Jewish Currents is seeking an Art Director to design the print product, as well as merch, event flyers, advertising and marketing assets, and other visual elements of our brand. Interested individuals should send a cover letter, portfolio, and a resume to hires@jewishcurrents.org.
Jewish Currents covers a wide variety of topics, including the uses and misuses of antisemitism, the inner workings of Jewish communal organizations, Israel/Palestine politics on the ground and internationally, race and racialization, strategies and horizons of American left movements, the global rise of the far right, diasporic cultural expression, labor, climate, incarceration, immigration, and feminism. The Art Director will ensure brand consistency, and a high-quality look and feel across all of our platforms, maintaining strong and brand-aligned elements of our house style, while continuing to innovate in designs for individual products and layouts. You do not have to be Jewish—or a current expert in Jewish culture and politics—to be right for this job, though you must demonstrate a familiarity with our work and our positioning in the media landscape.
Jewish Currents publishes three print issues per year as well as a winter gift that changes form annually. We also publish at one piece of content daily on the web. In addition to our written content, we also hold frequent events, broadcast a bi-monthly podcast, and we will soon debut a new line of merch. The Art Director would be responsible for meeting the design needs across all of these platforms, maintaining the standard of excellence set by our departing art director.
Who We Are
Founded in 1946, Jewish Currents is a magazine committed to the rich tradition of thought, activism, and culture on the Jewish left and the left more broadly. As an award-winning magazine of politics, culture, and ideas, we publish quarterly in print and daily online. We have received acclaim for our in-depth reporting, trenchant analysis, and rigorous cultural criticism, and for our attention to literary quality and style. Since relaunching in 2018 with an all-new staff and design, we have quickly established ourselves as an essential voice in the contemporary conversation, quadrupling in size and receiving coverage in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Buzzfeed, Vice, The Nation, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere.
Responsibilities
The Art Director will be responsible for the look and feel of the Jewish Currents magazine, digital assets, and products across multiple platforms.
The Art Director will:
Design and art direct the print magazine three times annually, which includes developing visual concepts for each piece and completing InDesign layouts. This process also includes managing print deadlines, spearheading the proofing process and communicating with the printer about any special printing needs; working with the editors to incorporate proofing changes; assigning illustration and photo commissions for print pieces; conceptualizing the look and feel of special themed issues or special sections within a regular issue; problem solving design and typographical challenges; and some typesetting.
Help execute the look and feel of diverse Winter Gifts.
Design web assets for digital-only pieces, and load articles to the website backend that require complex art direction.
Design social media assets for major articles, suited to various platforms.
Design event flyers, invitations, and other ephemera.
Design merch in collaboration with the staff.
Be the steward of the visual brand, maintaining core elements, while leaving room for experimentation and innovation.
Design advertising and marketing materials
Work with the editorial staff to align design with written content, and routinely prompt editorial staff to articulate how brand elements are being expressed in the written work
Requirements
5+ years of relevant professional experience in print design and brand design
Expert in the Adobe Suite (InCopy a plus)
Strong attention to detail and organizational skills
Compensation; time requirements; benefits
We are ideally looking for a designer at 75% time—30 hours/week at a rate of $52,000. We are also open to half-time or full-time arrangements—or even contract work—at comparable rates. We offer a great benefits package for salaried employees.
Jewish Currents is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. Jewish Currents is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Jewish Currents are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to age, race, color, creed/religion, disability, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, veteran or military service member status, familial status, marital status, domestic violence victim status, genetic information, arrest and/or criminal conviction record, or any other category protected by law. Jewish Currents will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. We highly encourage individuals from marginalized groups of any kind to apply.
This is a position covered under the collective bargaining agreement with the WGA-E.
