Graphic Designer (Individual Consultant) At Girl Effect

Who We Are

Girl Effect is an international non-profit that builds media that girls want, trust and need. From chatbots to chat shows, TV dramas to tech, our content helps adolescent girls in Africa and Asia make choices and changes in their lives. We create safe spaces for girls, sharing facts and answering questions about health, nutrition, education, and relationships, empowering girls with the skills to negotiate and redefine what they are told is possible “for a girl”.

Our reach is 50 million and counting. And we’re using technology to reach girls at scale so every girl can choose to be in control of her body, health, learning and livelihood.

Because when a girl unlocks her power to make different choices that change her life, it inspires others to do so too. She starts a ripple effect that impacts her family, community, and country.

That’s the Girl Effect.

Background

Over the last 15 years, Girl Effect has pivoted several times to serve the needs of adolescent girls. From advocacy groups to donors, we’ve played different roles in fighting for gender equality at different times. Girl Effect is evolving to become an expert in digital media and the leading driver of demand for services, products and opportunities amongst adolescent girls in Africa and Asia. Through our portfolio of brands and digital products, we aspire to tackle issues that girls and young women face by equipping them to adopt and maintain new behaviours that will improve their mental wellbeing, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and economic empowerment.

Young people are increasingly moving to use messaging apps, and in 2018, Girl Effect began testing and building a chatbot as an innovative means to reach girls. Towards this end, leveraging Artificial Intelligence, we created a “digital big sister” to give girls a safe, private, non-judgemental and accurate source for information on topics they don’t feel comfortable discussing elsewhere.

The chatbot launched in South Africa in May 2020, focusing on SRH and relationships and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Now in its fourth year of iteration, and to ensure that we are responding to girls’ growing needs in the country, the thematic focus for us this year, in addition to SRH, is the inclusion of mental health literacy and wellbeing.

Scope Summary

Girl Effect is looking for a senior graphic designer passionate about creating social change through design to work with our Create team to produce content for our Jik’izinto youth brand and its sub-brand Big Sis. They will be responsible for designing visuals across channels in static, GIF, motion and illustrative formats.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop an intimate understanding of our brand message and tone across the Jik’izinto brand.
• Ideate, transform and piece together photos, texts and illustrations. Copies, vectors and images will be provided.
• Design dynamic posts in different formats: static, GIF, illustrations, motion graphics and videos where appropriate.
• Work closely with the Create team to effectively contribute to and communicate each post. This will include revising copies to fit imagery and selecting the best format in relation to the messaging.
• Learn and consistently apply Girl Effect’s editorial policies and values, production standards, and safeguarding policies.
• Immediately report any editorial or safeguarding concerns to the Girl Effect South Africa Creative Lead.
• Creating work that is innovative, fresh, fun, engaging, youthful and bold. The work should show an understanding of global youth trends and the resonant youth cultures within our market.
• Creating striking visuals that are mobile and user-friendly for the technical context of our users. All our content should be viewable on low-end devices. An understanding of the challenges of designing for low-bandwidth environments and low-end phones would be favourable.
• Upon acceptance of each design or concept, the graphic designer will provide GE with a packaged Adobe Illustrator/InDesign/Project file, and GE will retain all intellectual property rights.

Expected Deliverables

The consultant will provide deliverables per the scope of work. This will include but not be limited to :

Billboards:

1. Support the brand in creating a clear, fresh, and cohesive creative voice across billboards.
2. Ideating and delivering unique ideas and design concepts that enhance brand content.

Website:

1. Work within brand guidelines to create layouts reinforcing Jik’izinto’s style and voice through our visual touch points.
2. Use industry-standard software to create high-quality designs for the brand.
3. Be adaptable and able to design within and expand the brand guidelines and interpret conceptual briefs in a consistently fresh manner.
4. Must be familiar with and be able to create interactive design elements such as .gifs, landing pages, and motion graphics.
5. Designs will be grouped by topic areas and cater to various regions and cultural contexts in South Africa.
6. Illustrate concepts by designing rough layouts of art and copy regarding arrangement, size, type, style, and related aesthetic concepts.
7. Use rough sketches/layouts for discussion and coordination with the Content Team.
8. Be adaptable and able to design within and expand the brand guidelines and interpret conceptual briefs in a consistently fresh manner.

On Ground Events/Roadshows:

1. Support the brand in creating a clear, fresh, and cohesive creative voice across on-ground events and roadshows.
2. Ideating and delivering unique ideas and design concepts that enhance brand content.

Social Media:

1. Support the brand in creating a clear, fresh, and cohesive creative voice across social media platforms.
2. Must be familiar with and be able to create interactive design elements such as .gifs, landing pages, and motion graphics.
3. Ideating and delivering unique ideas and design concepts that enhance brand content.
4. Work within brand guidelines to create layouts reinforcing Jik’izinto’s style and voice through our visual touch points.
5. Use industry-standard software to create high-quality designs for the brand.
6. Be adaptable and able to design within as well as expand the brand guidelines and interpret conceptual briefs in a consistently fresh manner.
7. Designs will be grouped by topic areas and cater to various regions and cultural contexts in South Africa.
8. Illustrate concepts by designing rough layouts of art and copy regarding arrangement, size, type, style, and related aesthetic concepts.
9. Use rough sketches/layouts for discussion and coordination with the Content Team.
10. Be adaptable and able to design within as well as expand the brand guidelines and interpret conceptual briefs in a consistently fresh manner.

