Work Environment: Primarily In-Office
Base Salary $62,000-$72,000 annually including up to $10,000, tied to defined revenue, profitability, quality, and performance goals.
The Creative Agency is a full-service marketing and advertising firm based in Fort Collins. We operate as an external in-house marketing department, bringing strategy, brand, design, digital, media, content, public relations, photography, and video together under one roof.
Our clients span beauty, hospitality, professional services, theatre, public-sector organizations, home services, retail, and B2B industries. The work is varied, fast-moving, and highly visible.
We are not a high-volume design shop built around templates and quick production. Our work is expected to be strategic, distinctive, polished, and strong enough to command attention.
ABOUT THE ROLE
The Creative Agency is seeking an accomplished, hands-on Principal Brand Designer to lead the visual execution and creative quality of brand identities, campaigns, social media, digital experiences, packaging, publications, presentations, and marketing materials across our client portfolio.
This role sits at the intersection of brand building and modern content design. The right person understands how strategy becomes a visual identity, how that identity becomes a complete brand system, and how that system must evolve across everything from packaging and websites to a fast-moving social feed.
We are looking for someone with exceptional traditional design fundamentals who is equally comfortable designing for the realities of contemporary marketing. A beautiful brand identity that falls apart on Instagram is not a successful brand system. Neither is a social presence built entirely around templates, trends, or disposable content.
The Principal Brand Designer should understand how brands need to behave visually across static and motion content, carousels, Reels, Stories, paid social, product launches, email campaigns, websites, advertising, packaging, editorial, and physical environments. They should be able to create systems that feel cohesive without becoming repetitive and recognize when digital creative needs to move faster, feel more immediate, or break from a rigid visual formula in order to earn attention.
Original illustration is required. The Principal Brand Designer must be capable of creating custom artwork, patterns, motifs, icons, graphic elements, editorial illustrations, campaign visuals, and distinctive brand assets rather than depending heavily on stock artwork, purchased elements, generic templates, or whatever design trend happened to wander across TikTok that morning.
At the same time, this person should be highly aware of the visual culture shaping social media and digital marketing. They should understand current formats, creative conventions, motion, typography, platform behavior, and how brands are competing for attention today. The expectation is not to chase trends. It is to know what is happening creatively and have the judgment to determine what is useful, what is already tired, and what is appropriate for the brand.
This is a highly hands-on position. The Principal Brand Designer will personally concept, design, illustrate, refine, prepare, and complete client work while providing thoughtful creative guidance to developing designers and collaborating closely with content, social, production, web, and strategy teams.
The role reports operationally to the Operations Manager and works closely with the CEO and Principal Strategist on brand strategy, campaign direction, and executive creative standards.
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Develop distinctive brand identities grounded in approved strategy, positioning, audience, and competitive context.
- Translate strategy into complete visual systems using typography, color, composition, imagery, graphic language, illustration, motion principles, and distinctive brand assets.
- Define and protect the visual DNA of a brand across every major customer touchpoint.
- Create logo systems, brand marks, iconography, patterns, illustrations, supporting assets, and practical brand standards.
- Extend visual identities across packaging, websites, social media, email, advertising, editorial, environmental, presentations, print, and campaign applications.
- Evaluate existing brands and identify opportunities to modernize, clarify, strengthen, or expand their visual systems.
- Create sophisticated visual systems specifically for social media rather than simply resizing traditional marketing materials for digital platforms.
- Design compelling static posts, carousels, Stories, Reel covers, short-form video graphics, launch campaigns, paid social creative, promotional content, educational content, and branded content series.
- Develop social design systems that are recognizable and cohesive while providing enough flexibility and variation to prevent feeds and campaigns from becoming repetitive.
- Understand how hierarchy, typography, pacing, cropping, safe zones, movement, hooks, and visual storytelling change across social platforms and content formats.
- Collaborate with social and content teams to translate content strategy into creative concepts that are visually strong, platform-appropriate, and designed to earn attention.
- Participate in creative ideation for short-form video, including visual concepts, framing, shot direction, typography, graphic overlays, transitions, and motion opportunities.
- Recognize emerging social and digital design trends and determine when they should be adopted, adapted, or deliberately ignored based on the client and strategy.
- Develop reusable social templates and systems when appropriate without allowing template efficiency to replace original creative thinking.
- Create original vector and raster illustrations, campaign artwork, icons, motifs, patterns, custom graphic elements, and other proprietary brand assets.
- Adapt illustration style to each client, audience, and strategy rather than applying one personal aesthetic to every account.
- Translate sketches and concepts into polished, production-ready artwork for print, digital, environmental, packaging, and motion applications.
- Concept and execute integrated campaigns across advertising, social, email, websites, presentations, packaging, sales materials, direct mail, signage, and collateral.
- Build campaign systems around a strong central creative idea while developing enough variation to sustain attention across channels and throughout the life of the campaign.
