Lead Designer

Design Matters is seeking applicants for a full time lead designer.

We are in search of a friendly, creative, outgoing candidate.

Qualified candidates will:

  • Be self starters
  • Have strong communication skills
  • Have strong computer skills
  • Be able to prioritize and multi-task
  • Have great attention to detail

Duties are varied and change from day to day.

Candidates should be able to work with little supervision, and willing to take initiative to perform duties. Candidates must be upbeat, and able to work well in a team environment. We prefer individuals who demonstrate excellent communication.

Education:

  • College Degree in related field

Experience

  • 2 or more years of experience preferred

Program/Technical Abilities:

  • Comfort with Macs and PCs
  • Adobe Creative Suite, (Dreamweaver, Photoshop and Illustrator a must. Flash and InDesign preferred)
  • Microsoft Office Suite (primarily Word and Excel)
  • HTML and CSS knowledge
  • Knowledge of how to do many things online, see duties below
  • Trouble shooting basic Mac, PC, and file sharing problems would be a bonus
     

Specific Knowledge: Comfort with technology and desire to learn new design and web programs a must. Experience with web or print design required. Ability to illustrate a plus. Must have an understanding of design, be able to effectively create design solutions, and take direction from Art Director.

Position Summary: The person who fills this role will be a key part of most projects at Design Matters. We would be willing to provide some training to the right candidate.

Primary Duties:

  • Creating effective design solutions in a variety of mediums including: web, e-newsletters, mobile apps, marketing collateral, identities, trade show booths, publication and beyond
  • Project Management - help establish project time lines and estimates, keep track of project details to make sure we have all assets, that we are working within budget, etc. Make sure that all small tasks are getting done.
  • Assist in managing lower level designer/production assistant(s). Assign tasks, make sure things are getting done properly. Proof work and provide art direction as needed.
  • Staying abreast of technology in terms of what can be done on the web, other mediums, latest versions of programs, etc.
  • Client research - review competition for our clients with online research, help determine client's competitive edge
  • Pricing Estimates - help determine what types of vendors are needed for different projects. Get quotes and pricing estimates for services including programming, printing, trade show booths, shirt embroidery and more

We are a small office. Everyone needs to help out with all details of some projects. Over time, this job will include some or all of the following:

  • Web site population - perform text and image updates including adding products to e-commerce stores (using Dreamweaver, spread sheet population and different CMS tools). Ability to trouble shoot basic problems with images/text showing up wrong. Attention to detail when following a standard template.
  • E-mail newsletter creation -build out of one-off and ongoing e-newsletters following existing html template, (including populating content with tracking links and images). Images may need to be resized. Create HTML code for unique e-newsletters, test in e-mail clients.
  • Online setups - domain name registration, e-mail account set up, and ability to handle a myriad of other basic coding things which may include: uploading videos to you-tube and linking to videos from a 3rd party site, uploading names, testing and sending newsletters through e-mail newsletter tools, setting up facebook sweepstakes, paypal integration, changing shipping charts on e-commerce stores, creating contact us forms using a CMS tool, and converting files to web format. Note: things listed in this section come up from time to time. You don't need to know how to do every one of these things, but an ability to quickly figure out these types of thing is needed.
  • Design production - may include making simple graphics based on existing templates, and executing concepts based on style guides
  • Image management - downloading image comps, getting pricing/ copyright info. for images, purchasing & downloading images
  • Text edits - typing in proofreading edits for e-newsletters, brochures and publications
  • Proofing edits - reviewing text edits done by others
  • Image research - searching for stock images
  • Receptionist - answer the phone, take messages, check voice mail (we all share phone duties)

Depending on workload, occasionally duties might include:

  • Assembly - binding presentation booklets, putting together client gift baskets, collating/folding/trimming client projects such as invitations
  • Data maintenance - update customer contact information and log-in information for multiple applications
  • Organizing - maintaining files (online and offline) and storage area