Junior Graphic Designer

The Cato Institute seeks a Junior Graphic Designer to join the Design team and produce a high volume of visual work that carries Cato's ideas to a broad audience.

This role is approximately 80% digital design, including social media graphics, web assets, email graphics, and presentation design, and 20% print design, including brochures, fliers, one-pagers, event materials, and more. The designer will work from established brand systems and templates while contributing original concepts and collaborating with designers, producers, social media staff, marketing and program teams, and policy researchers across the Institute.

Cato's Design department is responsible for the visual identity of the Institute and its related properties, including Sphere Education Initiatives, Cato University, and Libertarianism.org. The department produces daily social graphics, web assets, event collateral, marketing materials, and printed publications.

This position is well suited to a designer early in their career who seeks volume and variety in their work. The designer will produce work for immediate publication, receive guidance and art direction, and expand their range across a multi-brand system.

The Junior Graphic Designer is a full-time, non-exempt position in the Design - Digital department and reports to the Digital Design Manager.

This is a hybrid position based in Washington, DC.

The projected salary range for this role is $54,000 to $64,000 per year. Compensation is based on the successful candidate's educational background, experience, and skills.

About Cato

The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.

Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th-century England that presented a vision of a society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets — turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.

The Cato Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

Digital Design (approx. 80%)

• Design social media graphics across platforms, including feed posts, quote cards, carousels, event promotions, data-driven graphics, and cover images sized and adapted to each channel's specifications.
• Produce web assets, including page banners and graphics, article headers, thumbnails, and icons, in collaboration with the web and marketing teams.
• Build and adapt graphics for email campaigns and newsletters.
• Design event background graphics for LED screens.
• Design and format panel graphics for events using established templates.
• Resize, adapt, and version approved designs across formats and channels while preserving visual integrity.
• Apply and extend existing brand systems and templates, flagging gaps and inconsistencies as they arise.

Print Design (approx. 20%)

• Lay out and produce brochures, fliers, booklets, one-pagers, and event signage.
• Prepare print-ready files, including bleeds, color spaces, and export specifications.
• Assist with the layout and production of longer-form publications and reports.

Collaboration and Workflow

• Contribute ideas during brainstorms and concept reviews.
• Track assigned projects in the Institute's project management system, keeping tasks, due dates, and file versions current.
• Incorporate feedback from art direction and stakeholders into revised designs with care and attention to detail.
• Maintain organized working files, asset libraries, and naming conventions so work is easy for the team to find and reuse.
• Balance concurrent requests against firm deadlines.