Creative Services Designer

Our client, a large global non-profit scientific society in D.C, with more than 140 years’ experience, produces authoritative, award-winning journalism from around the world of chemistry. Our Client’s website receives more than 13 million page views per year. 

Our Client is looking to bring on a talented Creative Services Designer to help their Creative team elevate their journalism through thoughtful editorial design. You will work closely with our client’s journalists in developing and processing artwork (Including photographs, illustrations, and graphics) for upcoming stories and designing engaging feature and news page print layouts for their weekly newsmagazine.

The successful candidate will be highly organized, highly detail oriented, and will be able to adhere to tight weekly production schedules where quality, speed, and efficiency are critical, as well as an effective communicator capable of multitasking and juggling priorities. 

* $40-$45/hr. 
*HYBRID role in Washington D.C. 3 days onsite / week (Tuesdays & Wednesdays are required onsite days, the third onsite day is flexible). 
*Expectation of a at least a year contract.

What you’ll do:

• Process incoming artwork for our client, vetting images and graphics submitted by writers and editors and assisting in photo research of images from photo agencies and stock image sites for upcoming stories. Assist in preparing and repurposing images, graphics, and ad materials for web, mobile, and social media presentations.
• Design print layouts for our client’s weekly newsmagazine, including feature layouts and news pages.
• Assist in layout of pages within other sections as needed.
• Collaborate with writers, editors, and other designers to create engaging print layouts and brainstorm ideas for layout and art treatments for upcoming stories.
• Attend weekly production meetings and daily news meetings as needed.
• Assist in creating graphics, including chemical structures, reaction schemes, and data-driven charts.
• Edit, label, and make changes to maps, charts, line art, chemical structures, and other art provided by outside sources.
• Support print production, including managing ads for weekly issues and creating ad layouts for full-page ads and placement of partial ads in our client’s production system.
• Supply ad pages with metadata to ensure correct output to all print and digital channels.
• Support production of custom publishing and native advertising materials.
• Design whitepapers and sponsored content articles for client as needed.
• Create classified display and line ads, including sending proofs to our client’s Sales & Marketing team and making changes to ads. Produce Classified ad for our jobs pages in Adobe InDesign and our clients production system.
• Coordinate the production schedule with other members of the design team and the production/editing group.

What you’ll bring:

• 4+ years of experience designing physical print layouts, preferably in a publishing or editorial environment.
• Knowledge and experience in print publishing workflows and technologies.
• Proficiency with common visual design tools, especially Adobe InDesign but also Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
• An eye for visual detail, and a drive for designing great print layouts that serve the story and entice our audience to keep reading.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to describe your ideas, brainstorm with a group, and draw out feedback from colleagues.
• Ability to take a design through our production process, including iterating and updating designs based upon user needs and stakeholder feedback.
• Experience handling multiple projects and meeting tight production deadlines as well as flexibility for last-minute changes.
• Experience in media, journalism, or publishing, with an emphasis on creating print layouts that support storytelling is a big plus.
• Experience with the K4 publishing system is a big plus.