Sr. Graphic Designer

Sr. Graphic Designer - We offer a competitive benefits package!

The Company: GIA is the world's foremost authority in gemology. GIA is a global organization with headquarters located in Carlsbad, CA. GIA in Carlsbad boasts a 17-acre ocean view campus that accommodates approximately 800 of its 3,400 total employees worldwide. It offers many competitive health and commuter benefits that promote the well-being of its employees as well as that of the environment.

The Location: This position is located in Carlsbad, California at our corporate headquarters.

What to expect:

• We offer competitive medical, dental, vision and matching 401-K plans
• Paid vacation, sick and holidays, tuition assistance, commuter benefits

The Environment:

• On-site cafe - affordable custom breakfast and lunch meals and Starbucks drinks!
• Economic friendly services - electric vehicle charging stations on-site
• Ergonomic assessments offered on-site and virtually

JOB OVERVIEW

The Sr. Graphic Designer role is responsible for creating visually compelling and effective designs that capture the attention of target audiences, while upholding quality standards and brand objectives. They must understand GIA's brand identity and translate it into engaging visuals across various platforms, from print to digital. They are also tasked with staying current on design trends, technologies, and consumer preferences to ensure their work is relevant and impactful. Collaboration with the other marketing teams is key, as they must align their designs with strategic goals and messaging. A strong candidate must balance creativity with functionality, ensuring the final product communicates the intended message clearly while driving results. Must possess strong conceptual and artistic skills, be detail-oriented, possess excellent technical expertise, and thrive in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment, and will ensure GIA's print and digital designs meet high quality brand standards.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead creative and production design services in support of GIA marketing projects and the Institute's businesses to include concept, design and layout of artwork for digital, web and print media
• Create compelling communication materials and marketing collateral.
• Conduct thorough quality checks on artwork, including proofreading, image and color corrections, file optimization and prepress preparation.
• Collaborate closely with the creative team to understand project requirements and translate business objectives into conceptual designs into production-ready artwork.
• Uphold quality standards and brand objectives via print and digital executions.
• Build technically sound files quickly and according to established brand guidelines for offline and online assets.
• Contribute to solving problems/brainstorming with the graphic design team, project teams and Marketing management.
• Prepare files for organized asset management, file protection, and retrieval.
• Communicate status and concerns of relevant projects to graphic design and program management teams in a timely, accurate and complete manner.
• Initiate coordination with vendors, internal clients and project teams to ensure goals are achieved and timelines met.
• Ensure compliance with the Institute's brand strategy & identify graphic standards, visual style & guidelines.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, producers & product teams to develop forward thinking visual content.
• Manage strict deadlines despite competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Understand the importance of strong leadership, accountability, and structure, process & quality assurance.
• Excellent understanding of digital and print production processes and printing techniques, color theory, typography and image optimization is required.
• Exceptional attention to detail, with a keen eye for visual aesthetics and the ability to maintain consistency across multiple projects is a must.
• Travel to press checks as requested.
• Stay abreast of the latest design trends, tools and capabilities.
• Other duties as assigned.

TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities)

• Knowledge: A seasoned, experienced professional with a full understanding of area of specialization; has comprehensive knowledge of theories and practices in advertising and building broad knowledge across other related areas.
• Understand the importance of connecting our audience with our message and you are inspired by the challenge to succeed in doing this through high-quality artistry and graphic content as efficiently and effectively as possible.
• Strong knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word, PowerPoint); working knowledge of Adobe Acrobat.
• Language skills: Full proficiency in reading, writing and speaking in local native language and full professional proficiency in English.
• Communication skills: Ability to communicate complex information in a simplified and clear manner; can communicate effectively with others, able to develop and modify communication strategies to deliver difficult or complex information. Actively listens and encourages the open expression of diverse ideas.
• Interpersonal skills: Ability to create positive interactions with colleagues; actively communicates with co-workers and management in a timely and professional manner; maintains collaborative working relationship with colleagues across the organization to improve performance.
• Teamwork: Interfaces well with others, knows who to go to and how to communicate issues/needs. Knows how to balance the interests of multiple stakeholders.
• Problem solving: Works on complex issues, requiring the ability to synthesize and analyze multiple sources of information to independently solve problems requiring strong judgement and decision-making abilities.
• Time management/organizational skills: Manages time and priorities appropriately - approaches work in an organized and systematic manner. Able to manage large projects and deadlines; encourages and helps others meet deadlines.
• Flexibility: Able to adapt to change, able to multi-task while maintaining attention to detail. Able to adapt communication styles. Understands that different situations may call for different approaches.
• Personal accountability: Continually improves performance; takes personal accountability for decisions, actions and outcomes. Makes commitments, follows through on those commitments and encourages others do the same.
• Conflict resolution: Able to settle differences in productive ways while minimizing disruptions. Willingness to confront more complex issues. Facilitates breakthroughs by integrating diverse views and finding common ground or acceptable alternatives.
• Maintains and fosters sensitivity and respect for cultural diversity. Seeks a deeper understanding to the "why" behind different cultural perspectives.
• Mentoring: Trains, shares and transfers knowledge locally and/or globally to team members as needed.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Computer Graphics or Fine Arts, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• 4-5+ experience as a graphic designer or production artist or in a similar role, preferably within a creative agency, design studio or in-house creative department.
• Expert in: Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, PowerPoint, or KeyNote required
• Experience with using HTML, UI/UX preferred
• Extensive experience executing creative campaign developments for digital and print media across various channels with a strong understanding of conceptual design, effective storytelling, programming and strategy.

PAY RANGE

$76,000 - $96,000

Disclaimer: This job description indicates in general terms, the type and level of work performed as well as the typical responsibilities of employees in this classification and it may be changed by management at any time. Other duties may also apply. Nothing in this job description changes the at-will employment relationship existing between the Company and its employees.