The roleYou'll be our first brand designer, and for a while, our only one.
Tolan's brand has personality. It's playful, warm, a bit offbeat, and people respond to it. So far it's come from external partners working alongside the team, without anyone fully devoted to it day to day. Your job is to be that person: responsible for creating great work, and building scalable systems around that work.
You'll also raise the level of craft across everything we put out, and figure out what a more elevated version of Tolan looks like over time, while still remaining true to our roots. This person should have a considered view on what happens to that world as the brand matures: what gets refined, what gets kept as-is, what gets used more sparingly, and what a system built around it should look like at a higher level of craft.
This role reports to our Head of Brand, Court Klein and will also work closely with our founders.
What You'll Do- Own and evolve the brand identity and standards, including visual language, typography, color, illustration and motion, ensuring it scales gracefully across every touchpoint
- Create guidelines that let non-designers on the team produce decent work on their own
- Develop campaign concepts, from the initial idea through to the finished assets
- Craft flagship reports, whitepapers, and long-form editorial where hierarchy and typography carry the weight
- Oversee marketing site design across new pages, campaigns, and refreshes
- Finding and directing outside specialists (illustration, motion, photo, print) when a project calls for it
- Build scalable design systems and templates that can be executed quickly without sacrificing brand quality
Who We're Looking For- Strong portfolio that demonstrates depth, taste, and impact. What you've built has driven products, teams, and entire companies forward.
- Range. Fast-turn social assets and a launch campaign should both be within reach, at the same level of care.
- AI-Forward. You'll have an unlimited token budget to leverage the latest tools, but your work still needs to be distinctly human.
- Autonomy and ability to navigate ambiguity. You can take a vague ask and quickly ship high quality work without checking in ad nauseam.
- Comfort with editorial and long-form layout. A meaningful share of our work lives there.
- Expert in brand systems. You can build frameworks that empower diverse teams to produce consistent work at scale.
- Roughly 4 - 6 years of brand design experience, with a balanced track record of tactical and strategic work.
- Possible shapes:
- You've worked as the main brand designer at a smaller company, or the second or third designer on a larger team with a high craft bar.
- Agency experience is a plus, and we're also open to hiring direct from agency.
- Bonus points for experience in VC-backed CPG and/or Consumer Tech.
- We care more about what you've made than where you made it.
Compensation: $150,000 - 180,000 base salary + equity + benefits
