Brand Design Lead
Josephmark is in an exciting phase of rapid growth as a company, doubling in size over the past 18 months. Our headcount is now 50 strong, made up of an eclectic mix of designers, developers, strategists, copywriters and technologists spread across Brisbane, Hobart, Sydney, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Mexico. We’ve built brands and ventures, startups and scaleups for the last 17 years, all with a focus on changing the ways we work, play, and live.
As a team, we’ve innovated, branded, rebranded, and strategized around emerging and existing brands and technologies that are shaping our collective future. Clients span a wide range of industries, everything from world-leading record labels to new technologies, and the futures of agtech, fintech, and sex tech. Our growth trajectory means we’re looking to appoint a remote-friendly Senior Design Lead across two continents (one in LA and one in BNE) to amplify our brand capabilities.
What makes this role different?
- As a venture studio, we build several different startup companies in rapid succession, meaning as a designer you gain exposure to multiple projects at every phase of their business and dive in wherever they are in their journey.
- Our design team solve complex problems on a daily basis, from what branding looks like in the metaverse, to the future of interactive design in VR and how this influences brand interactivity.
- You’ll be working on everything from global impact investing to decentralized energy exchanges, creator cryptocurrencies, immersive storytelling, and music industry icons, as an example.
- Armed with an innovative and venture mindset you’ll seek out ways to fuse visual, verbal and behavioural design into all your creative explorations oscillating with confidence between MVB to deeper brand strategy for early-stage ventures.
What’s in it for you?
Work with experienced multi-disciplinary teams:
- For our branding projects you get to bounce off multiple brand designers, art directors, motion designers, content strategists and external collaborators including photographers, CG artists and sound designers.
- For our venture work this extends to product and UX strategists, engineers and developers to ensure quality in all aspects of brand execution for our clients, own incubated ventures and joint-venture partnerships.
Inclusive improvement focus: This is a rare opportunity to evolve and iterate on the JM brand and design methodology in close collaboration with our ECD. You will oversee and guide the ideation and execution of original, conceptual and systematic brand thinking. You love the tension of balancing contemporary visual culture with tech-driven strategies and commercial objectives.
Thought leadership & mentorship: Once you find your groove and establish your practice, you get to inspire and cultivate a culture of excellence providing mentorship across all facets of brand activation, application and optimisation over time.
Project diversity: Contribute to a transparent, high-performance, people-driven culture that gets to work on diverse projects that are regenerative at their core.
About you:
- You’re a storyteller at heart, you can articulate ideas and written creative concepts that link users' needs and experiences with design and business objectives.
- As a Senior Lead, leadership comes naturally to you. You’re able to exhibit thought leadership through day-to-day project work and offer mentorship and constructive feedback on projects to junior designers in the evolution of the work.
- You’re a human-centred designer who innately understands people’s needs and translates these insights into innovative design solutions. You are just as passionate about design as you are about strategy and the analytical thinking behind your creative decisions.
- You have experience building thoughtful, compelling brand identity systems, executing across product, interface, web design, experiential, strategy and digital design.
- You have the ability to balance thoughtful and conceptual ideation with fast-paced execution in a dynamic environment. Your portfolio demonstrates your mastery of craft in composition, colour and imagery across typography, iconography and print.
- You’re a seasoned brand designer with experience in technical or product-driven companies including working in a brand or design studio, managing in-house teams in high growth environments.
- Proficient in Figma, Adobe suite and comfortable using Notion, Pitch and Google suite. A degree in Design, Interactive Design, Visual Studies, or other design-related fields is certainly an advantage but not essential.
This is a full-time position that offers a competitive salary, equity and flexible working hours. We prefer this position to be in close proximity to our Brisbane HQ but are open to fully remote applicants who can align with Brisbane (AEST) time and, for cross-collaboration projects, with our LA (PST) satellite office.
At JM, we know better products start with diverse teams. We are an inclusive workplace committed to fostering a sense of thriving and belonging for all. That's why we strongly (see bold and underline usage) encourage members of underrepresented communities to apply. If you share our values and our venture mindset, you’ll find a home (with your work bffs) at Josephmark.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Oh no, I only tick a few of those boxes so I’m not going to apply...”, don’t be silly. If you’re a standout human, we want to hear from you!
Jay Van Deurse, Designer
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve worked on at JM? One of the first projects I worked on still shines as one of my favourites. EarthOffset (now Monty) is combatting the climate crisis with a solution that’s accessible for everyone: composting. It allowed me to get my hands dirty (pun most definitely intended) testing and improving my strategic and design thinking. Plus, Monty were absolute gems to work with – truly inspiring to see their drive to change the world.
How long have you been in the industry for? I’m closing in on my first anniversary as an official designer. However, I have worked in the startup space for the last three years. Wearing many hats as a founder, I soon realised that the design hat was the one I loved to wear the most. I decided to dive into my passion and build those skills.
What’s the best thing about working at JM? High performance and support. Everyone’s super talented, but no one has an ego. If you need help, time or advice, you will receive it. It makes being a junior rewarding, as you can pick brains and get support from the best. Plus, work is a lot easier when you genuinely enjoy the company of the people beside you (even if that’s remotely).
What’s the worst thing about working at JM? The fast-paced nature of our work can take its toll, but that’s the industry and that’s why we love it. When feeling the burn, it’s great to remember that the team around you are always there. Team retreats are the perfect way to unwind and remind us of why we do this!
What’s something people might not know about being a designer at JM? You get to delve into so much more than just design. Over the past year I’ve had the chance be a strategist, a marketer, a motion designer, a UI and UX designer and even a developer (…even if very basic).
What advice do you have for anyone looking to kick off their design career? Immerse yourself. Keep heading to places and sites that inspire you and think about what makes it appealing to. Experiment with your own work and be critical to see how you could improve it.
Link us to something cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7C69HqnV8s