Job Description:
ABOUT THE ROLE: Mother Jones is looking for a Senior Designer to join our award-winning visuals team. This is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Creative Director, and the salary range for the role is between $67,000 and $80,000 annually. This is also a union position and, as such, the terms of this job are covered under the collective bargaining agreement with Local 2103, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO.
The ideal candidate should have experience working in a newsroom, a knack for creating fast-turnaround digital illustrations, an interest in how design can impact the business side of journalism, and a passion for storytelling across multiple platforms.
Though our art department is centered in the Bay Area, the successful candidate can initially begin working on a remote basis. However, after the pandemic you will be expected to travel to our San Francisco office up to six times a year, for a week at a time, in line with our magazine publishing dates.
US: A reader-supported nonprofit news organization that publishes a torrent of original reporting each day on our site, in addition to our gorgeous bimonthly print magazine. The Senior Designer will work closely with our art, editorial, and production teams as well as our tech, video, business operations, engagement, and reader support teams. We’re looking for someone who cares about honest journalism and is eager to play a vital role in Mother Jones’ growth and success. Learn more about us at MotherJones.com.
YOU: An ambitious creative with strong design chops and a firm foundation in illustration, digital design, typography, and editorial design. You relish collaborative brainstorming and have the hands-on design and production skills to execute ideas yourself. You stay on top of current design trends, and, as our Senior Designer, you would seek out new and diverse illustration talent to help keep our work fresh and representative of the stories we tell. You’re always thinking about the reader, and you’re beyond labels like “print designer” or “digital designer” because you design with empathy and you’re comfortable meeting any audience anywhere.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
(Senior Designer is expected to do these on a regular basis)
- Design and illustrate stories that are published on MotherJones.com
- Design pages and features for our bimonthly magazine
- Work with our social team on custom designs for Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
- Collaborate with our multimedia team on digital graphics for videos and podcast promotion
- Read lots of news stories and features
- Other duties as assigned
SECONDARY RESPONSIBILITIES:
(Senior Designer may be involved in the following, depending on a combination of skills, interests, and organizational need)
- Assign freelance art and help make selections from sets of photography as needed
- Create charts and infographics based on data provided by reporters and editors
- Brainstorm concepts for the cover of our magazine
- Design web products for our tech team to build. Examples include a new site element to increase fundraising, or a new way to present story links on the homepage.
- Work with ad clients to design or update their ads for print, web, and email, and work with our colleagues outside the newsroom to design house ads for print, web, and email
- Create printed materials for our advertising, fundraising, and events teams. Examples include designing a brochure for our next fundraising campaign, or posters for one of our live events.
- Create digital designs for our advertising, fundraising, and events teams. Examples include making a powerpoint deck for a fundraising presentation, or designing a landing page for a Mother Jones events series.
Job Requirements:
QUALIFICATIONS:
- A strong background in editorial design and digital illustration
- The ability to work with tight deadlines
- Have team-focused work habits for a highly collaborative digital environment—experience with remote/distributed work is a plus
- Advanced proficiency with design tools such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator
- A solid grounding in HTML and CSS plus interest in UX, A/B testing, and user testing
- In pursuit of audiences on all platforms, an interest in motion graphics is an obvious but nonessential plus
- Working knowledge of, or the ability to learn, other tools like WordPress, Adobe XD, and PowerPoint
- Demonstrated ability to think strategically as well as creatively
- More than ever in these crazy times, the ability to laugh at yourself helps
Type of Job: Design, Editorial Design, Illustration, Art Direction
City: San Francisco
State/Country: California, USA
Duration: Full Time (37.5 Hours per week)
Benefits: Health, Vision, Dental, Sick & Vacation Time, Mental Health Reimbursement, EAP
Company: Mother Jones (Foundation for National Progress)
About Our Company: Mother Jones is a reader-supported investigative news organization recently honored as Magazine of the Year by our peers in the industry. Our nonprofit newsroom goes deep on the biggest stories of the moment, from politics and criminal and racial justice to education, climate change, and food/agriculture. We reach more than 10 million people each month via our website, social-media presence, videos, podcasts, email newsletters, and print magazine. Our fellowship program is one of the premier training grounds for emerging investigative storytellers. Founded in 1976, Mother Jones is America’s longest-established investigative news organization. We are based in San Francisco and have bureaus in Washington, DC, and New York. We are independent (no corporate owners) and are accountable only to you, our readers. Our mission is to deliver hard-hitting reporting that inspires change and combats “alternative facts.”
How to Apply: Only applications submitted to this Application Form (https://forms.gle/avybiX4cidRJsThU9) will be considered for this recruiting round. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applicants for any given role, there may be delays in responding to every application submitted. What you’ll need for the application form:
- An updated resume
- A well-thought-out cover letter detailing your interest in and relevant experience for the role
- A link to your online portfolio
- If not included in your online portfolio, some examples of recent work relevant to the role, with any context you feel would help us understand the process through which it was created
