Design Fellow

Summary: Mission Partners, a Certified B Corp and women-owned social impact and communications consultancy, seeks candidates interested in a part-time summer position to serve as a Design Fellow for client and agency projects. We are especially interested in candidates committed to racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. This position is ideal for senior, graduating, or post-grad students, providing an opportunity to gain valuable experience in a nonprofit communications setting.

Duties and Responsibilities

This individual will support the development of compelling graphic designs across various brand, messaging, and communications efforts for social impact organizations. The design fellow will partner with the Mission Partners design team to ensure project excellence.

Projects may include: supporting brand, identity, and collateral design, including logos; reports and documents; presentations; social media graphics and templates; web updates; and image retouching and creation.

Primary Responsibilities

• Support in developing and producing creative solutions, collateral, and assets throughout a project’s lifecycle.
• Work closely with the design team to develop creative concepts for initiatives.
• Work closely with internal project managers, the MP design team, and external vendors to execute design concepts.
• Ensure accuracy by understanding and applying client and organizational brand guidelines, the creative process, and internal proofing.

Expectations
Mission Partners is a service-based business that uses communications tools, including design, to help our purpose-driven clients achieve their fullest potential. We expect all team members to take care and thought when working and interacting with clients, considering our work’s larger objectives and performance metrics and the client’s needs. The successful candidate will have the ability to maintain respect and confidentiality.

We leverage the Management Center’s project management model to ensure transparency and accountability in managing projects. As an internal working group, we will often meet once a week, at a mutually agreed upon time, to ensure that every team member clearly understands the objectives and that we collaborate to advance the client’s needs. We appreciate keeping the lines of communication between our teams open and active.

We expect team members to embrace and reflect Mission Partners’ company values. (See below.) We strive to have a positive attitude and contribute where needed to support the team and the work.

Additional expectations for this position include the following:

• Passion for creative thinking and the power of design.
• Interest and understanding of the design process for projects from concept to completion.
• Intellectual and cultural curiosity and a demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and empathetically.
• Knowledge of design terminology, technology, and techniques.
• Portfolio demonstrating: the ability to concept and execute ideas, typography and layout skills, application of color theory, and appropriate use of imagery/graphics to convey messages.
• Ability to receive and incorporate feedback.
• Interest in and commitment to accessible design.
• Fluency with Mac OS environment; Adobe Creative Suite software, especially InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop; and Microsoft Office 365 software. Additional software skills are welcomed.
• Strong organizational skills, familiarity with project management, and ability to manage and prioritize competing demands.
• Some experience in branding and marketing projects for impact-driven organizations is a plus.

Education and Experience Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree underway or recently completed in Graphic Design, Visual Arts, or related field. Or successful completion of a certificate program or boot camp with demonstrated understanding and experience implementing visual communications principles across multiple media.
• Experience or interest in working in an internal or external creative agency, firm, or similar environment and experience working in a client services environment is preferred.

Compensation and Benefits
Salary negotiation is inherently inequitable. Mission Partners is committed to salary transparency and pay equity. The non-negotiable starting salary for this position is a $4,000 Summer stipend, which equates to approximately 160 hours of work over a 12-week summer schedule (an average of 13 hours per week at a rate of $25/hour).

To Apply
Submit a one-page cover letter and resume to careers@mission.partners with Application: Design Fellow as the subject line. Please include a link to your online portfolio.