Visual Communications Designer At John Snow

Purpose of the role

The HCDExchange Visual Communications Designer (VCD) joins the team to support the shaping and creation of information architecture to express the HCDExchange’s learning work into visually compelling, digestible, and accessible learning products. They will work closely with the Learning, Community, and Communications teams; to build learning products that meet the needs and desires of the different persona groups in the HCDExchange Community of Practice. The VCD will help achieve the objective of curating and generating evidence on HCD+ASRH by creating “global public goods” that are easily accessible, understandable, and can be utilized by the community to enhance learning.

The Consultant will also support the development and design of graphic templates for social media, learning products, presentations, and any other public-facing documents as well as wireframes for a refreshed website. In addition, the Consultant will ensure that there is consistency in our style (graphic design approach) and adhere to the HCDExchange style guide for uniformity across all of our products and channels.

Key activities and deliverables

• Work proactively to identify the best ways to parse and package already determined learning products and future learning content for community use
• Develop a work plan outlining key tasks over the consultancy period with guidance from the Learning, Community, and Communications Leads. This work plan will outline the format and delivery process of learning products. Formats could be reports, infographics, web pages (wireframes that will be executed by a Web Developer), etc.
• Create bespoke graphics and images required for each of the learning products
• Delivery of a bank of customized, brand guided graphics and images that will be used in current and future learning products
• Develop templates for communications needs (website, social media, learning products, reports, etc.) for easy replication across external and internal communications products
• Delivery of a bank of templates for:
• Social media (events, announcements, profile features, holidays, etc.)
• Website (blogs, static web pages, dynamic pages, etc.)
• Learning products (icons, graphs, text boxes, tables, graphics, photographs, etc.)
• Work alongside the Communications Specialist and WordPress Developer to design UI/UX wireframes for the redesigned HCDExchange website.
• Delivery of proposed wireframes and design mockups, as needed, for review and approval by the HCDExchange team.
• Create the templates, systems, and infrastructure for a uniformed look throughout documents produced in the organization.
• Delivery of templates for each type of organizational document. Each template will have two or three ways to present one type of information.
• Delivery of guides on how to use the templates.
• Contribute to an updated brand style guide.
• Delivery of document that outlines new brand style elements that the Designer has created or changes that may have been made to already existing elements. These will be added to the already existing style guide.

Key relationships

The Visual Communications Designer will work under the direction and supervision of the Senior Community Manager (based in Kenya who will be the consultant’s focal point-person, overseeing the consultant’s work over the period of engagement. This role will require the person to maintain clear and open communication with all team members throughout the process of design and development of these products listed above in the key activities and deliverables sections, with frequent checkpoints throughout for capturing and executing on feedback. The designer will work closely with the learning lead (based in Kenya), Monitoring and Evaluation lead (based in Kenya), Communications Specialist (based in Ghana), and Youth Engagement Officer (based in India).

Desired qualifications

1. Five or more years experience in an in-house creative department or design firm.
2. Advanced experience with Adobe Suite.
3. Ability to create templates on Adobe Suite Sketch/Figma/Canva.
4. A critical and creative mind with specific attention to visual details.
5. Ability to take and executive on feedback throughout the creative and development process.
6. Ability to meet deadlines and manage time across multiple activities, and willingness to work with teammates from different time zones.
7. Previous work within the global health space is a plus.

Duration of the Assignment

The period of this consultancy assignment will be spread over October 2021 to January 2022. Upon selection, the exact number of consultancy days will be determined based on the work plan that will be developed in consultation with the community, communication, and learning leads.