Title: Senior Designer, Brand Design

Location: NY, DC, SF, LA, Remote

Vox Media is the leading independent modern media company. Known for building the best media brands and the technology that enables them, we are committed to building a better future for the industry and getting the future of media right. Vox Media’s editorial networks include Vox, The Verge, SB Nation, Eater, Polygon, Recode, and Curbed. Our diverse storytelling and advertising businesses include the Concert publisher-led marketplace, the Vox Creative brand studio, the Chorus publishing platform, and the company’s entertainment division Vox Media Studios, which includes the Vox Media Podcast Network and Epic.

We’re taking what it means to be a designer in media to new heights by building a best-in-class cross-disciplinary design team at Vox Media, from our Product team that builds the best platform for digital publishing in the industry, to our brand team that works across a suite of powerhouse editorial networks, to our revenue team that designs beautiful ad products and partners with our sponsors. At Vox Media, you can be part of a remote friendly culture with people in New York, DC, San Francisco, Austin, New Orleans, and quite a few cities in between. Our jobs are well compensated and come with excellent and progressive benefits including flexible hours, generous paid parental leave, and trans-inclusive healthcare.

Vox Media’s internal brand design team are caretakers of seven powerful digital brands (over 200 million total uniques per month) across a wide spectrum of subject matter from the Verge’s take on technology and culture, to Vox’s pioneering news site, to Eater’s obsessive take on food. Brand designers are responsible for creating and maintaining the visual identities of these editorial networks across all touch points including digital, experiential and print and across an expanding array of new fronts including podcasting and television.

We’re looking for a seasoned graphic designer with experience working with media, journalism, advertising and/or with pop culture brands. You are an exceptional creative thinker with a passion for design and a curiosity about what’s next in media. You are ahead of the curve risk taker with an instinct for what creates an emotional connection between brands and audiences. Your creative instincts are only matched by your exceptional design skills and thorough knowledge of brand design work including the creation of design systems, key art and design across multiple platforms. With exceptional communication skills you have the ability to articulate and sell through your work on the basis of sound strategic thinking, audience insights and behaviors and a distillation of a project brief. You thrive in fast paced constantly changing environment. You are a great collaborator, sensitive to partner and stakeholder needs, and comfortable working in teams, both individually and in partnership with internal and external creative talent.

What you’ll do

• Lead projects as an individual contributor, design lead or work in support of other designers and leads, in the service of our editorial networks (Vox, The Verge, Curbed, Eater, Polygon, Recode, SB Nation) and partners as well as our business lines and the Vox Media corporate brand, designing key art, brand systems and marketing and communications materials.
• Design digital and print collateral, logos and identity systems, environmental graphics and provide art direction for editorial visual storytelling reflecting the ethos of our house of brands.
• Help develop and launch brand identities for new strategic initiatives as the Vox Media business strategy and portfolio evolves
• Work collaboratively with our editorial design leads to optimize their visual identities on their sites and on external platforms.
• Work collaboratively with our Product Design team as a brand designer to create exceptional online publishing experiences for external partners and for our editorial networks
• Create design systems and guidelines to insure continuity and brand cohesion across multiple platforms and touch points
• Explore solutions across a gamut of visual techniques appropriate to each project including but not limited to graphic design, illustration, animation, gifs photography and site specific installations working collaboratively with and providing creative direction to both internal and external creatives contributors
• Be an active contributor to the overall vision and direction of Design at Vox Media
• Provide inspiration and mentorship to other more junior designers on the team
• Work to build and nurture strong relationships with your stakeholders and partners
• Enforce and model the expected behaviors listed in our Code of Conduct and our Design Principles

What you’ll bring:

(ALL APPLICATIONS REQUIRE A PORTFOLIO OF RECENT WORK)

• 5+ years experience working as a senior level designer in the field of media, journalism, entertainment, advertising or any related large scale pop culture brand servicing an audience at scale preferably with a background in more than one of the above fields
• Exceptional design skills and a strong original point of view with demonstrable high profile successes including but not limited to industry recognition, a track record of selling through work, working on advanced and complex projects with successful outcomes, and work that demonstrates innovation, fresh thinking, and strong visual design
• A thorough command of brand identity work with experience on both the strategic and conceptual level developing and implementing brand design systems or developing a body of work in service to a well articulated brand strategy
• A passion for the fundamentals of graphic design and a fluency with typography, color theory and visual expression
• Able to work independently and proactively with little supervision while taking feedback from stakeholders, Design Leads and the Senior Design Director along the way
• A strong command of industry design tools including but not limited to expert proficiency in the Adobe suite of Creative Cloud products (AI, PS, ID). Familiarity with animation software such as After Effects, basic coding knowledge of HTML and CSS, and familiarity with web design tools (Sketch, Invision) a plus
• A meticulous attention to detail and a habit of delivering error proof files at the completion of a project
• A strong network of external design, artistic and creative contacts desirable and a reputation in the business for working well with creative teams
• Experience working on photo shoots combined with a knowledge of and relationships within the photography community highly desirable
• A deep knowledge of the cost of different visual solutions and the ability to bring projects in on time and on budget.
• Ability to thrive in an environment of rapid growth and lead a team through change. Comfortable working through times of ambiguity and within a matrixed organization.
• Exceptional communication skills. Ability to present creative work strategically and effectively; Ability to create compelling case studies
• Strong command of current design trends with a curiosity for new techniques and fresh approaches
• An understanding of remote culture and experience working as part of a distributed team is a bonus

For more on the things we’re building and problems we’re solving, and what it’s like to work with the Product, Design & Technology teams, see our Product Team blog. In an effort to an provide an inclusive and respectful working environment, all team members adhere to our code of conduct.

About working at Vox Media: This is a permanent, full-time position with excellent benefits including flexible hours and generous parental leave. Vox Media strives to provide comprehensive healthcare options for our employees and to ensure that our healthcare and other benefits are LGBTQ-inclusive. You’ll be joining a group of focused, hard-working, creative people who are passionate about doing work that’s challenging and fun and who strive to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Vox Media is committed to building an inclusive environment for people of all backgrounds and everyone is encouraged to apply. Vox Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, national origin, protected veteran status, age, or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state, or local law.