Jason Arend Featured Professional. In February I was honored to be the Business Journals featured professional. The article highlights many of my professional accomplishments over the last 10 years, what I’m currently working on and some big things I have planned for the future. Below is a copy of the article.

Professional Spotlight: Jason Arend

Jason Arend is the youngest professional we have ever featured and at only 25 years of age he has accomplished more than most will in a lifetime. Starting college at 16, Jason has degrees in both Electronic Media Production and Electronics Technologies & Computer Science. At 17 Jason Started working at ABC KSPR 33 as the Graphic Designer, 3D animator and editor for commercial production as well as the director of daily news promotions. At 19  Jason was asked to teach “Producing and Directing Television” and “Post Production in After Effects”, the cap-stone courses of the Electronic Media Production Program at Ozarks Technical College. All of the students he was teaching were older than himself. In 2004, after several years of freelancing, Jason left teaching to start Creative Deviance Studios, an award winning production company, where he worked on everything from comprehensive multi-channel marketing campaigns, design and development to art-house film productions. In 2006 Jason was chosen to be one of the headlining artists for the MOTUV international Art Exhibition showcasing nearly 20 pieces of his original art and photography with simultaneous openings in Kansas City, San Francisco and Beijing.

Not only is Jason extremely talented in art, media and marketing but he is one of the rare few that can that can bridge artistic creativity with cutting edge technical and business prowess. In 2007 Jason joined PFI and has helped grow their web division from a small 4 man operation to a global brand that now ships to over 40 countries. He has accomplished a lot in 3 years creating a consistent image and brand for the company, helping build the television show “Shopping Western Style” on satellite and cable channels with 40 million subscribers, designing packaging for PFI’s Napa Valley Wines and other products, developing an enterprise level online video shopping experience and recently finishing a global syndication deal that will take PFI’s show to another 52 million viewers worldwide.

The amazing success he has helped bring to these companies has only increased his responsibilities. He is now the director of E-Commerce, Online Marketing and Creative Services for all PFI Companies including Diamond Ridge Market, Saddle City, PFI Western Store, PFI Family Wines, PFI Family Farms, PFI Magazine and pfiwestern.com. He is also Director of Production for PFI’s Internationally Syndicated television show and now oversees media and global marketing for the Starlite Theatre in Branson, Missouri.  Jason has recently become more involved to take the theatre to new levels as they present an all star lineup for this season including The World Famous Platters, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, The Texas Tenors from America’s Got Talent and the new Vegas Cirque show “Montage”.

Jason is now considered to be one of the leading pioneers in the global video commerce industry. In November of 2009 he was invited to give a speech in Silicon Valley on the successful multichannel video marketing strategy he created at PFI and the cutting edge technology he developed to achieve it. Attending were 3,000 media executives from the largest media & technology companies in the world. Other speakers included executives from NBC Universal, CNN, HBO, Microsoft, Google, Youtube, HSN, majorleaguebaseball.com and XBox Live. Jason has already been invited to give several more speeches around the country this year including the VIP guest speaker for a global webinar on Successfully Monetizing Online Video in March, a featured speaker for Streaming Media East in New York City May 11 and one of the main speakers at Seattle’s Video Commerce Summit in July where he will be the first to publicly lay down a vision for the future of video commerce in mobile technologies and television.

Despite the economic recession the innovative business model and cutting edge work Jason has done in video commerce and online video marketing has helped take PFI to new levels as they enter their 35th year in business. The technology he is currently working on will allow a consumer to simply touch an object within a video and instantly be shown more information on the product including the ability to buy it immediately. The technology can be used on computers, tablets and other form factors such as multitouch mobile devices.

Improving the quality of arts and education continues to be an important part of Jason’s life. Jason has often teamed up with other local artists and filmmakers to produce some of the most successful community theatre at the Vandivort Center in Springfield, MO including Dracula in both 2005 and 2008. Where he worked on audio and visual design, SFX, all artwork, marketing and Technical engineering. In 2009 he created the campaign and artwork for the successful production of Evil Dead the Musical. Since 2002 Jason has sat on the Electronic Media Production Advisory Board at OTC, a committee made up of media professionals to consult in industry trends, community needs, cirriculumn development and better preparation of students for the workforce. In October of 2009 at the age of 25 Jason Arend was unanimously voted chairman of the board the youngest person to ever hold this position. Jason has also received numerous awards in design, media marketing and development including several Addys, the Missouri Broadcasters Award while at ABC KSPR 33 and was just nominated for the Business Journals top 40 businessmen under 40.

In 2010 Jason will be officially launching “Evolve” a high-end media, web, design, development and consulting venture with partner and developer Myke Bates.  He assured us that his previous accomplishments are nothing compared to what he planned for the future and at 25 this is one rising star everyone in the industry is keeping an eye on. 

Jason Arend Design Reel. I’m in the middle of working on a new Production Reel of some of my work in film, television, special effects, motion graphics and animation which should be out in the next few months. In the meantime I’m releasing something a little different. I’ve put together an animated portfolio consisting of static visual works including packaging design, web design, poster and promotional design, logo design, corporate identity and brand design, user interface design, poster design, national print campaigns and more. I have setup several ways for you to view the Design Reel video. Instructions are included above each embeded video on the page. For the very best viewing experience I recommend downloading the full 1080P video to your desktop, open the file in a quicktime h.264 supported video player, enter fullscreen and crank up the volume!

Design Reel Production. To breath life in to these otherwise motionless designs I used a combination of Adobe Photoshop, Logic Pro and Adobe After Effects. All animation, compositing, special effects and rendering was done in Adobe After Effects and music was mixed in Apple’s Logic Pro.

Watch The Animated SD Design Reel Video. Below is the Vimeo hosted SD encode. If you have a slower connection but still like to view the video in HD click the link in the player to view it on Vimeo’s site.

Watch The Animated HD 720P Design Reel Video. Below is the 1280×720p H.264 HD encode. If your computer has trouble handling it or it is taking too long to load on slower connections you can view the Vimeo hosted SD version above. Click the image to view the 720P HD version of the design reel in a lightwindow.

Watch The Animated HD 1080P Design Reel Video. Below is the 1920×1080p H.264 HD encode. If your computer has trouble handling it or it is taking too long to load on slower connections you can view the Vimeo hosted SD version above. Click the image to view the 1080P HD version of the design reel in a lightwindow.

Download the Design Reel Video to Your Desktop. As I said above for the best viewing experience I recommend downloading one of the HD videos to your desktop, opening it Quicktime, view the video in fullscreen and turn up the volume. To download the design reel video click one of the links below. If your browser proceeds to load the video in the browser simply right click on the links below and click download or save file.

• Click here to download the 1920×1080P HD Design Reel Video.
• Click here to download the 1280×720P HD Design Reel Video.

Included Design Works. Designing for nearly 10 years has allowed me to build a rather large portfolio and with literally thousands of designs it can be hard to chose a handful to showcase in this reel. Here is a breakdown of the included works.

1. Dracula DVD Packaging Design and Artwork
View more artwork and design from Dracula

2. CD Cover Artwork and Packaging Design for MF Magazine
View more CD design images from this project

3. MOTUV International Art Exhibition Advertising Design
View more artwork and advertising design images for MOTUV

4. Pixel Perfections Photography Logo Design
View more logo design images for Pixel Perfections Photography

5. PFI Interactive Kiosk Demo Design
View more design images and videos from the development of PFI’s Interactive Kiosk

6. PFI Family Wines Magazine Advertisement Design
View more magazine advertisement designs for PFI Family Wines

7. E-Commerce Web Design, Television and Video Commerce Development
View more images from PFI’s e-commerce web designs and video commerce development

8. Dracula Teaser Promotional Poster Design
View more artwork and designs from Dracula

9. Corporate Identity Package Design for Concannon Plastic Surgery
Graphics design, web design, logo design and other projects can be viewed in the gallery

10. Web Designs and Photography for Creative Deviance Studios
Graphics design, web design, logo design and other projects can be viewed in the gallery

11. Wine Bottle Design and Poster Design for In-store Displays
View wine bottle designs and poster designs for in-store displays

12. Poster Artwork and Advertising Designs for Evil Dead: The Musical
View all poster artwork and advertising designs for Evil Dead: The Musical

In addition to the featured works several other pieces can be seen in the background.

All Design, Production and Artwork by Jason Arend

Jason Arend | www.jasonarend.com
Jason Arend | Twitter www.twitter.com/jasonarend
Jason Arend | Linkedin www.linkedin.com/in/jasonarend
Jason Arend | Vimeo www.vimeo.com/jasonarend
Jason Arend | Flickr www.flickr.com/photos/jasonarend
Jason Arend | Delicious www.delicious.com/jasonarend

I’ve been invited to speak at the Streaming Media West conference in Silicon Valley on November 17. I’ll be discussing the successful multichannel video commerce strategy I developed for PFI and the branded video commerce portal developed by myself and Myke Bates. From increases in conversion rates to the fantastic results we have in the SERPS I will be covering the benefits of video commerce in online retail and the future of interactive video commerce.

