Part-Time Brand Designer

Description

The Part-Time Brand Designer plays a key role in shaping and maintaining a cohesive visual identity across Battle Ground Academy’s PreK–12 divisions. This role supports admissions, advancement, athletics, and school-wide initiatives by creating compelling, on‑brand design assets for both print and digital platforms.

The ideal candidate is a thoughtful, experienced designer who understands how to design for a range of audiences, from prospective PreK families to upper school students, parents, alumni, and donors, while maintaining a unified and elevated brand presence. This person should be comfortable using current technology, including AI tools, to improve efficiency, streamline production, and support a faster creative workflow while maintaining strong design judgment and brand standards.

• Visual Identity Management: Maintain and evolve the school’s brand guidelines, ensuring consistent use of logos, typography, color palettes, and design standards across departments.
• Admissions & Marketing: Design high-impact recruitment materials, including viewbooks, brochures, digital display ads, direct mailers, and other enrollment-focused communications.
• Social Media & Digital: Create engaging assets for Instagram, Linked In, Facebook, email, and web, including reels graphics, carousels, stories, digital ads, and other campaign materials that highlight student life, faculty achievements, and institutional priorities.
• Campus Events: Design collateral for major school milestones and events, including Commencement, Homecoming, fundraising events, theatre productions, alumni gatherings, and other school-wide initiatives.
• Development & Advancement: Support the fundraising team with polished donor proposals, annual reports, event collateral, and other advancement communications.
• Apparel & Merchandise Design: Create on‑brand designs for apparel, spirit wear, event merchandise, and promotional items, ensuring graphics align with BGA’s visual identity and are appropriate for production.
• Print & Production Support: Prepare files for print and coordinate with vendors as needed to ensure pieces are produced accurately, professionally, and on brand.
• Photo Editing: Provide photo editing and retouching support for use in print and digital materials.

• Experience: Seven to 10 years of professional graphic design experience, preferably with experience supporting institutional, education, nonprofit, or mission-driven brands.
• Portfolio Excellence: A strong portfolio demonstrating clean typography, sophisticated layout skills, strong attention to detail, and the ability to design for different audiences, including parents, students, alumni, donors, and prospective families. Candidates should submit design samples that include large print pieces, ads, digital graphics, and, if applicable, apparel, merchandise, or illustration work.
• Technical Proficiency: Expert knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, including InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Experience with Canva is a plus for templates and quickturn graphics.
• AI & Workflow Efficiency: Comfort using AI tools and emerging technology to support design workflows, speed up production, generate ideas, resize or adapt assets, and improve efficiency while maintaining originality, accuracy, and brand integrity.
• Brand Sensibility: An understanding of how to communicate quality, excellence, and institutional prestige while remaining accessible, warm, and mission-aligned.
• Efficiency: Ability to manage multiple projects with tight deadlines, especially during peak seasons such as recruitment, fundraising campaigns, major events, and graduation.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, visual communications, or a related field required.

• Agency experience, particularly with education and/or nonprofit clients.
• Experience designing for independent schools, colleges, universities, or other mission-driven organizations.
• Experience designing apparel, spirit wear, merchandise, or promotional products, including an understanding of how designs translate across embroidery, screen printing, and other production methods.
• Illustration skills, including the ability to create custom icons, simple spot illustrations, event graphics, campaign visuals, or other original artwork that extends the school’s brand in a thoughtful and polished way.
• Basic video editing or motion graphics skills.
• Knowledge of print production processes, including paper stocks, finishes, file preparation, and vendor coordination.