AI-Forward Designer — High-Quality Creative with AI-Augmented Speed - Contract to Hire

We're looking for a talented designer who uses AI tools to move faster without sacrificing quality. Not someone who lets AI do the work — someone who uses AI to augment their own craft. About Us: We're a branding, web design, and development studio with 10+ years in business and 200+ projects delivered across SaaS, e-commerce, nonprofits, education, and more. We recently launched a design subscription service and need a designer who can maintain our quality bar while increasing throughput. What This Role Is: You're a skilled designer first. You can concept, compose, and execute at a high level. But you also know how to use AI tools — Midjourney, DALL-E, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, Figma AI plugins, or similar — to speed up parts of your workflow. Ideation, asset generation, mockup creation, image editing, layout exploration — you use AI where it makes sense and your design eye where it matters. What You'll Work On: Brand identity systems (logos, color palettes, typography, brand guidelines) Website design (landing pages, full site designs, UI components) Pitch decks and investor presentations Marketing collateral (social media assets, email templates, ad creative) Illustrations and custom graphics Print design (business cards, stationery, event materials) What We Expect: Every deliverable looks like it came from a senior designer, not an AI prompt You use AI to accelerate research, ideation, asset generation, and iteration — not to replace your design thinking You can concept a brand identity from scratch, not just remix AI outputs You work fast — 48-hour turnaround is our standard for most deliverables You follow brand guidelines precisely and maintain consistency across projects You're comfortable receiving feedback and iterating quickly Tools You Should Know: Design: Figma (required), Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign) AI: At least 2–3 of these: Midjourney, DALL-E, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT/Claude for copy assist, Figma AI plugins, Runway, Magnific, or similar Presentation: Figma, Keynote, or PowerPoint Nice to have: Webflow (for design-to-dev handoff), motion graphics (After Effects or Lottie) Who You Are: 3+ years of professional design experience with a strong portfolio You've integrated AI tools into your workflow and can show examples of how they speed you up You have a sharp eye for typography, spacing, color, and composition You can work across brand, web, print, and presentation design — not just one lane You're self-directed and don't need hand-holding on every project You communicate clearly and proactively — if something is unclear, you ask before you guess What This Is NOT: This is not an "AI art generator" role — we need real design skills This is not a junior role where you'll be trained — you should already be producing senior-level work This is not a one-off project — we're looking for an ongoing relationship Compensation: $20–35/hr depending on experience and portfolio quality Consistent weekly hours (20–40 hrs/week) Long-term engagement with potential to grow into a lead designer role You'll work directly with the founder and a small, tight team To Apply: Please include all four of the following. Applications missing any of these won't be reviewed: Portfolio link — show me 5–10 of your best projects across at least 2 categories (brand, web, pitch deck, collateral, illustration) AI workflow example — describe one specific project where you used AI tools to speed up your process. What tools did you use, what part of the workflow did they accelerate, and how did the final output compare to your non-AI work? Availability — your hours per week and overlap with US Eastern business hours Ship the queue — include this exact phrase somewhere in your application so I know you read the whole posting Apply tot his job Apply To this Job