Spherical

Spherical is hiring a User Experience Designer to design a series of web-based experiences supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. This position is remote. What You'll Do Interview users across nonprofit, government, and public audiences to understand their desires and potentials Synthesize information from users, stakeholders, product management, engineering, and subject matter experts into user experiences Design web-based user interfaces to facilitate collaborative learning experiences taking place in live workshop settings Prototype and test concepts with users and stakeholders to collect feedback and iterate Participate in weekly development cycles to refine user experiences for engineering, in collaboration with visual design, product management, and illustration Maintain documentation for team learning and alignment, such as user personas, user journeys, and user flows What You Need 5+ years of experience with user experience research and design for web-based services Versatility to work across multiple media, such as collaborative tools, interactive storytelling, and serious games Experience communicating with users for generative and evaluative research Ability to synthesize information from diverse sources Ability to communicate the rationale and process behind design decisions Ability to collaborate with and present to stakeholders to generate alignment About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project:

Spherical is hiring a Technical Artist to implement digital experiences across a series of tools and games supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. This position is remote. What You'll Do Implement graphics and animations in WebGL to communicate a vision of climate resilience in Los Angeles, possibly including depictions of urban environments, nature-based infrastructure projects, and water flows, based on concept art Draw from and advance our internal world design system (currently under development) to communicate effective and consistent emotional worlds Establish environmental lighting and atmospheric effects Analyze performance data with developers, as well as brainstorm and implement performance optimizations Work with developers to integrate art assets into the broader application, including working under git-based version control and troubleshooting issues Maintain a library of models and other assets for reusability across a suite of tools and games What You Need 3+ years of experience in art, animation, or coding for urban or natural environments Experience with WebGL Experience integrating into agile development workflows and git-based version control Experience optimizing performance of artistic assets Ability to collaborate with engineers, designers, and product managers Ability to synthesize input into artistic directions and communicate the rationale behind decisions Proactive communication style, seeking feedback and team alignment on work Please provide a link to your portfolio when applying About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project:

Spherical is seeking an Illustrator to develop production assets and concept art for a suite of tools supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. We are seeking a style that lends itself to revealing the hidden dynamics of living systems (ecologically rooted while also enchanted with possibility). This position is remote. What You'll Do Develop illustration assets for a suite of map-based tools and games supporting climate resilience, including urban environments, infrastructure components, characters, and iconography Document an illustration style guide to inform consistency across assets and tools Align the illustration direction with a broader world design system incorporating conceptual, user interface, cartographic, and editorial considerations Develop concept art assets to inform the technical implementation of immersive worlds and graphics What You Need A portfolio of illustration work demonstrating facility across environments, characters, iconography, and/or infrastructure Experience developing illustration assets for software or web-based projects preferred Ability to collaborate with teams to align on style and content direction About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project:

Spherical is hiring a Cartographic designer to implement digital experiences across a series of tools and games supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. What You'll Do Create and generate internal alignment around a cartographic design system for a suite of map-based tools and games supporting climate resilience Align the cartographic design direction with a broader world design system incorporating conceptual, artistic, user interface, and editorial considerations Prototype mockups of maps based on wireframes from User Experience Design in order to inform the cartographic design language and support the design evolution of the tools themselves Collaborate with engineering to ensure designs incorporate considerations of feasibility, simplicity, and performance What You Need 3+ years of related experience Experience designing aesthetic and clear cartographic experiences for communication of map-based data sets Experience with map-based cameras, animations, and transitions preferred Ability to communicate rationale and process behind design decisions Ability to collaborate with and present to stakeholders to generate alignment Please provide a link to your portfolio when applying About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project:

Spherical is hiring an Art Director / Production Designer to set and maintain an aesthetic vision and in-world continuity across a suite of online experiences (including short videos, interactive mapping tools, and games) supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. This position is located in Los Angeles County as part of a remote team. What You'll Do Translate a conceptual strategy and moodboarding into a cohesive production design and art direction Generate team alignment on the art direction and its ongoing evolution Source artists, including illustrators, visual UI designers and animators, to produce production assets in service of art direction for worldbuilding. Oversee the production of art assets for both software applications and videos in line with the art direction Oversee the documentation and standardization of artistic guidelines as part of a broader design system What You Need 5+ years of related experience in production design for virtual, animated, and/or cinematic worlds. Experience art directing under a diverse range of conceptual domains and aesthetics Ability to translate conceptual direction and essence of place (specifically Los Angeles) into a clear aesthetic direction Ability to inspire creative work in others Strong communication and ability to provide rationale behind artistic decisions Desire to collaborate across functions Familiarity with (and love for!) diverse places within the Los Angeles basin About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project:

Spherical is hiring Experienced JavaScript Developers to implement web-based experiences across a series of tools and games supporting climate resilience in Los Angeles. This position is remote. What You'll Do Co-develop web applications on a tech stack that includes Vue, Mapbox, and MongoDB running on Heroku Co-develop web-based geospatial data visualizations Work both collaboratively and independently within an Agile methodology Communicate your work and technical concepts to the larger Spherical team What You Need Professional experience as a developer on a Vue or React project General experience with both front-end and back-end development Experience with Vue 3 and Vuex/Pinia preferred Ability to communicate technical concepts effectively Portfolio of cartographic and data visualization projects is a plus Please link to your GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket account or portfolio when applying About Spherical Spherical is a strategic design and integrative research studio supporting projects regenerating the health and integrity of Earth’s living systems. Current Project Spherical is building a field kit of open-source tools to support community-driven climate resilience in Los Angeles. Co-designed with community organizers, climate scientists, policymakers, and infrastructure developers, our tools support diverse communities in dreaming into collective visions of whole, more-than-human futures. Our field kit includes interactive media for teaching whole-systems approaches to climate resilience, a tool to support collaborative visioning, and a game for sketching possible scenarios. This unique assemblage of domains and media calls for a diverse team of creative collaborators. We encourage women and people of color to apply. Below is a sample of prior work for this project: