XPLANE is a design company that creates illustrations for corporate clients. The company aims to distill complex processes into easy-to-grasp illustrations, using visualization techniques which it calls Pictonics. XPLANE was founded in 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri by David Gray as a visual arts company creating graphics for magazines such as Business 2.0 (in particular that magazine's "XPLANATiONS"). It soon expanded into illustrating corporate presentations, business plans, and whitepapers; training; and interactive design.[1][2][3][4]
In 2000, the company was awarded the St. Louis Business Journal Best Places To Work award for People Development. At the time of the award, the company had a policy of flexible working hours and of allowing employees two weeks at full pay every year for workshops, seminars, and training. Other employee perquisites included discussion groups during the day, night classes taught by employees to other and to prospective employees, a weekly party on the company building's roof every Friday after hours, and a massage once per month.[2] The company's headquarters are now located in Portland, Oregon.[5]
On its website, the company hosts two web logs, the xBlog (information on design topics) and the bBlog (business applications of graphic design), and case studies that include graphical user interfaces, statistical maps, and discussions of Internet protocols and brand strategy. The weblogs are run by Knowledge Manager Bill Keaggy, a digital designer who spends between 10 minutes and 2 hours per day on them.
Another job posting we need to “xplane” (Okay, we’ll stop. It kinda played itself out the first time we used it. Sorry). XPLANE does have another job opening though, and this one requires some time to be spent in the great city of Indianapolis. Have you ever been to Indianapolis? It’s pretty cool. Most people think of racing and such when someone mentions the city of Indianapolis, but there is so much more to this community some refer to as “Nap” town. Some of you know that Quarterback Peyton Manning lives there, but did you know that basketball legend Larry Bird was born in Indianapolis and is the current president of their NBA team The Indiana Pacers. Whoa! Here are some other fun “Indy” tidbits before we get into the job posting:
Indianapolis has the largest children’s museum in the world – The Children’s museum of Indianapolis.
Indianapolis was designated as the “Crossroads of America” in 1847 because a railroad was
built and was the first to have all its lines meet in one union station in the city.
So, we hoped you enjoyed our little “FUN FACTS INDY” presentation, now here’s the “411″ on the job:
XPLANE is looking for a rock star designer to work on-site with one of our high-tech clients based in Indianapolis. This is a full time (or close to it) contract position through the end of the year, with potential to become a permanent employee. Frequent travel to Indianapolis (approx. 2 wks. per month) expected.
About Us
With offices in Portland, St. Louis, Madrid, and Amsterdam, XPLANE is the WORLD’S LEADING INFORMATION DESIGN FIRM. We take the complex and make it understandable (even enjoyable). We help clients tell their stories through compelling media experiences.
XPLANE takes employee experience seriously. Our core values of teamwork, learning, goal-visualizing, and transparent communication promote our uniquely collaborative environment. We are PROBLEM-SOLVERS, DESIGN-THINKERS, AUDIENCE-REACHERS, PEOPLE-MOVERS, and potential hyphen-abusers. Our world-class design team collaborates with the biggest and brightest clients to bring their stories to life.
Compass for Group Policy Administration equips you to manage all of your employee benefit, pension, institutional investment and group insurance policies. This program integrates with other Compass solutions and allows you to introduce new products, features and services as your business grows. Use Compass to perform benefit pricing, group and individual underwriting and general ledger accounting. With a host of features from workflow tracking to payment processing, this software will help save you time and streamline your business.
Features
Manages administration and pricing for group benefits programs
Combines day-to-day operations, such as transaction and batch scheduling, into a single platform
Includes legislative and compliance monitoring
Provides access to online help facility with multi-lingual support
Interfaces to corporate systems for recordkeeping
Benefits
Increases efficiency by consolidating and automating benefits administration
Supports many group insurance programs including Group Life, LTD, STD, AD&D and more
Provides a path to administer new products as the demands of your business change
Protects your data with integrated application security
Xplane employees talk about teams, goals, accountability and dream jobs. They thrive on the responsibility, because it's the marker of controlling their own destiny.
"Because the company is growing and it always will be growing, there's always an opportunity to take on as much responsibility as you can, and have a role that befits your abilities," said Will Horton. "For an artist to be in charge of his own work is almost unheard of, and amazing."
Horton, the third person hired at Xplane, knows this as well as anyone. He was freelancing for a company next door to Xplane when he met Gray.
"It was still in its infancy, but Dave's idea was exciting," Horton said.
"You had the ability to be smart, draw, and have a lot of responsibility towards the end product and making it look good."
Horton was intrigued by the idea, and the sophisticated, elegant concept of a graphic doing the work of explaining complex ideas. He took on more responsibility quickly, making client contacts, doing sketches and brainstorming with freelancers. Horton became a team leader, then a teacher as more creative teams were added. He switched for a short time to "Planet Render" -- the final-stage team which renders the end product of the graphic team's work.
When the company doubled, then tripled and nearly quadrupled in size, Horton was ready to hand off team leader duties to Robbins, his second-in-command. Now Horton's "dream job" is a mix of leadership, creativity, sales and teaching the company's concepts and graphics needs to new employees.
Dana Moore, part of the human resource team, is the first person prospective hires see. Does her "dream job" include a navy suit? Does she ask "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Hardly.
This is Moore's dream job, and it's still growing. She is tuned in to Gray's philosophy in the interview: What is your dream job? What are your skills? How well do you work in a team? Are you comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans?
Besides working as an office manager and technical recruiter, and matching employees to meet company goals, she is a photographer and sculptor. Moore can eye talent quickly in a portfolio.
She also knows the benefits will keep them there. The company offers "two weeks in the sandbox" -- two weeks each year that the company will pay for workshops, seminars and training at full salary. Discussion groups during the day talk about leadership issues and ideas, information from books the team reads. Xplane volunteers teach night classes on their skill set to each other and to prospective new employees. Health benefits include a massage once a month.
The team spirit continues after hours. A Mardi Gras party, a get-together Fridays after hours on the building's roof, and the "lunch train" -- flocks of team members getting together every day for lunch (and not always the same people) -- blur the distance between work and play.
"It's culture, friendship, and the fact that you get to do the `cool work' that make people want to be here," Moore said. "What creative soul wouldn't want to work on the cool projects with a high `play' factor?"
Reggie Tisdale, who has been at Xplane less than three weeks, sticks his head in the doorway to start the "lunch train." Maybe he is the test case for people development. He said if not for deadlines he could throw away the clock, working surprisingly longer hours.
In 2000, the company was awarded the St. Louis Business Journal Best Places To Work award for People Development. At the time of the award, the company had a policy of flexible working hours and of allowing employees two weeks at full pay every year for workshops, seminars, and training. Other employee perquisites included discussion groups during the day, night classes taught by employees to other and to prospective employees, a weekly party on the company building's roof every Friday after hours, and a massage once per month.[2] The company's headquarters are now located in Portland, Oregon.[5]
On its website, the company hosts two web logs, the xBlog (information on design topics) and the bBlog (business applications of graphic design), and case studies that include graphical user interfaces, statistical maps, and discussions of Internet protocols and brand strategy. The weblogs are run by Knowledge Manager Bill Keaggy, a digital designer who spends between 10 minutes and 2 hours per day on them.
Another job posting we need to “xplane” (Okay, we’ll stop. It kinda played itself out the first time we used it. Sorry). XPLANE does have another job opening though, and this one requires some time to be spent in the great city of Indianapolis. Have you ever been to Indianapolis? It’s pretty cool. Most people think of racing and such when someone mentions the city of Indianapolis, but there is so much more to this community some refer to as “Nap” town. Some of you know that Quarterback Peyton Manning lives there, but did you know that basketball legend Larry Bird was born in Indianapolis and is the current president of their NBA team The Indiana Pacers. Whoa! Here are some other fun “Indy” tidbits before we get into the job posting:
Indianapolis has the largest children’s museum in the world – The Children’s museum of Indianapolis.
Indianapolis was designated as the “Crossroads of America” in 1847 because a railroad was
built and was the first to have all its lines meet in one union station in the city.
So, we hoped you enjoyed our little “FUN FACTS INDY” presentation, now here’s the “411″ on the job:
XPLANE is looking for a rock star designer to work on-site with one of our high-tech clients based in Indianapolis. This is a full time (or close to it) contract position through the end of the year, with potential to become a permanent employee. Frequent travel to Indianapolis (approx. 2 wks. per month) expected.
About Us
With offices in Portland, St. Louis, Madrid, and Amsterdam, XPLANE is the WORLD’S LEADING INFORMATION DESIGN FIRM. We take the complex and make it understandable (even enjoyable). We help clients tell their stories through compelling media experiences.
XPLANE takes employee experience seriously. Our core values of teamwork, learning, goal-visualizing, and transparent communication promote our uniquely collaborative environment. We are PROBLEM-SOLVERS, DESIGN-THINKERS, AUDIENCE-REACHERS, PEOPLE-MOVERS, and potential hyphen-abusers. Our world-class design team collaborates with the biggest and brightest clients to bring their stories to life.
Compass for Group Policy Administration equips you to manage all of your employee benefit, pension, institutional investment and group insurance policies. This program integrates with other Compass solutions and allows you to introduce new products, features and services as your business grows. Use Compass to perform benefit pricing, group and individual underwriting and general ledger accounting. With a host of features from workflow tracking to payment processing, this software will help save you time and streamline your business.
Features
Manages administration and pricing for group benefits programs
Combines day-to-day operations, such as transaction and batch scheduling, into a single platform
Includes legislative and compliance monitoring
Provides access to online help facility with multi-lingual support
Interfaces to corporate systems for recordkeeping
Benefits
Increases efficiency by consolidating and automating benefits administration
Supports many group insurance programs including Group Life, LTD, STD, AD&D and more
Provides a path to administer new products as the demands of your business change
Protects your data with integrated application security
Xplane employees talk about teams, goals, accountability and dream jobs. They thrive on the responsibility, because it's the marker of controlling their own destiny.
"Because the company is growing and it always will be growing, there's always an opportunity to take on as much responsibility as you can, and have a role that befits your abilities," said Will Horton. "For an artist to be in charge of his own work is almost unheard of, and amazing."
Horton, the third person hired at Xplane, knows this as well as anyone. He was freelancing for a company next door to Xplane when he met Gray.
"It was still in its infancy, but Dave's idea was exciting," Horton said.
"You had the ability to be smart, draw, and have a lot of responsibility towards the end product and making it look good."
Horton was intrigued by the idea, and the sophisticated, elegant concept of a graphic doing the work of explaining complex ideas. He took on more responsibility quickly, making client contacts, doing sketches and brainstorming with freelancers. Horton became a team leader, then a teacher as more creative teams were added. He switched for a short time to "Planet Render" -- the final-stage team which renders the end product of the graphic team's work.
When the company doubled, then tripled and nearly quadrupled in size, Horton was ready to hand off team leader duties to Robbins, his second-in-command. Now Horton's "dream job" is a mix of leadership, creativity, sales and teaching the company's concepts and graphics needs to new employees.
Dana Moore, part of the human resource team, is the first person prospective hires see. Does her "dream job" include a navy suit? Does she ask "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
Hardly.
This is Moore's dream job, and it's still growing. She is tuned in to Gray's philosophy in the interview: What is your dream job? What are your skills? How well do you work in a team? Are you comfortable in a T-shirt and jeans?
Besides working as an office manager and technical recruiter, and matching employees to meet company goals, she is a photographer and sculptor. Moore can eye talent quickly in a portfolio.
She also knows the benefits will keep them there. The company offers "two weeks in the sandbox" -- two weeks each year that the company will pay for workshops, seminars and training at full salary. Discussion groups during the day talk about leadership issues and ideas, information from books the team reads. Xplane volunteers teach night classes on their skill set to each other and to prospective new employees. Health benefits include a massage once a month.
The team spirit continues after hours. A Mardi Gras party, a get-together Fridays after hours on the building's roof, and the "lunch train" -- flocks of team members getting together every day for lunch (and not always the same people) -- blur the distance between work and play.
"It's culture, friendship, and the fact that you get to do the `cool work' that make people want to be here," Moore said. "What creative soul wouldn't want to work on the cool projects with a high `play' factor?"
Reggie Tisdale, who has been at Xplane less than three weeks, sticks his head in the doorway to start the "lunch train." Maybe he is the test case for people development. He said if not for deadlines he could throw away the clock, working surprisingly longer hours.
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