Visual Designer with experience in Marketing/Communications
Taryn Ford
<tarynfordbusiness@gmail.com>GRID Impact is seeking a Visual Designer with experience in marketing/communications and product/service to join our Collective. The role will offer you the opportunity to demonstrate your talents in Design Research, Prototyping, Art Direction, Storytelling, or whatever else you might bring to the table!
Perhaps you trained as a graphic designer, illustrator, or communications designer. But now you embrace the full design process - from research to strategy to co-creation to implementation. You are passionate about social issues and want to use design to help address complex problems. You enjoy working on interdisciplinary teams with collaborative and passionate partners and clients. You see the role of the designer as that of facilitator - supporting communities and individuals in designing their own programs, products, and services. You believe in the power of equity-centered and human-centered design (HCD) tools and methods to create innovative and results-oriented approaches to systemic problems in historically underinvested-in communities.
We have several projects that you will contribute to. From social services to education to financial inclusion to women’s economic empowerment, you’ll gain exposure to a wide range of social impact challenges and topics.
On the product and service side, the visual designer will support with:
Prototypes at different levels of fidelity for service touchpoints and web/mobile apps
Visual documentation of new product/service experiences including journey maps, service blueprints and personas
Visual mockups and illustrated representations of new product/service experiences
Brand design systems and visual identities for GRID clients
Publication design and layout for new articles and papers shared with the industry
On the marketing and communications side, the visual designer will support with:
Marketing materials for GRID Impact including reports, social media content and visual assets for the GRID website
Communications materials for client projects including pitch materials and presentation decks
We are hoping to identify and on-board the new team member in mid-January as we have new work already beginning in the New Year. We expect this will be a contract position for approximately 110 days over the first six months of 2024. We are totally open to other agreements and would welcome ideas and conversation to find the right fit for both you and us!
About GRID Impact
Founded in 2014, GRID Impact is a mission-driven research, innovation and design social enterprise collective that specializes in behavioral and human-centered approaches to complex social and economic challenges. Specializing in social impact design, behavioral design, strategic and creative facilitation, and design education, GRID’s clients include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Mastercard Foundation, UNICEF, United Way, Mercy Corps, BRAC, and other mission-driven organizations.
Our hybrid methodology uses insights from applied behavioral science to enhance the innovative, adaptive and creative discipline of human centered design. GRID Impact is considered a leader in innovative, customer-centered product and service design and has pioneered the adaptation of human centered design and behavioral science to social impact challenges. To date, our work has focused on challenges in areas such as financial inclusion, global health, equity and inclusion, water and sanitation, alternative energy, agriculture and education.
The GRID Impact model allows independent, freelance consultants who specialize in a variety of domains and technical areas to come together as interdisciplinary teams for social change. Member consultants are able to continue working independently but also have the opportunity to join GRID Impact project teams for specific engagements. This flexible and adaptable model allows GRID Impact to offer its partners hand-selected teams and tailored solutions. As some of you know, we're a non-traditional organization that approaches just about everything in a non-traditional way. We are not posting a traditional job description. We want to meet new, talented design researchers, designers, and makers interested in contributing to the impact design space. GRID Impact designers are expected to work independently, when needed, managing their own activities and deliverables for specific partners and projects.
Location
We are a remote team and always have been! This means you need to want to work remotely as we don’t have traditional, brick and mortar offices. We frequently travel together for client work but mostly work remotely using a range of virtual collaboration platforms and technologies.
Application process:
Please email the following materials to in...@gridimpact.org with “Visual Designer” in the subject line by no later than May 10th. We’ll be reviewing portfolios on a rolling basis.
A short but compelling cover email explaining why you are interested in getting involved and what you think your best assets are.
A portfolio of your work. Please send whatever combination of materials you think would help us understand you and the skills you can bring to GRID Impact and can be reviewed in less than 10 minutes.
Don’t overthink this! Be yourself and send whatever you think conveys your work quality.
You have:
Degree in Graphic Design, Communication Design, User Experience Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, or related visual design discipline
1 - 5 years of experience in a consultative design or innovation practice
Proven experience crafting innovative design solutions within complex service systems is a plus
An obsession with what design and innovation can do for people and systems
Ability to employ human-centered design methodologies with an open mind
Ability to collaborate effectively with designers and multi-disciplinary teams as well as mission-driven clients
Cultural sensitivity, creativity, and resourcefulness
Ability to handle and manage multiple projects running concurrently. We anticipate work on 3 projects at a time.
Fluency with Google Suite, Miro, Figma and Adobe Creative Suite is highly desired. Much of our design work for clients ends up happening in GoogleSides to allow for more integrated collaboration so fluency in figuring out ways to be creative within that system is highly desirable.