About Streaming Media West
Attended by more than 2,500 executives last year, Streaming Media West is the only show that covers both the business of online video and the technology of streaming, downloading, Webcasting, Internet TV, IPTV, and mobile video. Covering both corporate and consumer business, technology, and content issues in the enterprise, advertising, media and entertainment, broadcast, and education markets.

Streaming Media West 2009 combines cutting-edge exhibitors and intensive conference sessions with more than 100 speakers, giving you the chance to hear and see the best and the brightest minds in the online video industry—at the podium, in the Exhibit Hall, and among the attendees.

Click here to register for Streaming Media West 2009

Streaming Media West 2009 will feature nearly 100 speakers and presenters.

Gerald Abrahamian, Executive Director, New Media Operations, Comcast Entertainment Group

Chris Albrecht, Co-Editor, GigaOM/NewTeeVee

Paul Alfieri, Senior Director, Corporate and Investor Communications, Limelight Networks

Jason Arend, Director of E-Commerce, Online Marketing, and Creative Services, PFI Western

Eric Armstrong, President, Kontiki, Inc.

Roxanne Austin, CEO, Move Networks

Dan Balzer, Training Technology Manager, Retail Learning and Development, BP America

Greg Befort, Director, Regional Public Safety Training Center

Mitch Berman, CEO, ZillionTV

Michael Bishara, SVP, HBO Broadband

Richard Bloom, Course-cast Coordinator, UC Berkeley

Steve Boone, Director, Global Communications, Flowserve Corporation

Maria Buck, Strategic Partner Relationship Manager, AP

Thomas Carpenter, VP, Operations, Digital Chief of Staff, EPIX, Studio 3 Partners

Jose Castillo, President, thinkjose

Nick Chakalos, Senior Director, Strategy and New Business Development, Broadband Home Solutions, Motorola

Will Coghlan, Co-Founder, Senior Producer, Hudson Street Media

Itzik Cohen, CEO, Clipsync

Adam Comey, President, Mountain Sports International

Stephen Condon, Director, Market Development, AT&T Digital Media Services

Zadi Diaz, Creative Director, Co-Founder, Smashface Productions

Colin Dixon, Practice Manager, Broadband Media, TDG

Bob Donlon, GM, Adobe TV

Matt Dunn, Manager, New Media and Studio, Franklin Templeton Investments

Justin Foster, Founder, Video Commerce Consortium

Brent Friedman, Co-Founder, Electric Farm Entertainment (The Gemini Division, Afterworld)

Jim Funk, VP, Business Development, Roku

Haim Goldenberg, Mentalist, Kaltura

Tom Gorke, VP, Digital Distribution, MTV Networks

Shalini Govil-Pai, Lead Product Manager, You Tube/Google

Eric Hards, Team Lead, Multimedia Solutions, Lockheed Martin Enterprise Business Services

Jim Heckman, Founder, CEO, 5to1.com

Octavio Heredia, Director, Extended Education, Arizona State University

Nick Hippe, Solutions Architect, Adobe Systems, Inc.

Marc Hustvedt, Co-Founder, Tubefilter & Editor-in-Chief, Tubefilter News, Tubefilter

Sharon Hutchins, Director, IT Workforce Productivity, Intuit, Inc.

Joe Inzerillo, SVP, MLB.com

Gerry Johnson, Director of Technology, Home Shopping Network

Andres Jordan, VP, Innovation, International Carrier Sales and Solutions, Deutsche Telekom North America

David Jordan, VP, Marketing, Rovi Corporation

Andrew Kippen, VP, Marketing, boxee

Chris Knowlton, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft

Lisa Larson-Kelley, Flash Platform Consultant, Video Specialist, Flashconnections.com

Gee Leung, Principal, Inverness Advisors

George Levar, Manager, Engineering and Deployment, Webcast and Digital Media, Accenture

Jim Louderback, CEO, Revision3

Mark Lubeck, Director, Technology & Digital Media, Corporate Communications, Charles Schwab & Co.

Rafi Mamalian, Director, Advertising Sales, blip.tv

Richard Mavrogeanes, Founder, VBrick Systems

Matthew McRae, VP, Products, Vizio

Tom Morgan, Principal, Media.tv

John Morris, CTO, Director of Operations, Drexel University

Mike Moser, Senior Project Manager, Vertigo

Gregg Moss, SVP, Enterprise Streaming Media Strategy and Delivery, Bank of America, Knowledge Channel

Scott Nadzan, Director, Technology Services, Syracuse University

Rico Nasol, Content Team Senior Manager, Zappos.com

Mike Newman, CEO, Accordent Technologies

Jan Ozer, Principal, Doceo Publishing

Vanessa Pappas, Director, Audience and Strategic Partnerships, Next New Networks

Mark Pascarella, CEO, Gotuit

John Paul, VP, Product Development, Sling Media

Patty Perkins, Special Projects Manager, Wachovia

Florian Pestoni, Principal Product Manager, Adobe Systems, Inc.

Greg Posten, Manager, Media Infrastructure and Technology, Sun Microsystems

Jenni Powell, New Media Consultant (LonelyGirl15, The Guild, Legend of Neil)

Dan Pryor, VP, Corporate Communications, Safeway

Dan Rayburn, Executive Vice President, StreamingMedia.com

Ben Reneker, Senior Analyst, SNL Kagan

Emil Rensing, Chief Digital Officer, Studio 3 Partners/EPIX

Paul Riismandel, Director of Curriculum Support, School of Communication, Northwestern University

Marty Roberts, VP, Marketing, thePlatform

Steve Robinson, President, Panache

Jerry Rocha, VP, Mobile Media, Nielsen Online

Ruchir Rodrigues, VP, Product Platforms, Verizon

Steven Sabonjohn, Product Manager, Transcoding, NBC Universal

Tal Saraf, General Manager Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Web Services

Paul Scanlan, President, Co-Founder, MobiTV

David Siegel, VP, IP Services, Product Management, Global Crossing

Caleb Silver, Executive Producer for Video, CNNMoney.com

Matt Smith, Senior Director, Systems Architecture and Strategy, Inlet Technologies

Bill Stone, President, FLO TV

Mike Sullivan, Manager of Video Production, Hot Topic

Arielle Sumits, Senior Analyst, IP Traffic Measurement and Forecasting, Cisco

Doug Sylvester, Chief Strategy Officer, Avail-TVN

Mark Taylor, VP, Product Delivery and Strategy, Level 3

Jeremy Toeman, Founding Partner, Stage Two Consulting

Herve Utheza, President, RCDb

Francisco Varela, Head of Wireless Partnerships, YouTube

Wayne Waterman, Streaming Media Engineer, Intel

Matthew Weisbecker, Director of Sales, Western Region, NBC Universal Digital Media

Brandon White, Interactive Manager, FUNimation Entertainment

Marc Whitten, GM, Xbox LIVE

Brett Wilson, Co-Founder, CEO, TubeMogul

Joe Wilson, VP, Strategic Product Development, Turner Broadcasting

Michael Wolf, VP, Research, GigaOm

Thom Woodley, Partner, Chief Creative Officer, Dinosaur Diorama

Steven Woodward, Senior Technical Evangelist, Microsoft

Evan Young, Senior Director, Broadband Services, TiVo

We currently have an opening for a Senior Web Developer who will mainly work on development of enterprise scale ecommerce and video commerce platforms. Applicants must possess a vast working knowledge including but not limited to the following topics.

Education and Training
BA, BS or AAS in computer science, MIS, networking, programming or related area or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

Experience
2 – 5 years or equivalent working knowledge and skill as a developer/programmer, web developer with at least one year in an agency/marketing or ecommerce environment.
- Established analytical skills for evaluating improvements to process and system flow
- Proven ability to effectively execute project deliverables from established technical requirements
- Demonstrated proficiency in UI construction, ensuring the integrity of the UI throughout the development lifecycle while optimizing for the user experience and search engines
- Established development language skill sets with the desire to learn new methodologies independently

Required Qualifications
- Must be articulate, have excellent written and oral communication skills, and able to explain both abstract and technical concepts effectively
- Ability to prioritize and multi-task within a fast paced, professional environment
- Ability to understand site functionality and customer expectations of assigned responsibilities
- Ability to apply user interface and interactive design best practices to projects
- Must actively study and apply new trends in markup, marketing, web development, e-commerce and design
- Must have outstanding creativity, attention to detail, and concern for accuracy
- Must be able to work effectively within a team environment

Required Skills
- OOP with PHP
- MySQL
- PHP frameworks such as Zend, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, etc.
- ‘Web 2.0’ Standards
- Intricate knowledge of wordpress development and themeing
- XML, and RSS
- HTML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX
- Javascript frameworks such as Jquery, script.aculo.us, Prototype, Moo Tools
- Must have a great working knowledge of SEO and Web Analytics
- Knowledge of Unix/Linux – Knowledge of Apache web server
- Knowledge of Windows Server 2003 and IIS
- Must know how to use Adobe Photoshop
- Knowledge of mobile development would be a BIG plus

Additional Skills
- Cocoa/iPhone Application Development
- Magento Ecommerce Development Experience
- Experience with OpenEdge Progress is a plus
- IT and Networking Experience

This is NOT a work from home, freelance or outsourced position. Please send resumes (.doc, .docx, or .pdf only please), portfolios and questions to jason@jasonarend.com

For those who do not meet the qualifications we are do have internship positions available in related areas. Please state that you are interested in an internship position when you email your resume.

PFI is looking for a Senior Graphic Web Designer. This position is in charge of creating websites, landing pages, email campaigns, designing print materials, product packaging, interactive promotions, occasional television graphics and more. Main responsibilities include promotional and product merchandising through graphic design and web design. Will design weekly marketing campaigns, check all designs for cross browser compatibility, design email marketing campaigns and test for compatibility across different clients and new web banners each week for on site and offsite ads. To be eligible the candidate must have at least 3 to 5 years of web/print/multimedia/marketing design experience

-Must have strong knowledge of design fundamentals, layout, typography, print and web specifications
-Intermediate understanding of XHTML/CSS, with direct experience optimizing design concepts around these technologies
-Ability to come up with visual comps in a short period of time, must meet strict deadlines
-Must be very articulate, have excellent written and oral communication skills, and able to explain abstract concepts effectively
-Ability to prioritize and multi-task within a fast paced, professional environment
-Ability to understand site functionality and customer expectations of assigned responsibilities
-Ability to apply user interface and interactive design best practices to projects
-Must actively study and apply new trends in marketing, web development, e-commerce and design
-Must have outstanding creativity, attention to detail, and concern for accuracy
-Must be able to work effectively within a team environment
-Must be able to perform A/B Multivariate testing on landing pages and other designs
-Have a general knowledge of Web Analytics and how to measure the effectiveness of your work

Must have advanced knowledge of:
-Photoshop
-Illustrator
-Dreamweaver
-Flash

Must have intermediate knowledge of:
-CSS/XHTML
-E-commerce
-Online marketing
-SEO

This is NOT a work from home, freelance or outsourced position. A resume and outstanding portfolio are required!

Send all materials to jasona@pfiwestern.com

PFI is looking for a photographer and graphic designer with the ability to thrive in an fast paced, high volume environment. This is an in-house production environment, almost exclusively product on white, focusing on footwear, apparel and accessories. You will be responsible for executing high-quality digital photography for our online catalog, maintaining consistently high standards for accuracy, aesthetics, and productivity.

This position requires decisive on-set troubleshooting of photography challenges, balances individual productivity and execution, while maintaining high standards for shooting web-based images. Ultimately responsible for the quality and appearance of photographs online: has a deep understanding of all stages of the photography and editing process.

Successful candidates will be strong communicators, detail-oriented, have a passion for photography, successful candidates are tech-savvy and shop online.

Additional Responsibilities:
- Product editing in Photoshop
- Graphic Design for online banners and other promotional materials
- Writing blogs and other online articles

Qualifications:
- 2 year or 4 year degree in photography/graphic design and/or related field or industry experience
- A strong online portfolio of print and online materials that demonstrate applied knowledge of digital photography, studio lighting, composition, color quality, and aesthetics.
- Working knowledge of Photoshop
- Proven ability to juggle multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines

Additional Skills:
- Experience in videography is a plus
- Working knowledge of Dreamweaver, Illustrator and Content Management Systems is a plus
- Understanding of color correction in photoshop
- Basic HTML
- Strong written communication skills with experience in blogging

This is NOT a work from home, freelance or outsourced position. A resume and outstanding portfolio are required!

Send all materials to jasona@pfiwestern.com

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Composer JoAnn Kuchera-Morin (Director of the Center for Research in Electronic Art Technology) demos the AlloSphere, a new way to see, hear and interpret scientific data.

E-Commerce Web Design and Video Commerce Development. PFI is one of the largest western retailers in the world and when I took over their e-commerce division the online store was in desperate need of a makeover and some crucial enhancements. After nearly six months of research and pouring over years of data I redesigned every square inch of the site optimizing every pixel to consistently brand PFI, better organize products and operations, maximize conversions, and create an effective yet enjoyable customer shopping experience.

This page is currently under construction. I will be posting a comprehensive writeup on our successful multichannel video strategy and UI design very shortly. Check back soon!

Research, Development, Video Commerce Strategy and Design by Jason Arend
E-Commerce and Video Commerce Development by Myke Bates

Dev Team

Jason Arend
Director of E-Commerce, Online Marketing and Creative Services for all PFI Companies
Director of Television Production

Myke Bates
Senior Developer

Chris Cooper
Banner Design

Gareth Van Orman
Product Image Editing and Cross Browser Compatibility

Andree Dixon
Product Merchandising and Copywriting