Job Posting: Pinkbike is Hiring A Graphic Designer
We're looking for someone to help us with everything from media kits to T-shirts to booth design.
Pinkbike seeks an experienced full-time Graphic Designer for our office in Squamish, BC.
As Graphic Designer, you’ll work directly with the marketing team to help implement the overall marketing, brand and product strategy for Pinkbike.
As Graphic Designer, you’ll work directly with the marketing team to help implement the overall marketing, brand and product strategy for Pinkbike.
Position: Graphic Designer
Location: Squamish, BC
Travel: No
Type: Full time
Location: Squamish, BC
Travel: No
Type: Full time
You will be responsible for designing and helping direct the evolution of the brand including conceptualization, iteration, and implementation of design solutions across editorial, sales and company-wide initiatives. Other tasks to keep you on your toes include assisting with trade show booth design, merchandise design, and more.
You’ll bring a keen eye for detail, exceptional organizational, creativity and an unstoppable work ethic. You’ll also get your hands dirty and drink occasional post-ride beers (if you’re into that sorta thing).
Sound like you?
Role and Responsibilities
Our high energy, fast-paced work environment will see you doing a diverse set of tasks. If you’d started last week, your responsibilities would have included:
• Produce creative, innovative, and well thought out graphic concepts that push the envelope of conventional graphic design for Pinkbike and, on occasion, our in-house brands (Trailforks, CyclingTips).
• Illustrates concept by designing rough layout of art and copy regarding arrangement, size, type size and style, and related aesthetic concepts.
• Create brand-wide style guides, sales pitch decks, media kits, and print-ready files for production designs with detailed specifications that include size of graphic, special treatments, print techniques, color swatches, and art placement.
• Collaborate in marketing team meetings and communicate requirements for design elements to set brand direction and goals for the year.
• Participate with the merch team in creating seasonal mood boards and look books pertaining to popular colour, clothing, product, advertisements, and other marketing needs.
• Developing, designing and producing motion-graphic art that satisfies a creative brief, or other editorial and video team needs
• Develop & execute aspects of brand aesthetic management - from logos, graphics, products, and web design.
• Research new techniques that can elevate design within the company.
• Illustrates concept by designing rough layout of art and copy regarding arrangement, size, type size and style, and related aesthetic concepts.
• Create brand-wide style guides, sales pitch decks, media kits, and print-ready files for production designs with detailed specifications that include size of graphic, special treatments, print techniques, color swatches, and art placement.
• Collaborate in marketing team meetings and communicate requirements for design elements to set brand direction and goals for the year.
• Participate with the merch team in creating seasonal mood boards and look books pertaining to popular colour, clothing, product, advertisements, and other marketing needs.
• Developing, designing and producing motion-graphic art that satisfies a creative brief, or other editorial and video team needs
• Develop & execute aspects of brand aesthetic management - from logos, graphics, products, and web design.
• Research new techniques that can elevate design within the company.
Qualifications
• 3-5 years design experience with a detailed portfolio of finished projects.
• Preferred - Post-secondary education in a relevant field.
• High level of proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite in particular Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Premier, After Effects.
• Knowledge of HTML and CSS.
• Experience with front end or UX design.
• Detailed knowledge in graphic design, typography, placement graphics, and illustrative graphics.
• Excellent file management skills, interfacing with Google Drive, and Photoshop layer names.
• Experience using project management software such as Wrike.
• Experience using Slack, or other inter-company messaging programs for communication.
• Deliver projects within team’s timelines, while working on multiple projects.
• Experience in both print and online, with a preferred strong understanding of branding, marketing, communications and advertising.
• Excellent time management and prioritizing skills while being able to communicate with multiple departments.
• Organized and detailed oriented, a team player that is able to handle direct feedback.
• Prior knowledge, passion or interest in the cycling or outdoor lifestyle industry.
• Preferred - Post-secondary education in a relevant field.
• High level of proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite in particular Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Premier, After Effects.
• Knowledge of HTML and CSS.
• Experience with front end or UX design.
• Detailed knowledge in graphic design, typography, placement graphics, and illustrative graphics.
• Excellent file management skills, interfacing with Google Drive, and Photoshop layer names.
• Experience using project management software such as Wrike.
• Experience using Slack, or other inter-company messaging programs for communication.
• Deliver projects within team’s timelines, while working on multiple projects.
• Experience in both print and online, with a preferred strong understanding of branding, marketing, communications and advertising.
• Excellent time management and prioritizing skills while being able to communicate with multiple departments.
• Organized and detailed oriented, a team player that is able to handle direct feedback.
• Prior knowledge, passion or interest in the cycling or outdoor lifestyle industry.
About You
• Must be hardworking, organized, motivated, with incredibly high attention to detail. Your work will be seen globally!
• Flexibility - deadlines and priorities are changing frequently here at Pinkbike, so you must be flexible in working with the brand’s needs
• Be able to work in a fast-paced environment with different departments needing projects completed quickly.
• Follow, understand, and reinforce all brands’ guidelines
• Project-manage and prioritize own work and communicate delays or likely delivery times for creative work to the respected teams.
• You must present strong communication skills and capacity to work well with a team on projects and as an individual.
• Enjoy dynamic work - there is never a dull moment, and you get to work in a variety of channels. We want someone who is excited about the opportunity to share new and creative ideas in all facets of the job.
• You must have a strong work ethic, and enjoy taking initiative.
• Self-motivated and passionate about what you do.
• Flexibility - deadlines and priorities are changing frequently here at Pinkbike, so you must be flexible in working with the brand’s needs
• Be able to work in a fast-paced environment with different departments needing projects completed quickly.
