Visual Designer

Crain Communications Inc is a privately held media company producing trusted and relevant news publications, lead generation, research and data products, custom publishing and events with uncompromising integrity.

The Visual Designer is responsible for design related tasks within the Corporate Digital Strategy UX team. The Visual Designer will work closely with the product management and development teams on new product initiatives as well as fine-tuning existing designs. We need someone with a sharp eye and a passion for design thinking as you’ll be working closely with stakeholders from all different corners of the company to meet a variety of business needs. The Visual Designer will handle all changes to creative, executing projects from start to finish, including all minor edits. The daily demands require creative solutions and continuous updates of web site deliverables. Day-to-day work will be file preparation for web production, so an eye for detail and a passion for web design is vital.

• Generate clear ideas, concepts and designs of creative assets from beginning to end.
• Design, illustrate and prepare a variety of digital materials for desktop and mobile such as logos, e-mail and web templates, web graphics, web banners, iconography, social media branding, and digital sales materials.
• Maintain consistent visual design on assigned projects.
• Complete all design editing as necessary.
• Ability to create aesthetically pleasing and intuitively usable layout and design.
• Remain current and have a thorough understanding of marketing principles, technologies and best practices to assure favorable online user experiences. Stay abreast of web design, web development, web standards, emerging technologies, multimedia tools and techniques.
• Mentor, review and provide design direction to junior designers.
• Work productively and collaborate with other Crain Communications designers to ensure a consistent, integrated brand perception and user experience

• Bachelor’s Degree - BA/BS degree in Design (e.g., interaction, graphic, visual communications, product, industrial)
• Web-focused
• Solid portfolio that includes a diverse range of digital projects and user-friendly web design. We’re looking for someone with sharp interaction design skills and an impressive portfolio of designs for desktop and mobile.
• Minimum 5+ years of professional experience in visual design including responsive, mobile-first design.
• High level of proficiency in the entire Adobe Creative Suite including: Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Acrobat.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially PowerPoint.
• Highly creative, able to refine other people’s ideas and come up with new ones to create a highly designed visual experience.
• Working knowledge of the Agile methodology.
• Working knowledge and experience with multimedia software such as Flash and understanding of HTML language and coding.
• Knowledge and experience with cross-browser and cross-platform issues (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.)