About: George Paravantes
The origins all began for me as an interactive designer when it was still called “Multimedia”, while creating motion graphics and interactive presentations for various clients and companies. The opportunities then emerged for me to further develop and explore interactively more rich user interface prototypes.
I began to gravitate toward and was fascinated in the opportunities and challenges that embedded information technologies had in more and more products. I then decided to pursue a career in Industrial Design at Humber College. After graduating I landed my first product design job and was sent to China to oversee our designs and manufacturing processes. These experiences opened further design opportunities to work with various point of purchase display manufacturers and design for Fortune 500 clients.
Currently I am completing the last year of my masters in interaction design at the Umeå Institute of Design. The course is taught in a user centred design approach within the Scandinavian design traditions. I find myself now combining various aspects of my two design disciplines into this exciting and converging field. I am currently seeking an internship where I can contribute and hone my skills as an Interaction Designer. Please feel free to contact me via email or view my CV.
Curriculum Vitae
George Paravantes
Full CV: View PDF
Email: info@vantes.ca
Introduction
“To design and have empathy for people’s
interactions with tomorrows products and services.”
Education
Masters In Interaction Design (Graduate June 2011)
Umea Insitute of Design, Umea Sweden
Industrial Design (2002-2005)
Humber College, Toronto Canada
Interactive Media (1996-1998)
Humber College, Toronto Canada
Work Experience
-Visual Interaction Designer (Intern)
-UI Design, Screen flows for Multi-touch applications
-Mobile Integration into car Infotainment Systems
-Physical computing explorations
-Sketching user scenarios and product storytelling
Nokia, Helsinki Finland (June -Sept 2011)
-Interaction Designer (Intern)
-Helped Envision next generation UI Applications
-Using design research methods to discover Insights
-Contributed to UI Platform Explorations
-Developed user scenarios to accompany software prototypes
Blake Jarrett & Company (Jan-June 2008)(Contract)
-Intermediate Product Designer, Toronto Canada
-Design and development of POP Displays.
-Produced technical drawings of retail fixtures.
-Design GM retail experience fixture displays and Merchandise layout.
Humber College (2006-2007)
-Interactive Media Instructor, Toronto Canada
-Interactive portfolio development for graduating industrial design students.
-Interactive media and web technologies.
-Adobe CS3 Suite,XHTML,CSS,XML, Action Scripts.
Alias Wavefront (Sept 2003-Oct 2004)
-Product Designer,(beta tester) Toronto Canada
-Helped test usability of industrial design software.
-Contributed input and user feedback of digital prototypes.
Design Awards
1st Place Finish PPAI Interactive Design Award for www.starline.com 2007
3rd Place Finish INSITU Humber College Chair Competition 2002
3rd Place Finish RIM Communication Device Concept 2005
Design Skills
- Ethnographic Study
- Personas Development
- Scenario Story Boarding
- User Centered Design
- Physical Prototyping
- Low/Hi Fi Prototyping
- Information Architecture
- Branding Development
- Problem Solving
- Project Management
- Hardware Sketching
- Analog Sketching
- User Research
- Wire Framing
- Task Analysis
- Team Work
Software Skills
Graphic- Adobe CS4, Painter,Sketchbookpro, Alchemy
CAD- Solidworks2008, Vectorworks2008
CAID- Alias Design 13, Rhino 3D
3D- MODO, Hypershot
Motion- Apple motion, After effects
Programming – Processing, Arduino, AS3, Obj-C
Web tools- XHTML, CSS, AJAX, Jquery, ASP, XML
Electronics- Hardware Sketching, Micro-controller(Arduino)