# Visual Communication Design Lead

**Company:** [Ideo](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/ideo)
**Location:** Chicago, IL
**Role:** Product Design
**Salary:** $100k – $120k/yr
**Experience:** 5+ years
**Skills:** Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, Graphic Design, Visual Storytelling, Brand Strategy, Interaction Design, Digital Product Design, Motion Design, Prototyping, Client Storytelling
**Posted:** 2026-05-21

> Lead visual direction and guide multidisciplinary teams through complex design challenges, setting visual strategy across brand systems, interaction, and digital product design. Requires a strong portfolio, leadership experience, and fluency in Adobe Suite and Figma.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Own the visual direction of engagements and lead multidisciplinary teams through all phases of the design process from early research and exploration through prototyping, refinement, and client-facing storytelling
- Contribute across a diverse portfolio of work spanning brand, experience, interaction, digital product, and service design
- Lead project teams and collaborate with multidisciplinary designers
- Collaborate closely with clients, using storytelling and design to make complex ideas clear and actionable
- Turn research and open-ended questions into visual systems and stories that build empathy for people and bring their experiences to life
- Create and guide looks-like/works-like prototypes at different levels of fidelity to explore ideas and align teams
- Support and grow other designers through thoughtful critique, collaboration, and hands-on craft leadership
- Hold a high bar for visual quality while staying open to exploration, iteration, and learning
- Champion visual communication as a powerful way to make ideas tangible and meaningful

## Requirements
- Relevant experience and/or educational background in visual communication, brand expression, interaction, and digital product design
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in graphic design, interaction design or an equivalent degree
- Strong, versatile portfolio demonstrating exceptional craft, visual storytelling, and leadership across complex work
- Fluency in tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and Figma, with experience using motion and design prototyping tools
- Comfort shaping and delivering client-facing narratives using tools like Google Slides and FigJam/Figma Slides
- Ability to balance hands-on making with direction-setting and mentorship
- Experience establishing and expressing brand identity—from strategy through execution—across systems, touchpoints, and mediums
- Experience leading visual work across interaction and digital product experiences
- Experience leading client work and multidisciplinary teams through complex, often ambiguous design challenges
- Experience working across industries and project types, adapting craft to context and audience

## Nice-to-Haves
- Comfort with ambiguity—able to push work forward without having all the answers
- Growth-oriented mindset embracing critique, experimentation, and learning through making
- Proactive and accountable attitude

## Compensation & Benefits
- Salary range: $100,000–$120,000 USD
- Full-time position eligible for employee benefits
- Commitment to equitable pay regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity

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