Production Artist

Remote - must be local to Houston, TX

6-Month On-Going Contract (W2, Weekly Pay, Benefits, Continued Support for success)

The Production Artist works with creative teams to execute a creative design. They require strong typographic and layout skills, strict attention to detail, and outstanding organizational, project management, file-organization and archiving skills are a must. Whether it’s print production or digital design, these artists create a finished product that meets organizational branding goals.

A production artist should have strong analytical skills, excellent verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to handle multiple projects in a fast-paced environment. These creative professionals should also be process-oriented self-starters. And they must stay up to date with new production techniques and trends through research and education.

The best Production Artists catch the typos that everyone else misses. They are concerned with resolutions, color and size accuracies, production values, and must know the difference between CMYK and RBG, spot color and process, a vector or a raster – and much more. Production Artists are skilled spot checkers, taste testers and quality assurers of graphics design.

The production artist job description often includes the ability to:

• Collaborate closely with art directors, designers and developers
• Prepare final press-ready files based on supplied specifications for several types of printing
• Make various formats of supplied artwork production-ready and resolve any artwork issues that arise during production
• Provide image retouching, clipping paths and additional image manipulation
• Package and preflight files for release to printers or media partners
• Create PDFs for print and client review
• Conduct press checks
• Prepare images for online and mobile applications
• Catalog and reference art for future projects
• Follow a development timeline to ensure tasks are being completed on time
• Troubleshoot problems as they arise with both the creative team and the printer
• Make graphics, image retouching and template implementation on PowerPoint presentations.

A bachelor’s degree in design or other related positions is preferred for the production artist position. Significant course work in graphic design, print production, visual arts or a related field, along with an outstanding portfolio and experience that demonstrates clear knowledge of print production and design, may suffice in the absence of a degree.

A production artist must have a solid knowledge of printing processes and should be adept with software applications such as

• FlightCheck
• the Adobe Creative Suite
• Microsoft Office
• Specifically PowerPoint

Experience with digital content required, such as

• Websites
• social media
• online advertising
• email campaigns
• a plus:
• basic knowledge of HTML5
• Adobe After Effects
• Web-development software