Graphic Designer

Position Description

Working at Harris County Precinct 4:

You will be surrounded by team members who bring "heart, hustle, and higher standards" to work each day. These leaders advance opportunity and justice as they deliver services to and advocate for the residents of Harris County. The team you will be joining is innovative, dynamic, and forward-looking.

What you will do for Harris County Precinct 4 (HCP4)

As part of the Precinct Four Communications Team, you'll be on the frontlines of the important policy issues facing our community and nation. You'll work alongside a large and innovative team focused on serving our constituents and advancing key policy issues through effective and persuasive content, and strategic and savvy media strategies. We work every day to build consensus for policies that advance racial, social, and economic equity.

The Graphic Designer will create engaging and on-brand graphics for a variety of media to promote Harris County Precinct 4 programs, events, and services.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

The duties listed below are only examples of the various assignments that may be performed. Other duties may be required as needed.

• Manage a team of designers and creatives, providing guidance, feedback, and support to foster their professional growth and ensure high-quality design output.

• Branding:

• Oversee the creation of brand assets, including logos, color palettes, typography, and visual elements, ensuring they reflect Precinct 4's brand values.

• Develop brand guidelines and design standards to maintain visual consistency and brand integrity across various platforms and media.

• Collaborate with all Precinct 4 divisions to ensure a consistent and cohesive brand identity across all touchpoints.

• Oversee the visual aspects of onsite signage projects while working collaboratively with the editorial team, parks, and community centers to develop compelling content that aligns with graphic design

• Facilitate external agencies or freelancers when needed, to complement in-house capabilities and expand creative resources for branded materials.

Creative Direction:

• Communicate regularly with project team members, providing updates on project status, milestones, and any changes to the plan.

• Provide creative direction and input in the design of marketing materials, advertising campaigns, and other brand-related initiatives.

• Foster a creative and collaborative work environment that encourages innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement in design efforts.

• Review the application of branded templates or graphics created in other divisions, ensuring they adhere to Precinct 4's visual standards and maintain brand consistency across all materials and platforms.

Collaborative Elements:

• Closely coordinate with the web and social media manager to ensure cohesive branding and design implementation across our digital platforms, including websites, social media channels, and digital marketing campaigns.

• Coordinate with the web and social media manager for photo and video projects, ensuring cohesive branding and motion graphic design implementation

• Work with the editorial team on the visual side of publications with internal and external distributions.

• Manage the flat plan of all printed publication issues and review the visual direction of external digital newsletters.

• Oversee the creation of graphics tools for Commissioner's Court and press conferences, including branded materials for use at the event, day-of event informational pieces, and news release templates.

• Work with Precinct 4's editorial team to develop engaging and tailor-made content that complements graphic design projects of various scales, ensuring a seamless fusion of creativity and key messaging across all materials.

• Elevate concepts and requests, including those that go beyond graphics, to the rest of the Communications Division via the Communications Director to assist with Precinct 4's editorial storytelling.

Organizational Responsibilities:

• Consistently meet promotional deadlines and visual objectives.

• Manage projects from ideation to completion, including project plans and timelines, scopes of work, and printing budgets.

• Use project management software to track progress, manage tasks, and collaborate efficiently with the team.

• Provide mentoring, direction to artwork, and creative feedback to designers.

• Identify opportunities for process improvement and implement best practices to enhance the design project management workflow.

Harris County is an Equal Opportunity Employer

https://hrrm.harriscountytx.gov/Pages/EqualEmploymentOpportunityPlan.aspx

If you need special services or accommodations, please call (713) 274-5445 or email ADACoordinator@bmd.hctx.net

Requirements

Education:

• Associate degree from an accredited college or university

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Must possess strong organization and written communication skills.

• To perform this job successfully, an individual must possess strong organizational and leadership abilities and verbal and written communication skills. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, experience, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret communications across various topics and themes.

• Effectively present information and respond to questions from the community and Precinct 4 leadership.

