Graphic Designer

Reports to:

Art Director, Head of Creative

Salary Range: $55,000 - $65,000 CDN / Annual

Overview:

The Graphic Designer owns assigned brand and marketing projects across customer-facing channels from initial brief and concept development through final execution, production handover, and delivery. Working from creative strategy and art direction, this role turns briefs into polished assets and cohesive visual systems that support brand storytelling and business goals.

Reporting into the Head of Creative, this is a highly hands-on role for a designer with strong visual fundamentals, sound creative judgment, initiative, and the ability to work across formats. The ideal candidate proactively drives work forward, anticipates needs, identifies risks early, proposes solutions, responds thoughtfully to feedback, and is motivated to build their skills in AI-enabled design and workflow integrations as the technology evolves.

Responsibilities:

Creative Execution

• Own the design execution of assigned brand, marketing, and campaign projects from concept development through final delivery across ecomm/app, paid media, email, social media, retail, wholesale, PR, partnerships, production, events, and internal documents.
• Translate creative strategy, briefs, and art direction into clear, polished visual assets.
• Develop visual identities for campaigns, launches, and brand initiatives in close collaboration with the Head of Creative.
• Build and extend campaign design systems across typography, layout, colour, graphic elements, and motion.
• Push creative boundaries while maintaining brand consistency, clarity, product accuracy, and production quality.
• Adapt creative for each channel with attention to platform behaviour, audience needs, and business objectives.
• Balance brand storytelling and creative quality with performance, conversion, and growth goals.
• Iterate on creative using feedback, performance insights, and changing project needs.
• Apply and strengthen Vessi's brand and graphic guidelines, ensuring consistent execution across internal deliverables and external agency or vendor outputs.
• Continuously strengthen design craft through inspiration, research, critique, and hands-on skill development.
• Prepare accurate, production-ready files and complete detailed quality checks before delivery.

Packaging, Print, and Production Management

• Own assigned packaging and print communication workflows from initial design through sampling, approvals, production handover, and final delivery.
• Manage production communication with Asia-based and local partners, ensuring clear handoffs, timely follow-up, quality control, and production accuracy.
• Oversee sampling workflows for assigned projects, ensuring samples are reviewed, feedback is incorporated, details are accurate, and files are ready for production.
• Ensure packaging and printed materials meet brand, quality, technical, and regulatory standards.
• Maintain flexibility to support time-sensitive production needs across time zones when required.

Creative Technology and AI-Assisted Workflows

• Approach AI as an extension of the design toolkit, using it to support concept exploration, retouching, image editing, compositing, versioning, mockups, motion testing, and production.
• Direct AI-assisted work through clear creative intent, references, prompts, selection, and refinement. The designer remains responsible for all creative decisions and the quality of the final output.
• Use AI to streamline repetitive or technical production tasks, creating more time for concept development, design craft, storytelling, and creative problem-solving.
• Use AI-assisted writing tools to develop, refine, and adapt clear, compelling, on-brand copy across campaign headlines, paid ads, social media, email, web, retail, and other marketing touchpoints. Apply strong creative judgment and editing skills to ensure all copy reflects Vessi’s voice, communicates the intended message, and is accurate and appropriate for the audience.
• Apply sound creative judgment to determine when AI can improve the process and when traditional design methods will produce a stronger result
• Refine AI-assisted outputs using professional design software until they meet Vessi’s standards for quality, realism, brand consistency, and product accuracy.
• Stay curious about emerging creative tools and integrations, testing them thoughtfully and sharing useful workflows and learnings with the creative team.
• Use approved tools responsibly, with careful attention to privacy, intellectual property and usage rights, brand safety, and quality control.

Workflow Ownership

• Own the channel mock process end-to-end for assigned projects, including creation, review, iteration, alignment, approval, and distribution to channel owners and cross-functional partners.
• Manage multiple concurrent projects and deliver work on time, on brief, and at a high design standard.
• Proactively flag risks, resourcing constraints, and timeline challenges early, propose solutions, and escalate when support or a decision is needed.
• Prioritize effectively in a fast-moving environment while balancing speed, quality, and impact.
• Maintain and improve organized files, templates, systems, documentation, and design workflows to support clarity, efficiency, consistency, scalability, and accountability across teams.

Briefing and Collaboration

• Participate actively in brief outs by asking thoughtful questions and contributing relevant insights, ideas, and creative recommendations.
• Partner closely with the Head of Creative, channel owners, and cross-functional teams to understand objectives and deliver effective creative.
• Present work clearly, explain design decisions, and incorporate feedback with an open and solutions-focused approach.
• Communicate progress, dependencies, and handoff requirements throughout each project.

Qualifications & Requirements:

• 3+ years of professional graphic design experience, ideally within a consumer, retail, fashion, footwear, or direct-to-consumer brand.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating thoughtful concept development, typography, layout, and multi-channel campaign execution across digital and physical touchpoints.
• Advanced proficiency in Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud, including Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and After Effects, with the ability to independently execute design, retouching, layout, motion, and video-editing projects.
• An open and curious mindset toward evolving creative tools, including AI, with a willingness to experiment, learn, and integrate useful capabilities into practical design and production workflows.
• A strong sense of ownership, initiative, and accountability, with the ability to work independently, anticipate next steps, identify potential challenges, and proactively move projects forward.
• Excellent attention to detail and strong organizational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities, maintain accuracy, and deliver high-quality work within deadlines.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with experience collaborating across teams and managing handovers with internal partners, external vendors, photographers, printers, and production partners.
• Strong experience with retouching, motion design, ecommerce creative, packaging, print production, and preparing polished, production-ready files.