Designer (open application)
Nordkapp, Finland
Job Description
Our studio was founded in 2007 to be the best place to work at, on the most interesting and relevant projects. That mindset still leads us today. We are a collective of nearly 30 designers and visionaries who value curiosity over repetition, quality over quantity, and take pride in being honest even if it hurts ourselves in the short term. Nudging the world towards the better, together. We are not a family, but a tribe with a common purpose.
We are looking for designers in senior-, lead- and design director level positions. However, since we really don’t have fixed titles, the process we use is a bit different.
Our designers are individuals with varying backgrounds, and our roles are shaped accordingly. We take professional growth very seriously and make sure you have the freedom and responsibility to become the designer and a design leader you want to be.
When joining Nordkapp, independent on level or position, you will:
- Do the best design work of your life so far. With a nuanced attention to detail you will set the vision for user experience and collaborate with others to make sure that this vision is put into reality.
- Work in small teams with some of the smartest people in the industry.
- Communicate directly with clients, without any project managers and middlemen.
- Define problems together with your team and find solutions that delight users.
- Listen to users.
- Test design hypotheses and let users guide you towards the best solution by utilising different user research methods.
- Embrace constant change and produce designs in fast cadence knowing when rough sketches or detailed pixel perfect designs are needed to communicate the idea best.
- Shape what Nordkapp is and will become.
Requirements
What we expect from candidates applying for midweight/senior designer positions:
Design skills: You understand the meaning and relevance of user research and co-creation with actual people and know how to walk the fine line between proven knowledge and designer insight. You are curious by nature and comfortable with prototyping your ideas with Sketch, Invision, Principle or whatever works best for the task.
People skills: You are a people person. You like to work with othersyour team and the clientfrom ideation and workshopping to delivering concepts in their final form. When it comes down to it, war rooms are your second home.
Process skills: Lean and iterative projects are your second nature. You apply your design knowledge to projects intuitively. You like to think by sketching out your ideas, and enjoy working through them with the team before delivering the final thing.
Your background and relevant qualities we appreciate:
- You have at least 4 years of relevant experience either in-house, in an agency or elsewhere.
- You are a passionate designer who knows that details and execution make the design.
- You know the balance between having a point of view, and sucking it up and doing the work.
- You understand the meaning and relevance of user research and co-creation with actual people.
- You take responsibility and can lead work in your area of expertise
- You like to work with othersyour team and the clientfrom ideation and workshopping to delivering concepts in their final form.
- You don’t mind sharing work in progress and you understand that through feedback you can design better products and services. In fact, you like to think by sketching out your ideas, and enjoy working through them with the team, before delivering the final thing.
- You have your own opinions and you’re not afraid to share them with others.
- You admit when you’re wrong.
- You have a portfolio to share with us.
From candidates applying for design leader/director level positions, we expect a bit more:
Leadership skills: You are a design leader in the modern sense of the word: You instinctively lead from the front by example and inspire people to trust you to do what's best for them, their project and their company. You avoid being "too busy", but instead make time to listen to your team, partners and stakeholders. You are able to formulate your thinking into frameworks, tools and insight to inspire others.
Design skills: You understand the meaning and relevance of user research and co-creation with actual end users and know how to walk the fine line between proven knowledge and designer insight. You are curious by nature and know when to trust others to do their job well.
People skills: As a people person, facilitation is your second nature. You like to work with othersyour team and the clientfrom ideatio