Senior Graphic Designer

Job Summary: 
Reporting to the Associate Director of Creative Services, the Senior Graphic Designer plays a key creative role in the continued growth of the Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as SEGA and ATLUS brands globally across various businesses including Consumer Products, Licensing, Games, Marketing, Film, Television, and Animated Content. This role works closely with the Licensing Consumer Products, Marketing and Animation teams to provide brand support that helps drive business growth. 

The Senior Graphic Designer position will oversee the development and execution of creative assets for the  Sonic the Hedgehog brand across all areas while supporting select SEGA, ATLUS and Angry Birds brands. The role will focus on consumers products with the goal of celebrating the Sonic IP while entertaining, engaging, and educating both new and existing audiences worldwide.  

The role will require demonstrated experience in consumer products design (softline and hardline), style guide creation, trend research and trend board design, packaging design for toys and video games, online marketing assets, including first party portals. 

This role will collaborate closely with teams located in Burbank, CA; Irvine, CA; England and Japan. The team culture is thoughtful, innovative, flexible, supportive, highly collaborative, and most importantly respectful.  

Who You Are: 

The ideal candidate is responsible for designing and developing compelling consumer products, licensing assets, video games and toys packaging, researching, and creating consumer products trend guides. This role also includes creating communication materials in digital and printed media.  

This position is highly hands-on and operates in a fast-paced environment, requiring the ability to deliver multiple creative concepts and solutions simultaneously. The Senior Graphic Designer will partner closely with other Designers, Licensing and Marketing team, external creative agencies as well as licensees and first party video game publishing portals. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Work closely with Creative Services Associate Director, Licensing team, Marketing and Brand managers in the development of creative assets.  

• Support the Consumer Products Development teams ensuring alignment of brand and design vision for the Sonic the Hedgehog brand and Transmedia IP.  

• Execute creative development for licensing consumer products trend and seasonal guides, product concept designs, marketing materials including printed material, emails, display banners, social media

• assets, seasonal and sales campaigns, event booth designs, website assets, presentation decks and other materials as needed. 

• Provide constructive feedback to in-house creative team members, external contract media experts, creative agencies, illustrators, graphic designers, licensees and print vendors. 

• Create and maintain brand guidelines and concept decks for Sonic the Hedgehog and Transmedia IPs across product lines, marketing, and social content. 

• Provide full creative support to large-scale events including booth design, large displays, promotional items, and print and digital advertising. 

• Develop creative assets for campaigns across multiple areas of the Sonic business. 

• Deliver creative assets to internal partner organizations and external partners as required. 

• Maintain full awareness of all aspects of the creative process, from concept to approval, working closely with the Creative Services Associate Director to ensure brand standards and deadline are met. 

• Participate in design activities such as brainstorming and research sessions to support ongoing creative needs and brand development. 

• Mentor designers by providing instructional technique demonstrations, encourage questions, providing recognition for strong work, and leading by example. 

• Contribute to the development and implementation of creative templates and workflows to improve productivity and efficiency across the creative team. 

• Champion and evolve the voice of the Sonic the Hedgehog brand for both core audiences and future  generations of fans. 

• Travel as necessary to meet project needs and attend industry related events. 

• Conduct competitive analysis on design elements. 

• Other responsibilities are performed as assigned or needed.  

Qualifications and Skills: 

• Working in-office is an essential function of this position. This requirement of face-to-face interaction is in place to ensure effective supervision, collaboration, and teamwork.  In-office attendance is required for the following reasons:  

• For effective supervision of employees and our work product, which includes ensuring all employees have necessary oversight of their work and access to supervisory assistance, which includes meetings to review work product, deadlines, and status.  

• To foster communication and collaboration among team members, which includes the following: allowing for spontaneous brainstorming sessions and exchanges of ideas, quick access to team members to enable collaborative problem-solving, and stronger cohesion among co-workers and within teams.  

• To enhance the sharing of information necessary to effective job performance and product creation.   

• To enhance understanding of our stakeholders’ work and business needs, facilitate a more seamless and organic workflow, and ultimately increase efficiency and successful outcomes.  

• Bachelor’s degree in Design or a related field required.   

• Typically has 5-8+ years of hands-on experience in brand, consumer products, licensing, packaging, and graphic design.  

• Experience working agency-side and/or client-side.   

• Strong conceptual design skills with demonstrated experience in licensing products, trend guide, package design and design strategy.  

• Experience designing across a range of product categories including apparel, bags, backpacks, bedding, bath accessories, food, beauty, and related consumer goods.  

• Exceptional design taste with a strong understanding of design trends, fast fashion, and contemporary visual aesthetics. 

• 360 brand design experience (i.e., print, color processing, packaging, digital) 

• Proficient in Adobe products or other relevant applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) 

• Expert-level skills in Photoshop and Illustrator with the ability to transform concept illustrations into photo-realistic product imagery. 

• Systems design thinker (packaging architecture and visual identity systems) 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills. 

• Highly collaborative and able to work well with cross-functional teams to deliver results while keeping others informed to avoid unnecessary surprises. 

• Strong interest in and understanding of consumer products, gaming, anime, entertainment, toys, marketing & advertising trends of today’s media landscape, as well as how audiences engage with advertising. 

• Demonstrated ability to multi-task and manage multiple projects simultaneously while meeting deadlines in a fast-paced environment.  

• Illustration and motion graphics highly preferred 

• Creativity, critical thinking, business acumen, communication skills, organizational skills, and advanced design strategy and technical skills are all required.  

Bonus: 

• Illustration and motion graphics highly preferred