From March 2010 to September 2014 I participated in VTG project as a Graphic Editor, Website Designer and Technical Support. Currently I am only a Website Designer and Technical Support in this project.
Russian speaking community newspaper VTG was established in May 2008. Originally it went by the title KW Gazeta, in August 2009 it was renamed to Vestnik Trekh Gorodov (VTG, translated: “Tricity Herald”). It covers Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph areas. VTG also has subscribers from London (ON), Hamilton and Toronto. The newspaper is currently issued monthly in electronic format. It used to have a paper format as well; however, it has temporarily been suspended. VTG has over 200 families on its subscription list. There is currently a team of five volunteers administrating the project.
The mission of the newspaper is to improve information exchange within the Russian speaking community of Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph and to bridge culturally close communities such as Ukrainian, Belorussian, Russian and other communities speaking Slavic languages. VTG seeks to provide information about Canadian lifestyle to help Russian speaking newcomers to better integrate into their new Canadian life.
My duties as a Graphic Editor and Website Designer were:
– Create and edit the layout of articles using Adobe InDesign CS5
– Search, place and implement adequate artwork using Adobe Photoshop CS5
– Develop and implement commercial and informational advertisements designs
– Create artworks as necessary using Adobe Illustrator CS5
– Communicate with the printing bureau, resolve any issues which may arise (when we had a printed copy)
– Quality control of the newspaper
– Work out the layout, design, flow and functionality of the newspaper’s website (http://www.kwgazeta.org)
– Internal Search Engine Optimization of the website
– Update newspaper’s website content as necessary
– Resolve any other technical issues (deal with hosting and domain providers, etc.)