals to speak at Ignite DC, but only 16 are chosen. And this year, CDG Interactive’s Creative Director Matthew Snyder is one of them; he’ll be presenting at Ignite DC #7 on “11 Ways to Bridge the Physical & Mobile Worlds with QR Codes.”

If you’re not familiar with QR codes—they’re those strange looking squares full of little boxes you may have seen in ads or on the Metro recently—here’s your opportunity to learn more about what they are, 11 creative ways they’ve been used and how you can apply this technology to marketing your business.

Interested in going to the event on June 2? Tickets are just $15 and still available here.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the event; afterwards, we’ll make Matthew’s presentation available here.

CDG Interactive can help your business reach your customers with mobile, from QR codes to mobile ad campaigns. Contact us to find out more.

As 2010 draws to a close, we look ahead to another busy year in 2011 and we look back two of our biggest highlights.

At the start of the year we began developing and launching multinational websites for the many business units of Mondial Assistance, the world’s largest provider of travel insurance. Not only were we able to take advantage of the multi-language support of our new content management system, Zeus CMS, but we also learned a trick or two about language flexibility in UI controls.

And we eased from summer into fall by designing and developing all creative for GEICO’s first-ever iAd, the innovative and immersive new advertising platform for Apple’s iPhone. The ads featured the ever-popular GEICO gecko and his Wheel of Wisdom as he offered you advice not only on saving on your car insurance, but also on travel, romance, family, style and more.

We have the pleasure of working with a range of great clients and we look forward to the launch of many more new projects with them—and our new clients to come—in 2011.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Last year's Cookie Smackdown was such a success, we decided to do it again.

And the winners are

Best Overall

Oatmeal Fudge Bars by director of marketing Heidi Strom Moon. (recipe)

Most Original

Hautemeal Cookies by director of finance Will Packard--made with bacon! (recipe)

Most Creative Name

(Don't Worry) You Will Not Die by designer Shuangshuang Wu who wanted to assure everyone that her cookies were still edible.

Countdown madness

Now that Thanksgiving is over, if you need to know exactly how long it is until Christmas, check out the countdown clock. And we're inclusive around here, so here's a Chanukah countdown clock too.

Black Friday

In case you're not already standing in line waiting for deals, here are some gift suggestions:

Cell phone signal blocking handkerchief - Buy it for yourself as a gift to your loved ones

PC Advisor Gift Guide - tested and reviewed tech gift suggestions

From Esquire - the best tech gifts for men

Repressed holiday memories

If the holidays bring memories of ugly sweaters, then check out the Washington Post's holiday sweater photo gallery and you won't feel so bad about what your mother used to dress you in.