• Identify and resolve problems in a timely manner. Gather and analyze information skillfully; develop alternative solutions; work well in group problem-solving situations.

• Actively listen and gain clarification; respond well to questions; demonstrate group presentation skills.

• Exhibit objectivity and openness to the views of others; offer and accept feedback; inspire and motivate others to perform well; give appropriate recognition to others; support others' efforts to succeed.

• Strong knowledge of design principles and how they apply to various materials.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

• Ability to prioritize multiple projects and tasks, work under deadlines, and adapt to changing communications needs.

• Strong organizational skills. Detail-oriented and well-organized with persistent follow-up

• Skills in photography and videography, especially in how it relates to creating a visual brand.

• Working knowledge of organizational and design tools (social media management, Trello, Facebook Business Suite, Adobe Creative Suite, Constant Contact, WordPress, Canva.)

• Ability to measure and report on campaign performance.

• Exceptional interpersonal skills with the ability to build strong relationships.

NOTE: Qualifying education, experience, knowledge, and skills must be documented on your job application. You may attach a resume to the application as supporting documentation but ONLY information stated on the application will be used for consideration. "See Resume" will not be accepted for qualifications.

Preferences

Education:

• Associate degree in Graphic Design, Fine Arts, Communications, or Marketing from an accredited college or university. (preferred)

Experience:

• Minimum three (3) years of graphic design professional experience

• Experience in reformatting materials to different channels, both digital and print. (preferred)

• Experience with packaging printed materials for various vendors. (preferred)

General Information

Position Type, Salary and Typical Hours of Work:

• Regular | Full-time

Work Environment and Physical Demands:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand, walk and reach with hands and arms. The employee must regularly lift and /or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

• The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

What You Will Get in Return:

Harris County employees receive a competitive salary plus medical, dental, and vision insurance at no cost to the employee after the first two months of full-time continued employment. Vacation, sick-time, and floating holidays allow our employees to recharge and balance work and personal time. Mandatory participation in our retirement program allows employees to save for retirement. Various other benefits and discounts lead to the satisfaction and engagement of our employees.

HARRIS COUNTY IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER https://hrrm.harriscountytx.gov/Pages/EqualEmploymentOpportunityPlan.aspx

If you need special services or accommodations, please call (713) 274-5445 or email ADACoordinator@bmd.hctx.net.

Employment is contingent upon passing a background check and drug screen.

Due to a high volume of applications positions may close prior to the advertised closing date or at the discretion of the Hiring Department.

BENEFITS

Harris County offers a competitive benefits program, including comprehensive group health and related benefits plan as well as defined benefit retirement plan.

The following list of benefits is offered only to employees in regular (full-time) positions:

• Medical Coverage

• Dental Coverage

• Vision Coverage

• Wellness Plan

• Life Insurance

• Long-term disability

• Employee Assistance Program

• Ten (10) days of vacation each year for the first five (5) years of service

• Accrual rates increase based on years of service

• Eleven (11) County-observed holidays and one (1) floating holiday

• Professional development opportunities

• Dependent Care Reimbursement Plan

• Healthcare Reimbursement Account

• 457 Deferred Compensation Plan

The following benefits are also available to regular (full-time) employment and may be available to part-time employees:

• Retirement Pension (TCDRS)
• Flexible schedule (varies by department)
• Transportation Assistance (Metro RideSponsor Program)

In accordance with the Harris County Personnel Regulations, Group Health and related benefits are subject to amendment or discontinuance at any time. Commissioners Court reserves the right to make benefit modifications on the County's behalf as needed.

For plan details, visit the Harris County benefits website:

https://benefitsathctx.com/

01

Which of the following best describes your highest level of education completed as it relates to this position?

• High School or GED diploma

• Associate Degree

• Bachelor's Degree

• Master's Degree or higher

• None of the above

02

If you selected a college degree in response to the previous question, which of the following best describes your major? (Copy of official certificate, diploma and/or transcript must be attached to the application)

• