Art Squad: A Temp Agency with a Twist

It's not your typical employment office.

Art Squad recruits and places creative professionals in freelance, contract, and full-time positions with offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston.

Specialties include creative and art directors, marketing professionals, graphic, web, and multimedia designers, illustrators, public relations professionals, production artists, presentation specialists, editors, proofreaders, writers, project managers, media planners, buyers, and account services.

Two years minimum of industry-related experience and demonstrated graphic skills are required.

Joni Sparks, an artist whose work has been featured in Austin, found Art Squad while surfing on the web five years ago.

Excited, she gathered her portfolios together and made an appointment with the Fort Worth office.

She came out of that appointment with a renewed sense of hope having battled schizophrenia and alcoholism for many years. But she was always an artist and never gave up on her work.

The company arranged for her to come back in and get tutorials on graphics programs, something she wasn't real strong in but was a quick learner.

Part of the interview process at Art Squad includes a portfolio meeting and all applicants must have such materials. Applied software testing and background testing is also part of the deal.

Art Squad works with short or long-term projects, on or off-site, project management, and coordinating payroll and benefits. They advise that candidates applying with them do not list an objective, hobbies, or interests on their resume.

Art Squad recommends candidates join organizations such as the American Institute for Graphic Artists, the Dallas Chapter of the American Marketing Association, the Association for Women in Communications, BigDWebgrrls, the Dallas Society of Visual Communications, Digital Eve, the Electronics Graphic Artists of Dallas (EGAD), the Dallas Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), the Public Relations Society of America Dallas Chapter, the Society of Illustrators, and Webgrrls among others.