Brand Designer

About Code for Africa

Code for Africa is the continent’s largest federation of independent civic technology and data journalism laboratories, which build digital democracy solutions giving citizens unfettered access to actionable information that empowers them to make informed decisions and that strengthen civic engagement for improved public governance and accountability.

Job Details

• Are you a creative visionary who wants to make an impact in citizen-focussed projects in Africa?
• Code for Africa (CfA) has animmediate vacancy for a full-time Brand Designer to join our Engagement team and turbocharge the visual identity of our digital democracy and civic technology projects.
• CfA’s Engagement team is responsible for managing CfA’s audience, by managing our platforms, communications and brand. The team actively works to grow CfA’s reputation and amplify our thought leadership and accomplishments through compelling multimedia storytelling.
• The successful candidate will help CfA foster and grow its brand identity, as well as helping create, shape and grow brand identities for existing projects and programmes such as the African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO),  africanDRONE, the Africa Fact Checking Alliance (AFCA), sensors.AFRICA, and WanaData. Key to the role will be creating distinct visual identities for specific programmes and projects that still remain cohesively linked to CfA’s identity.
• To establish and promote these brands, you will work with the design to create brand guidelines and collateral such as logos, brand guidelines, banners, t-shirts, and stickers, for both digital and print projects.
• Your suitability for this position will be based on your portfolio, which should demonstrate expertise in the development of brand identities (including logo, font and colour palette design) and brand implementation/execution through collateral design (such as stickers, t-shirt designs, website iconography). Portfolios that show an ability to work in a variety of formats (traditional/digital media, still/animation etc) will have an advantage.
• The successful candidate will work as part of a multinational and multilingual team, creating content for a global audience and international media partners using digital collaboration tools.

About the Role

• The successful candidate will join us on CfA’s Engagement team. The team is responsible for telling CfA’s story, and keeping it accessible and engaging. We amplify the work of our experts and external project partners across Africa to drive a more open, connected and technologically empowered continent.
• As a brand designer, you will play a crucial role in developing innovative visual strategies for CfA as a whole alongside individual identities for our flagship products and projects.
• Once established, you will create and maintain design playbooks for each identity, ensuring all visual assets created for each brand comply with the established identities.
• You will continuously stay up to date with international trends in graphic design, ensuring CfA and its associated brands remain fresh, sharp and visually unique.
• You will work with the rest of the design and engagement team to create brand collateral as needed and to ensure that brand guidelines and identities are being adhered to, wherever they appear.

Responsibilities

Your daily responsibilities will include:

• Developing a distinctive and world-class visual style to position CfA as a leader among global partners
• Designing and establishing brand identities for CfA’s projects and products as needed
• Producing brand assets and designs to complement CfA and partner content, as well as social media promotions and campaigns.
• Crafting, adapting and maintaining brand guidelines for CfA and CfA’s products and projects.
• You’ve worked with globally recognised brands or projects, or are able to create world class branding  (such as Google, The Economist,  and  Vox.com, and Rest of the world)
• Enforcing these brand guidelines to ensure consistent, high visual standards across CfA’s platforms.
• Contributing designs for digital properties such as websites, social media videos and marketing merchandise.
• Contributing to designs for printed collateral such as stickers, t-shirts and banners
• Maintaining a reference list/database of competitors and benchmarks of quality.

Requirements

Required (Minimum requirements include):

• Proven experience working in a similar role or field, preferably for at least 3 years
• Ability to articulate a brand or project’s story through design assets, effectively capturing its vision and tone.
• A strong grasp of design principles, such as emphasis, alignment and balance, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement, and white space.
• Mastery of design software, such as the Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign), and other relevant design tools.
• A creative flair and a keen eye for keeping pace with emerging design trends globally and within Africa
• Strong communication skills to effectively collaborate with multinational team members and partners, interpreting and conveying brand concepts through design.

Preferred (Candidates who are able to demonstrate the following will have an advantage):

• Ability to transform brand identities into visually appealing marketing assets, including web and social media designs,, email campaigns, roll up banners, stickers, t-shirts, and leaflets.
• Ability to work in both traditional and digital mediums, combing them to create powerful visual identities that stand out from the crowd
• Ability to create a variety of formats, from stills to gif to longer animations
• Understanding of what works best for different platforms such as Facebook vs Twitter vs TikTok vs WhatsApp
• Capable of working independently and managing multiple projects simultaneously.
• Familiarity with digital collaboration tools like Slack, Google Drive, Trello and Airtable.

Language and Location Requirements:

• Location: Anywhere in Africa
• Primary languages: English
• Preferred but not required: Amharic, Arabic, Hausa, French, Kiswahili or any other major language spoken in Africa

What We Offer

• A competitive salary, subject to experience, with opportunities for performance-based growth, both in terms of career path and public stature.
• Medical insurance cover, underwritten by a remote-first provider to ensure cover wherever you are.
• A dynamic workplace, with a transnational team, occasional international travel, and generous vacation benefits.
• Ongoing opportunities to learn new cutting-edge skills and techniques/technologies to future-proof yourself in a rapidly evolving industry.
• A chance to shine on a global stage, designing for international audiences and interacting with colleagues around the world.