Sandstorm Design is on the lookout for an Interactive Project Manager. If you have at least 3 years of experience managing interactive and web development projects in a fast-paced agency environment, this might be the job for you.

To be the successful candidate, you will need in-depth understanding of creative development, interactive development and project management processes with the ability to manage multiple projects at one time. You will need to put in practice and enforce these project processes and standards. All of this requires excellent organization and time management, which are fundamental to project and client management success. Strong leadership abilities in addition to outstanding written and public speaking skills are a must. (You will be presenting complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences). You would need experience managing comprehensive web development projects, creating and managing Statements of Work, status reports, project timelines and resource projections. In addition to the management aspects you will need a strong understanding and experience with web strategies and online technologies, including web site development, SEO, social media plus knowledge of web analytics and how to apply them. Familiarity with Drupal (Sandstorm’s preferred CMS) and BaseCamp are definite pluses.

Our Interactive Project Manager will coordinate and lead design, copywriting and development teams through all stages of project development. This includes building and maintaining relationships with clients and project teams to deliver project objectives, on time, within budget and to the full satisfaction of the clients. Estimating budgets and creating project plans is key. Also, you will effectively communicate project scope and milestones to clients, vendors and agency team members and identifying and explaining the budget and timeline implications of project scope changes.

Sandstorm Design creates powerful brand experiences with our unique blend of strategic marketing, web design and usability services. Located on Chicago’s north side, we help companies identify, craft, and clearly communicate their marketing messages in a creative, intuitive and strategic way. We’re a creative bunch with a witty sense of humor. Why it’s awesome to work here: paid day off and free lunch for your birthday, you don’t have to dress up, you get all the traditional perks of a big company (401K, healthcare benefits, etc.) without the politics, free snacks (and COFFEE) all day. Lots of growth potential, too!

If you think you’d be a great addition to our team, please submit a cover letter, resume, 3 URLs of web sites that you were the lead project manager on and a salary history to jobs@sandstormdesign.com.

We thank all applicants for their interest; however only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Local candidates only. No phone calls please. No recruiters.

Our Chicago web design firm is looking for an experienced web developer with solid HTML, CSS and jQuery chops to join our team. Our immediate needs are for front-end development and we expect this position to grow into PHP, MySQL, AJAX, etc. You’ll also contribute to strategic discussions about websites, mobile deployments and other technology decisions.

Required skills include 2+ years programming experience with HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery (XML and AJAX a plus), as well as experience developing web pages and front-end solutions from provided wireframes and designs. You should also have a strong understanding of web standards and web browser peculiarities and the ability to create cross-browser and cross-platform compliant pages. Proficiency in the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop and Illustrator) is important, and having advanced knowledge of content management systems such as Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla, etc. will be key.  Sandstorm is a collaborative environment. So, in addition to doing great work independently, you will a member of a team for most projects. Overall, the ideal candidate should have a strong commitment to excellence, usability, and coding standards, all with an intense attention to detail.

The successful candidate will need to be flexible in day-to-day activities and embrace change as required, working both independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment with many projects, priorities and opportunities.

Sandstorm Design creates powerful brand experiences with our unique blend of strategic marketing, web design and usability services. Located on Chicago’s north side, we help companies identify, craft, and clearly communicate their marketing messages in a creative, intuitive and strategic way. We’re a creative bunch with a witty sense of humor. Why it’s awesome to work here: paid day off and free lunch for your birthday, you don’t have to dress up, you get all the traditional perks of a big company (401K, healthcare benefits, etc.) without the politics, free snacks (and COFFEE) all day! Lots of growth potential, too.

If you think you’d be a great addition to our team, please send your cover letter and resume to jobs@sandstormdesign.com. Please include “Experienced Web Developer” in the subject line.

Local candidates only. No phone calls please. No recruiters.

Meet Nick Henderson, Sandstorm’s new Relationship Manager. A friendly guy in person and on the phone, Nick is building relationships with new clients in addition to strengthening our connection with current clients. Nick comes from a long experience working one-on-one with many organizations and associations, and we’re glad to add his skills and personality to our Chicago marketing firm. You can often find him hitting the links (golfing, that is, although at Sandstorm, he can help you to create some links on your user-oriented web site). Being a proud Texan, Nick is a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and The Texas Rangers. (We promise to not hold that against him).

We’re glad to have you working alongside us. Welcome, Nick!

