Masuga Design, LLC

Masuga Design is growing…um…FAST. Too fast. I need help (part-time, that is) and I need it yesterday. Are you a student looking for some real-world experience? Then please read my spiel:

I’m a (really small) web design studio that develops useful and engaging websites for small to mid-sized businesses and individuals from one coast to another including various businesses right here in Grand Rapids. I design and develop websites that are lean, easily maintainable, user friendly, search-engine optimized, and adhere as close as possible to web standards. I am currently a one-person operation located in Grand Rapids, MI and have been slaving away on my own since April 2006.

In order to grow (as well as maintain my sanity, have a life, among other things), I need help doing routine web design tasks as far as design and creation of webpages and content. I am looking for an intern or student who is willing to work on a part-time basis in order to help alleviate some of my workload, and in turn earn some money and real-world web design experience.

Responsibilities may include:

• Slicing photoshop files and optimizing images for the web
• Creating CSS/HTML layouts and templates
• Production Photoshop work prepping images for the web (i.e. product images)
• Possible design and layout of new web projects (in Photoshop); user interface design
• Helping me stay on top of routine maintenance for exisiting clients

If you know who people like John Hicks, Mike Davidson and Jeffrey Zeldman are, know that pop-up windows and splash pages are mostly unnecessary, know what current web design trends are, can more-or-less hand code a webpage, have any idea what AJAX is, are willing to learn what you don’t know, and want to work on real-world projects, then you’re probably the type of person I’m looking for.

Ideal Requirements (am willing to train) :

• Understands HTML/CSS layout. Ideally you can produce cross-browser standards-compliant layouts/templates with NO tables from a supplied PSD file. You should also be able to construct these pages by hand, without having to rely on any software (i.e. Dreamweaver) to build pages.
• Knows some Javascript (also possibly some AJAX and related Javascript libraries such as scriptaculous, prototype, or dojo)
• Is familiar with Photoshop and techniques for optimizing images for the web. Might be required to produce product photos or optimize supplied images.
• Some familiarity with PHP would be nice, not required
• Should be familiar with FTP and/or chat programs (skype, ichat, AIM, etc) for remote communication and sharing files. I would prefer someone in the Grand Rapids/West Michigan area – but I’m willing to overlook geographic location.

Contact Me

I am interested in talking with interested parties as soon as possible. Because Masuga Design is currently run out of my house, the work does not require that you be on location. Work can be done from anywhere you wish and at any time (night owls who want to work from a coffeeshop are fine), so long as the work is good and we can meet deadlines.

Just shoot me an introductory email (ryan [a t] thisdomain dot com!) with some information about yourself and your availability, as well as a link to a portfolio or list of sites I might want to look at (and please put something relating to “web design” in the subject line so I don’t flag you as spam). Are you not the person I’m looking for, but you know who that person is? Please let them know about me.

Thank you very much!