Useful Group : Freelance Brand Designer

Brand Designer is needed in Chicago, United States.

Client: Useful Group

Location: Aurora, IL

Contract: Contractor

About Position

Useful Group is looking for a Freelance Graphic Designer with a passion for building brands and communicating through design. In this role, you will collaborate with our lead designer as well as team members across Useful Group to ideate, plan, and create unique logos and brand identities for our clients…

Company Overview

Useful Group exists to make great missions more effective. We’re a team of strategists, creatives, and problem solvers serving organizations and individuals committed to making the world a better place. We specialize in strategy, branding, marketing, web development, and creative production. Learn more at UsefulGroup.com. Our clientele represent a range of industries, backgrounds, and ideologies, including some religious non-profits. While occasional exceptions can be made, applicants should be comfortable working with clients who may or may not share their same beliefs.

Timeline and Availability

Useful Group is looking for a designer who would be:

• Available to work with Useful Group on a project-to-project basis from December 2023 - March 2024 with the possibility for continued freelance work after that
• Available for up to 25 hours / week during this window
• Available for email communication on a daily basis (responses within 24 hours on business days)

Experience / Qualifications

• Experience creating high-quality logo concepts from ideation / sketching to vector
• Able to create vector logos and other graphics using adobe illustrator
• Experience extending a visual brand identity beyond a logo by creating various brand assets (color palette, typography, brand collateral design, etc.)
• Experience building out a brand guide with instructions on how to implement various brand assets
• A bachelor’s degree in visual communications (graphic design) or 3-4 years equivalent experience in the field of graphic design is required. The portfolio should show a strong understanding of foundational design skills (typography, color theory, layout, understanding of hierarchy, etc.) and senior-level logo and brand identity design experience.
• 3-5 years of experience designing visual identities for various brands is strongly preferred. The designer will have enough experience to take on small or complex branding projects.
• Proficient in the Adobe (especially Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign) suite
• Ability to use Google Drive in order to upload/download file assets as needed

Responsibilities

As a freelance designer contracted by Useful Group, you will:

• Work closely with other designers, content strategists, project managers, etc., to ideate and execute high-quality brand identities
• Conduct research into clients and their industries as well as design trends and requirements in order to begin shaping the brand identity
• Receive constructive feedback to your design work and be responsible for making updates based on that input
• Work within deadlines
• Communicate with clients when needed to pitch, explain, guide, etc.

Skills and Culture

Our ideal candidate is:

• Skilled in collaboration
• Flexible and ready to adapt to changing processes depending on the needs of the client
• Comfortable educating clients on a direction that’s best for their audience
• Empathetic and thoughtful, seeking to understand the client’s desires
• Self-assured in their design decisions to advocate for the work
• Skilled in conceptualizing and executing high-quality logos
• Able to generate unique graphics and iconography
• A creative and conceptual thinker
• A skilled illustrator (this is not required, but it would be a significant plus)