• Follow, understand, and reinforce all brands’ guidelines
• Project-manage and prioritize own work and communicate delays or likely delivery times for creative work to the respected teams.
• You must present strong communication skills and capacity to work well with a team on projects and as an individual.
• Enjoy dynamic work - there is never a dull moment, and you get to work in a variety of channels. We want someone who is excited about the opportunity to share new and creative ideas in all facets of the job.
• You must have a strong work ethic, and enjoy taking initiative.
• Self-motivated and passionate about what you do.
Culture
The work is high energy, demanding, and fast paced. We believe in positive work-life balance and prioritise task completion over office hours. The people here are a focused and fun loving crew that are passionate about bikes. Our office is located in Squamish, within full view of the Chief and the many mountains that make it a mountain bike mecca. Some of our staff commute from Vancouver (it’s counter-flow), whole others have made their home here in Squamish—but all of us appreciate the easy-going vibe, and the tight-knit team culture.
Pinkbike is an equal opportunity employer and values the diverse backgrounds, experiences, knowledge, and talents of our employees. Employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications.
How to Apply
Please email jobs@pinkbike.com with the subject line "Graphic Designer". Include your resume, portfolio, and a short introduction to what you're all about.
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^that was my bid for the gig
My favorite is when job postings include UI/UX as if they're one in the same. This is your clue to run away or ask for a higher salary than they're proposing. They're asking you to build user/brand experiences without having to pay a consultant/agency for it.
It is a strange field we work in. I look at listings and shake my head. I think HR teams just shotgun a list of requirements into the air and hope candidates can fill half the duties. Personally, I hire based on talent. I can teach any monkey to use tools, but you either have talent or you don't.
A web graphic designer can't just make PSDs and ship them off to the front end team, or make a style guide with only the colors, fonts, and an arbitrary layout. If the engineering team is using Bootstrap, for instance, then the designer has to know the gutters, columns, and padding that boostrap uses, plus he/she has to intimately know how bootstrap breaks down when responding to different viewports, as well as know the difference between Boostrap 3.2, 4.0, 4.4, etc.
I think the Qualifications is very reasonable in the current state of the industry
The ability to sniipe code, align tiles across several device types, and apply other found assets, requires less right-brain creativty that once served as the foundation of any designers craft.
My point earlier was about the scope creep of what designers are being asked to do, not being line with the multiple salaries that would otherwise be required.
I'm a self employed graphic designer who does "well for himself" and after reading this all I can say is I meet 1/5 the requirements lol and I ask my self to do about 1/5 of the amount of shit you will be asked to do for this job.
whoever goes after this job, do not undersell yourself and ask for a big boy/girl salary or you are gonna f*cking stick needles in your eyes real quick.
- graphic designer
- film editor
- CSS UI specialist
- product designer
They need a swiss knife, but that kind of profile exists. A master degree communication specialist that will cost them a lot...
Listing it as graphic designer with 3-5 years experience means they can pay a recent grad at bargain rates.
Translates to:
As a "graphic designer" no one knows exactly what you do nor are they the least bit interested in learning about it. Therefore you will be expected to perform all the roles, on an expert level, of what we think a "designer" is (which is someone who sits around and draws all day long). Get used to explaining the same story in a myriad of ways.
Too many tasks with not enough hours allocated to completing them. Vague and nebulous direction from stakeholders coupled with unspoken, unrealistic expectations and a lack authority to determine appropriate priority. This will lead to you being simultaneously admonished for completing a job and not completing a job.
Assuming (inheriting) the sole responsibility for the potential failure of a project, based on the aforementioned vague and nebulous direction from stakeholders, yet only mildly sharing in its potential success (for executing someone else's "brilliant" idea).
Also, critical thinking/concepting time about a project will be minimized since you are "creative" (at a moment's notice) whilst your output will be perpetually criticized and the effort required to produce it trivialized.
Even with the most amateur level of experience I would get asked to 'make online fliers' for the shop I used to work at. Was given no direction/input/expectations and then yelled at when it took me longer than 20 minutes for 'slacking off on the computer' because the flier wasn't created and posted to our (wordpress) website, facebook, and instagram that literally no one checked or maintained. After a few of those I just said I fried my computer and didn't have access to the programs needed any more. There's no value placed on this sort of creative work. I legitimately feel bad for people in that profession.
You kinda lost me there.
acci dental haha get it
So is it a rigid job?
It means no participation to Field Tests and so on?... staying in a seat eating chinese noodles and drinking liters of coffee 5 days a week? Hum....
Wouldn`t you prefer to hire some european representatives* / open an european office so we can easily make Field Tests and much more with european brands/bikes/shows???
* no british allowed sorry. Tonight at midnight you`re off. A deal is a deal.
Being a Graphic Designer these days is very different from what it was 20 years ago. Graphic Designers are expected to know how to do everything from print to web design, photography, motion graphics/animation, illustration, copywriting, coding, social media etc.
It's a bit like being a dentist and having people come to see you to fix their cavity, broken arm and irritable bowel syndrome...on a weekend...and then decide that they only want to pay you $10 an hour because their teenage cousin has an old copy of Adobe CS5 and Papyrus and can design that logo for free anyway.
I'm not bitter.
You mean like those film study majors who come out of college with 250.000 debt and then find out there is no work? But yeah, just keep smiling... Personally I would definitly first check if there is an actual demand for the study I’m interested in. If there is not, pick something else (you can still do it as a hobby).
100k hahaha.
Show us a job ad for a creative thats offering that.
Oh wait it's Squamish ... never mind... I'm in!
#toobigtofail