When Adobe announced their decision to stop Flash development for mobile devices, we certainly weren’t surprised. It’s been a year since we’ve had any requests for Flash of any kind. But if you’ve been hearing that this is the end of Flash altogether, don’t think that means it’s time to toss it if you’ve got it.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

When styling practices started moving away from tables-based layouts (way back when) there was a rush to convert anything and everything to tableless layouts with CSS. While many sites really did need to overcome some huge inefficiencies, others that were working perfectly fine in tables underwent redesigns just to be able to say they were now up-to-date. In reality, they could have waited until the need to change arose.

While mobile is growing and eventually we’ll all want to have our sites accessible from any device, that doesn’t mean we all need it immediately.

Analytics

Check your analytics. If you don’t have a very large mobile audience yet, and you’re already using Flash effectively—then keep it! There’s no reason to get rid of a perfectly wonderful experience built in Flash if your audience is accessing it just fine.

HTML5 for Mobile

If after checking your analytics you find that you do have a growing mobile audience, then HTML5 is the way to go. Along with Adobe’s Flash statement, they also said they would be contributing to HTML5 for mobile. It’s universally compatible with mobile devices (iPhone, Android and beyond). The downside is that it isn’t completely functional in all desktop browsers yet.

Beyond the web site

Let’s not forget, Flash isn’t just for web sites. It’s been used to create some amazing applications for use at tradeshows and conferences. And the great news is that these applications aren’t affected by the mobile barrier, so Flash is still a great option for creating them.

At Sandstorm, we love the beautiful interactive work that has come from Flash. The Johnny Cash Project is one of our favorites. Within our portfolio, we’re so proud of the AskBlue Medicare application for Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. And while we’ll always have a soft spot for Flash, we’re also extremely excited about the opportunities HTML5 creates. Regardless of the technology, we’re just happy to be building powerful interactive experiences.

Sandstorm takes home silver in the prestigious 13th annual Web Health Awards℠. (WOO HOO!) This competition recognizes the nation’s best digital health resources and top interactive agencies. A panel of 32 experts in digital health media served as judges and selected gold, silver, bronze, and merit winners.

Our work creating Ask Blue Medicare received a coveted Silver Award for the Web Based Resource Category. This interactive web application helps users understand Medicare health care coverage options from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.  With closed captioning as well as the ability to increase the type size, this application was designed to educate people around 65 years old on the benefits available through Medicare.

We launched this highly interactive and accessible application in August 2010.  To offer this helpful tool to an even broader audience, the application was also launched in Spanish in April 2011.

We’re really excited about this accomplishment and look forward to developing more award-winning web applications, Drupal websites, and interactive user experiences in 2012.

Who doesn’t love a good tradition? For Sandstorm, one of our favorite traditions is gathering at Café Ba Ba Reeba for the holiday party. Way back in the early days of our Chicago marketing firm, the holiday party was just a table of four out in the dining room. Now we pack 25 people into a private room where we get to laugh as loud as we want. And believe me…we laugh loud.

After passing our favorite tapas plates around the table, we exchanged dirty santa gifts. Among the many gifts there was a vintage fondue pot, a pop culture history book, a mustache cookie tray, fancy salt and pepper shakers and a book of Elvis paper cut-outs. And as if the holiday party itself weren’t amazing enough, we didn’t come into the office until 1:00 PM the next day. AND it was pajama day. Do you see why we love the holidays?

Check out the pictures of the holiday party below, and see more on our Facebook!

View all of Sandstorm’s holiday party photos on Facebook. Learn more about our Chicago web design, interactive and marketing firm.

Someone should have told us our new office had elves. Had we known, maybe we would have moved in a long time ago! As of today, when stepping off the elevator you’re greeted with a colorful, sparkling, blinking display of holiday spirit bursting from the Sandstorm Design office.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t elves. Maybe a few of the Sandstorm staff came into the office unenviably early to set up the surprise. Either way, our Chicago marketing firm now has quite the magical, merry vibe. There’s a cozy fireplace next to the tree, candy cane poles, a light-up Santa Claus and garland galore. See for yourself in the pictures below:

What can I say, this is our favorite season. From all of us at Sandstorm, Happy Holidays!

See more pictures on Sandstorm’s Facebook page—and don’t forget to like us!

We are excited to welcome Will Biby to Sandstorm Design as our Production Manager! He is the new face of Sandstorm Design, literally. Will’s desk is the reception area, the first thing you see when entering our new office. He comes from a varied and creative administrative background. Will is supporting every facet of our marketing firm, from usability testing to assisting our Drupal development team. His can-do attitude comes from his experience in education and improvisation (He’s currently studying at iO Chicago and The Second City).

We’re so excited to work with you. Welcome, Will!