Designer

Crane & Co., Inc., a premium manufacturer of fine stationery and currency papers, is currently seeking a Designer to support the Crane Creative team.

Supporting the office in Manhattan, the incumbent will manage and create all physical, interactive and graphic art for its retail channels and online business.

Accountable to the Vice President of Creative and Product Development, this Designer will be responsible for conceptualizing collections to support the boxed and album business. In addition, Designer will design and create email campaigns, online banner campaigns and supporting the eCommerce site. The incumbent must possess solid typography, graphic and interaction design skills. Expertise with PhotoShop, Illustrator, HTML and CSS required. Some experience in Flash is important. Understanding of HTML and CSS, as well as standards of web and email marketing is a plus.

This Designer will be expected to show initiative and have the ability to work effectively both independently and collaboratively in a team. He/she must be an exceptionally gifted graphic designer who thrives in a fast-paced retail environment and keeps current with design as it relates to a variety of evolving platforms.

Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will be responsible for brainstorming creative concepts with the Vice President of CPD, developing original design concepts, executing designs based on established style guides, participating in visual design presentations, developing detailed design specs for production, and overseeing freelance designers.

This Designer will work directly with the Vice President and the rest of the eCommerce team, including inventory management and product launch personnel. He or she will also liaise with graphic services, sales, marketing, brand, design and PR members of the division.

Technical Requirements

The Designer will design or create graphics to meet specific commercial or promotional needs, such as presentations, web images, and email campaigns, videos, flash banners and online marketing campaigns. The incumbent will support the digital business and work with the Creative team for all things visual and graphic. He/she may use a variety of mediums to achieve artistic or decorative effects including, but not limited to:

  • Graphic Design and Production (Adobe Creative Suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
  • Digital Media (Flash, JavaScript a plus)
  • PowerPoint or Keynote for Presentation Animation
  • E-mail Campaigns (HTML/CSS, Silverpop a plus)
  • Promotional Signage (Illustrator or InDesign)
  • Photography and Video editing a plus (Photoshop, Premiere, AfterFX, Camtasia Studio, Soundbooth, Flash)
  • Ability to create, modify and optimize HTML and CSS at code level a plus

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in design/interactive media or related field or equivalent experience
  • 5 years of visual design experience
  • Fluent in industry standard design tools listed above
  • Awareness of Classic aesthetic
  • Hands-on expertise in production for online media, including best practices and media-specific limitations
  • Proven success in driving and directing the creative process, strong conceptual thinking
  • Understanding of designing intuitive site functionality, interaction, site architecture, user interfaces and navigation a plus
  • Able to brainstorm and mock up design ideas in a fast-paced environment
  • Experience designing for social media platforms
  • Experience designing for, or working with, various tablet applications (iPad, etc.)
  • An excellent communicator, comfortable leading initiatives and managing across functional areas. Strong verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills
  • Proven “hands-on” problem solver. Flexible, able to manage time effectively and juggle overlapping priorities
  • Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and manage multiple projects; able to concurrently handle projects with cross-functional teams
  • Awareness of social correspondence and personal communication landscape and capabilities a plus.
  • An understanding of Social, Business and Custom personalized stationery a plus
  • Ability to travel overnight up to 30% of the time, primarily from NY office to Crane’s offices in North Adams, MA.

Please visit our website at www.crane.com to view our products, learn about our history, and see a video on our processes.

A competitive benefit package will be offered and salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Qualified candidates may e-mail resume, cover letter and writing and/or multimedia samples to careers@crane.com or mail to: