1. Recommendation for Rick Vazquez
CTS Languagelink is a full-service multilingual communication agency with services including
translation, interpretation, publishing, media production, Internet services and multimedia
localization. Among our clients are several counties in California for whom CTS translates large
quantities of election materials including voter pamphlets and ballots. We do very high volume of
localization work for our clients during this time of year and need people skilled with InDesign
and other Adobe and Microsoft Office applications who can quickly adapt to the specific needs of
our workflow.
We specifically brought Rick Vazquez on board for a 90-day contract in March 2016 to help us
through our primary election production, essentially March through May. Rick immediately
showed the aptitude and skills to work with our teams and he helped to improve our processes
in several ways.
We were delighted to extend Rick's contract through the end of October during which time he
continued on as production lead for one of our larger clients throughout the general election
season.
During the month of June, in the lull between the primary and general election seasons, Rick
took ownership of the following:
• produced the style guide for the client whose project he would be leading
• developed educational materials for that client
• generated training guides and practice projects for designers we would need to
onboard quickly for the general season, and helped train them
• overhauled several master templates that had been used in the primary season
for use in the general, ultimately improving certain efficiencies and utilizing
techniques which would eventually be adapted to other projects
• worked alongside our lead production developer on other aspects of what we do,
including making suggestions for how some things might be scripted to improve
efficiency (Some of those suggestions were actually adapted by our lead
developer at the beginning of the primary season, and improved upon as we
geared up for the general.)
Rick maintained focus throughout the general election season as well:
• developed dozens of English templates using the masters he'd created while
continuing to improve and track changes to the templates being utilized by other
designers
• lead production on volumes of deliverables, routinely communicating with the
project management team, tracking batches of work throughout the season
• provided oversight over all of the deliverables for quality and consistency
• worked closely with and supported our production staff, our project management
office and quality assurance staff, and was available to be of service wherever he
was needed
On the whole, during the eight months Rick spent with CTS he demonstrated extraordinary skill,
an engaging attitude and work ethic, unwavering attention to detail, and the ability to learn new
systems very quickly and work through problems while meeting tight deadlines. I highly
recommend Rick for your projects and welcome the opportunity to work with him again come
next voters season.
Manager s · nal Services Group
CTS Language ." k
{800} 208-2620, ext. 8202