Brand Designer

About Saltmarsh Studio

Saltmarsh is a small independent design practice. Twenty-two of us work with cultural institutions, independent publishers and climate organisations, and we keep the client list short on purpose so that the work can be properly finished. There is no office. People work from home, from libraries, and from whatever coworking space we are paying for that month.

We are not an agency in the volume sense. A typical identity project runs three to five months with two designers on it.

What you'll do

• Lead identity projects from first conversation to delivered toolkit, including the parts nobody enjoys, like naming workshops and stakeholder alignment.
• Develop typographic systems that hold up across print, screen and environmental applications.
• Art direct photography and illustration commissions, briefing external collaborators and giving them notes that are useful.
• Build brand guidelines that a client's in-house team can genuinely use six months after we have gone.
• Present work directly to clients, including trustees and boards, and hold your position when it is the right thing to do.
• Contribute to studio culture: crit sessions every Thursday, and a shared archive of references that someone has to keep alive.

What we're looking for

• Four or more years in brand or editorial design, in a studio, in-house team, or independently.
• A portfolio with real range in typography. We care more about how you set a paragraph than about how many logos you have drawn.
• Command of the Adobe suite and Figma, and comfort preparing files for print production.
• The ability to explain a design decision in terms a museum director will understand and find persuasive.
• Based in the United Kingdom or Ireland, with occasional travel to client sites in London, Bristol and Dublin.

Nice to have

• Experience with exhibition or wayfinding design.
• Motion or interaction skills to bring an identity to life on screen.
• Interest in the sectors we work in: culture, publishing, climate.

Benefits

• A four-day week, Monday to Thursday, with no expectation of catching up on Friday.
• Untracked holiday with a four-week minimum that we actively enforce.
• GBP 1,200 a year for courses, workshops and books.
• A coworking stipend if you would rather not work from home.

To apply, send a portfolio and a short note about a project you are proud of and one that did not go the way you wanted.