Senior Designer

Frontier is looking for a full-time Senior Designer to join our team. This role is available as a permanent position or a 1-year contract.

About the company

Frontier is a design office that believes in the expansive potential of storytelling to help people get somewhere new. We design the strategies, brand identities and experiences that make big stories real.

For a decade, people have come to us because we’re experts at drawing together diverse perspectives into something unified and resonant. Generating ideas, building consensus,
setting direction: we accelerate this work by listening closely and bringing to bear new tools and methods of understanding and shaping what’s next. We draw from diverse realms—like contemporary art, purpose design, playful speculation and radical technologies—to help organizations and their people understand the edges and make progress that matters.

This pluralistic approach to purposeful branding leads to genuinely inspiring and strategic stories that we turn into momentum-building brand identities, exhibitions, websites,
campaigns, books and videos.

In addition to design services for partners, our commitment to big stories runs through studio-initiated projects. These include Frontier Magazine, an online publication about new
and newly relevant ideas in the culture, architecture, technology and education; Projectory, an experiential learning platform that trains organizations on building future resilience; and Live Magazine, a traveling editorial project.

The role

A senior designer consistently brings progressive, relevant ideas to project work. They are fluent with the studio’s creative philosophy and understand how to identify and develop work that aligns with the studio’s standard. They are seen as leaders on the design team and can be relied upon to push and resolve creative work in every situation.

A senior designer can quickly develop excellent ideas with little creative direction. They can take initial input and work independently and with pace to produce directions that respond strongly to a strategy or context. They understand how and when, to experiment, can see creative opportunities within a project to try something different and have the confidence to do so. They help set a bar for intermediate and junior designers with their ideas, critical thinking, understanding of project strategy and client management and work ethic. They are proficient in advanced design tools and methodologies, such as strategic brand storytelling.

They work closely with Creative Directors and Associate Creative Directors to influence project strategy and ensure that creative solutions align with client business objectives.

This role reports to Tristan Marantos, Creative Director.

What you’ll do:

• You’ll work alongside other members of the design team leading and supporting the development of client projects with guidance from senior creative staff. This can include
  creating identity concepts from a strategic brief, refining visual identity systems, designing websites and digital user experiences, developing narrative creative presentations and designing exhibitions and physical installations.
• You’ll be expected to manage your given projects each week, anticipate and proactively complete tasks across projects and maintain close communication with your design leads.
• You’ll participate in weekly studio and project-team meetings, during which you’ll share your work with the team and participate in design critiques.
• You’ll help provide guidance and motivation to fellow designers by fostering a supportive working relationship with the team.
• As a small team, our culture is important. We’re excited for each member of our team to add to this environment and participate in studio activities outside of regular design tasks.

Accommodations and accessibility

Frontier provides employment accommodation during the recruitment process. Should you require any accommodation, please indicate this in your introductory email and we will work to meet your accessibility needs.

Doing Better: At Frontier, we believe good ideas come from everywhere and we view diversity as fundamental to the way we work and think. We are always looking to increase the diversity of viewpoints and experiences in our team. Groups that are typically underrepresented in the creative field are Black, Indigenous and racialized people, LGBTQ+, women, non-binary people, people with disabilities and people for whom English is not their first language. We invite you
to voluntarily let us know if you identify as being a member of one of these groups. Beyond our hiring policies, we commit to using all facets of our work to support the movements for equity and justice for all people. Please consider reading our commitments to Doing Better to learn
more.

Job details & benefits

What’s great about working at Frontier:

• Our design philosophy stems from a desire to find unconventional ways to visualize the goals of every project and this results in a stimulating, engaging creative process. We hold ourselves to a high standard and always look to push our work and ourselves.
• We work on a variety of project types with clients across different sectors, making each project a unique experience. We value creating meaningful relationships with our clients.
• We value a work culture that is fun, inclusive and honest. While our work always comes first, we make time for activities that take us outside of our day-to-day tasks.
• We’re a small team, which means that everyone is expected to contribute meaningfully to their project work. No one is a passenger at our studio.
• We have organized methods of supporting the professional development of each member of our team, ensuring that everyone has a more experienced member of our studio to help foster their development.
• We have competitive drug and dental health benefits, including a Health Spending Account (HSA).
• Senior designer roles start at three weeks of vacation per calendar year.

Our Hybrid Policy: Our office is based in Toronto and we work in a hybrid model. Team members are encouraged to come into the studio often to learn from and share work with,
their peers and to benefit from casual creative conversations that often occur when working together.

Annual salary CAD $70,000–$80,000, with flexibility for exceptional candidates and opportunities for performance-based growth.

Timeframe: This position is a full-time role, either as a permanent position or as a one-year contract.

Qualifications

Who you are:

• You have 5–6 years of experience in a studio or freelance setting, leading the development of idea-driven visual identities, websites, editorial projects and spatial projects for clients, from concept to completion.
• You are an enthusiastic, well-organized and self-motivated individual with the ability to rationalize and clearly communicate ideas within a design context.
• You are excited to join a small, fast-paced design practice and are comfortable balancing diverse tasks.
• You possess expert knowledge of graphic design principles such as visual storytelling, typography, hierarchy and structure, designing for print, interactivity and web-design principles and photography/photo editing.
• You have excellent knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), presentation software (Pitch, Google Documents) and Figma.
   

Nice to haves (great if you have one of these, but not required):

• Experience with the development of wayfinding systems and designing signage programs.
• Experience with motion design and video editing, using software such as Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere.
• Experience writing design strategy and conducting design research (interviewing, workshops, facilitation).

Salary range

$70,000 - $80,000

How can candidates apply?

Please email your portfolio to tmarantos@frontier.is with “Senior Designer Job Application” in the subject line, along with a paragraph or two about why you are interested in the role. Also include your portfolio (PDF or website are fine) and CV.

Selected applicants will be asked to join a video interview with one of our Creative Leads.
While not all applicants will be selected to go through the interview process, we will do our best to respond to all applicants who apply.

For the interview, be prepared to discuss:

• Two relevant projects, the ideas that informed the work and how they were realized visually in the final product.
• Your experience working within a design team and/or collaboratively with clients.

Promising candidates will be invited to have a second interview with another member of our team. The second interview is expected to focus more on the working culture of Frontier and whether candidates will successfully add to our studio culture.

Thank you for your interest! You can stay updated on future job opportunities by subscribing to our job posting newsletter, which we use to circulate all openings as they are posted.