- Translate campaign concepts into complete families of assets rather than isolated one-off designs.
- Collaborate with strategy and content teams to ensure creative supports the intended message, audience, offer, and business objective.
- Design visually sophisticated email campaigns and modular email systems that extend the brand while respecting hierarchy, readability, mobile behavior, calls to action, and digital limitations.
- Collaborate with content and email teams on product launches, promotions, announcements, nurture campaigns, editorial emails, and other digital communications.
- Create website concepts, page layouts, design systems, landing pages, e-commerce experiences, and supporting digital assets.
- Collaborate with developers to translate approved visual direction accurately into functioning websites.
- Design with a working understanding of responsive layouts, accessibility, usability, digital hierarchy, and conversion-focused user experience.
- Design packaging, publications, reports, brochures, signage, advertisements, direct mail, presentations, sales collateral, event materials, and other marketing applications.
- Create sophisticated editorial layouts and production-ready files for commercial printing and fabrication.
- Understand dielines, bleeds, crops, margins, color modes, resolution, finishing, binding, specialty production, and vendor specifications.
- Review proofs carefully and maintain precision across high-visibility work.
QUALITY, WORKFLOW, AND TEAM EXPECTATIONS
- Ensure work submitted for internal review is strategically aligned, complete, accurate, polished, and client-ready.
- Review typography, hierarchy, composition, spacing, color, imagery, illustration, copy placement, and production specifications.
- Apply feedback accurately without repeatedly reintroducing resolved issues.
- Identify weaknesses before work reaches the CEO, Operations Manager, or client.
- Maintain strong first-pass quality and reduce avoidable revisions.
- Communicate early when information, resources, scope, or timing could affect quality or delivery.
- Maintain complete, organized, and accessible files within company-controlled systems.
- Follow naming conventions, folder structures, version control, and archival standards.
- Ensure editable source files, linked assets, fonts, licenses, and final exports are properly stored.
- Track time accurately and work within established project budgets.
- Coordinate priorities, deadlines, and capacity with the Operations Manager.
- Protect confidential company and client information, intellectual property, and company-owned work.
- Guide developing designers and review delegated work before it advances.
- Share knowledge without creating unnecessary dependency.
- Receive feedback professionally and collaborate effectively across departments.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Demonstrated professional experience in brand design, graphic design, campaign development, or a closely related discipline.
- A sophisticated portfolio showing complete brand systems, not only isolated logos or mockups.
- Strong original illustration capability demonstrated through professional or portfolio work.
- Advanced typography, layout, composition, color, and visual-hierarchy skills.
- Experience designing for print and digital environments.
- Strong working knowledge of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop.
- Ability to move from concept through final production without losing quality or strategic alignment.
- Experience preparing accurate production files for print and digital use.
- Ability to work across multiple industries and visual styles.
- Strong attention to detail and the judgment to identify problems independently.
- Reliable organization of source files, working files, assets, and final deliverables.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and communicate risks before deadlines are compromised.
- Professional communication skills and the ability to receive, interpret, and execute feedback accurately.
- Demonstrated respect for confidentiality, intellectual property, professional boundaries, and company-owned work.
- Ability to work primarily in our Fort Collins office.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Agency experience.
- Editorial, publication, packaging, environmental, or website design experience.
- Experience developing iconography, patterns, mascots, or illustration systems.
- Experience preparing design assets for animation or motion.
- Experience mentoring developing designers.
- Familiarity with Figma, Adobe After Effects, or complementary platforms.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
Success means brand and campaign work is distinctive and appropriate to each client; original illustration meaningfully strengthens the work; deliverables reach review complete and client-ready; deadlines and budgets are treated as part of the creative assignment; files remain organized and accessible; avoidable revisions and production errors remain low; developing designers improve through clear guidance; and the design function becomes more consistent, scalable, and dependable.
PORTFOLIO REQUIREMENTS
Applicants must submit a portfolio demonstrating complete brand identity systems, campaign design, strong typography and layout, print and digital applications, original illustration, work across more than one visual style or client category, and real-world implementation where available.
Applicants must clearly identify their personal contribution to collaborative work, including what they personally concepted, designed, illustrated, art directed, adapted, produced, and prepared for final delivery.
Portfolios composed primarily of logo mockups, speculative redesigns, purchased templates, stock illustration, AI-generated imagery, or unattributed collaborative work will not adequately demonstrate the qualifications required for this role.
Finalists may be asked to complete a limited, role-relevant skills assessment and present their creative rationale.
TO APPLY
Please submit:
- Résumé
- Portfolio link
- Confirmation of your ability to work in our Fort Collins office
- A brief explanation of your personal role in two portfolio projects
- One example of original illustration incorporated into a broader brand or campaign system
The Creative Agency evaluates candidates based on qualifications, experience, portfolio quality, professional judgment, and the requirements of the position. We provide equal employment opportunities in accordance with applicable law.
Pay: $62,496.50 - $71,953.42 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
