Senior Brand Designer

We are sending out smoke signals for a Senior Designer who brings deep experience in brand identity systems, client leadership, and strategic thinking. This is not an early-career senior role. We are seeking someone who has spent years leading complex branding engagements, guiding clients through ambiguity, and translating strategy into thoughtful, effective design systems. This position joins a fully distributed group of strategists, writers, designers, project managers, and directors who care deeply about helping organizations uncover and express who they are.This role reports to a Design Director and will work closely with clients and internal teams throughout the branding process.

Our Values

At Matchstic, our work and relationships are guided by Courage, Truth, and Harmony.

We believe great branding happens when talented people bring their unique perspectives, experiences, and ideas together in pursuit of meaningful work. These values aren’t just ideas we talk about. They guide our decisions, our relationships, and the way we navigate our work together.

Where We Work

This is a full-time remote position for candidates residing in the United States. Periodic travel may be required for client engagements and occasional in-person team meetings.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. Matchstic is unable to provide visa sponsorship.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary
• Health, dental and vision insurance for US-based employees
• Paid time off
• Matchstic Chapstic (limited time offer)
• Paid Parental Leave
• Company-provided equipment (laptop, monitor, software, etc)
• Annual professional development budget
• 401K benefits after 12 months of employment
  

Responsibilities

As a Senior Designer, you will:

• Lead the creation of boundary-pushing identity systems and brand applications (digital, print, environmental, packaging, experiential) in a collaborative environmentUse and expand your design expertise across a wide range of aesthetic styles
• Art direct and mentor other designers while helping elevate the overall quality of creative work across the agency
• Craft and present visual work with strong conceptual thinking and strategic rationale
• Build well-defined, thorough brand guidelines and implementation tools that empower our clients to implement their brands effectively
• Serve as a trusted creative partner to clients across a variety of industries, facilitating conversations, presenting work, navigating feedback, and building confidence throughout the engagement
• Collaborate closely with strategists, writers, project managers, and fellow designers throughout the branding process
• Participate in discovery activities: immersions, workshops, research, interviews, client meetings
• Provide input into brand strategy, messaging and naming work
• Raise the bar for design quality at Matchstic through your design work, project team leadership and vision for innovation

Must Haves

This role is senior-level. You could be a good fit if you have:

• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite
• Strong working knowledge of Sketch and Figma.
• Significant professional experience creating brandmarks/identity systems and extensively applying them across a variety of mediums
• Demonstrated understanding of how to connect strategy to creative work
• Experience leading client relationships and presenting work to executive stakeholders
• A thorough knowledge of print production and experience collaborating with web developers
• Ability to balance vision and execution of high-quality work with practical business objectives and project requirements
• Commitment to knowing and understanding our clients and their end users
• Strong communication and written English skills
• Ability to interpret and contribute to high-level strategy and apply it to the task at hand
• Excellent attention to detail, so much so that your application should include the word ethereal somewhere
• Ability to successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously, handle a fast-paced work environment and changing priorities

We are wondering if you have any of these skills…

• Motion/animation
• Illustration
• UI design experience
• Photography/art direction
• 3D
• Coding
• Type design
• Information design
• Copywriting

How we hire

First we have a short phone call, campfire style. Tell us a quick story and hear one. Are we both feeling like this could be a fit? The best way to prepare for this is to spend some time reflecting on all of the experiences you've had and the things you've done to bring you to the point you're at today.

Next, we’ll gather a variety of people including team members you’ll work directly with. This time allows both of us to get a sense of what it’s like to work together, and explore the kinds of work you might do. Be prepared to share two examples of your brand related work in a formal ”ish” presentation. We hope to come away with a picture of your collaborative style, problem solving ethos, conceptual process, and strategic thinking output. It’s helpful when you can also make clear the technical skills you have mastered. The remainder of this time together is yours. What do you need to know from us?

Finally, we meet to share our values and culture in hopes you can assess if Matchstic is a place you can thrive and grow. You can be prepared to share how you have interacted in certain situations and how you might grow and improve the Matchstic culture. This may be followed-up with a short and fairly compensated test project.

After each step we will communicate with you our decision to move forward or stop the process. FYI - We think our hiring process is a tiny bit radical and generally takes more time than most companies spend. Thanks for your patience. We hope it's meaningful for you.

Diversity and Inclusion Commitment

We believe that in order to serve our clients well, our team must bring a diversity of backgrounds, identities, and perspectives to the table and see this open role as an opportunity to expand the collective experience of our group. We are an equal opportunity employer that is firmly committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Matchstic does not discriminate in recruitment or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, orientation, nationality, age, disability, status, or other non-merit factor.

Work Culture

We are strategic creatives and creative strategists having fun doing work that empowers passionate clients. It’s a level of work that requires commitment and follow-through in our work-life. We are learning that you can bring your distinct values, points of view, skills, and abilities from wherever you are. And, we all succeed when we take care of each other.

About Matchstic

We help growing brands become radically relevant.

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