Reporting

The consultant will report to the South Africa Create Lead and the Social Media Manager and Moderator.

Expected Commitment

• The assignment is expected to take approximately 6 months to complete.
• The consultant will be expected to spend up to 25 hours weekly on the work and liaison with the Create team and other stakeholders.
• The consultant’s assignment period is from April 2024 to October 2024.

Tentative Timelines:

● Terms of reference published: 12th March 2024

● Deadline for responses: 25th March

● Project commencement: April 2024

Who You Are:

Skills and expertise:

• Fluency in written and spoken English, understands Afrikaans, and has an affinity for local South African slang across the official languages of South Africa, as well as strong communication skills to work collaboratively with a global team
• A deep understanding of Graphic Design principles, Visual Communications skills and video editing.
• 5+ years of professional visual design experience
• Strong sense of photographic and illustrated design ( mixed mediums), creative storytelling, art direction, user experience, motion, and marketing and possess ideation skills that stretch across various communication media.
• You have experience in creating assets for youth brands, especially girls. Strong proven experience conducting similar work for the Development Sector.
• Ability to thrive as a collaborator/co-creator/contributor – strong ability to shape ideas as well as build on the ideas of others
• Good sense of typography and layout aesthetics within the brand guidelines and parameters of resolutions on digital platforms
• Excellent working knowledge of design and editing tools such as but not limited to Photoshop, Lightroom, InDesign, Illustrator, Premiere Pro/Final Cut, Figma, etc
• Advanced Graphic design, illustrations, basic knowledge of UI/UX
• Good understanding of Adobe Creative Suite.
• Experience working on behavior change communication projects is desirable
• Motion graphic knowledge is an added advantage.
• Experience creating digital content across various formats such as static, GIF, motion and illustrative formats.

Attitudes we are looking for:

• Comfortable with complex organisational structures and multiple stakeholders
• Comfortable with shared decision-making
• Ability to be flexible within a fast-paced, changing environment.
• Passionate about making a positive difference in the life of young women and girls.
• A ‘do-er thinker’, action-oriented and proactive
• Highly empathetic and context-sensitive – able to balance conflicting needs and priorities decisively
• Mission-driven and cares about making a difference in the lives of young people and vulnerable sections of society

Proposal Submission

Your proposal, should you be interested, should cover

• Your understanding of the brief and why you feel you are well-placed to advise us on this
• Portfolio
  • As part of your application, please include a link or PDF of your portfolio of recent work, highlighting your abilities and experience relevant to the role, with specific examples of how you work, think, collaborate, and contribute to great design outcomes.
  • Please note that we are unable to accept any applications without a portfolio.
• Credentials/CV
• Highlight work (if) done in other geographies.
• Reference- Provide at least three references for similar contracts with a description of the service provided and the contract periods of performance.
• Breakdown of Costs with applicable taxes and other charges clearly identified in RAND. Consultants should provide their daily or hourly billing rate or their proposed fixed fee for the requested deliverables.
  • All applicable taxes should be quoted separately;

In the proposal, the bidder must demonstrate an understanding of the requirements described in the RFP and demonstrate how the bidder will meet the requirements of the evaluation criteria.

GE is not liable for any cost incurred during the award/contract preparation, submission, or negotiation of the award/contract. All submitted documentation and/or materials shall become and remain the property of GE.

VALIDITY of the proposal shall be for 90 days from the date of bid closure.

Evaluation Criteria

The criteria against which proposals will be evaluated are listed below.

Technical Evaluation

• Interpretation and understanding of this TOR – 10%
• Portfolio – 25%
• Showcases relevant experience in having done previous similar work with relevant agencies or organizations – 15 %
• Demonstrates an understanding and knowledge of the geography that Jik’izinto operates in 10%
• Experience and Qualification: Share your CV/Credential- 15 %

Financial Evaluation

• Value for money/proposed budget breakdown – 25%

Tax

Applicants are advised to ensure that they clearly understand their tax position regarding local jurisdiction tax legislation provisions.

Disclaimer

GE reserves the right to determine the structure of the process, the number of short-listed participants, the right to withdraw from the proposal process, the right to change this timetable at any time without notice and reserves the right to withdraw this tender at any time, without prior notice and without liability to compensate and/or reimburse any party. GE shall inform ONLY successful applicant(s). The process of negotiation and signing of the contract with the successful applicant(s) will follow.

Safeguarding

You may be required to undertake safeguarding checks. Shortlisted consultants will be assessed on our organizational values at the interview stage. The successful consultant will be expected to adhere to our safeguarding policy. We encourage you to read and understand our safeguarding policy, the executive summary of which can be found Here. We have zero-tolerance for all forms of violence against children, beneficiaries and staff.

Equal Opportunities

Girl Effect Services is committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity workplace.

We are committed to building an organisation that is increasingly representative of and works extensively with the communities that we serve. To this end, due regard will be paid to procuring consultancy service organisations and individuals with diverse professional, academic and cultural backgrounds.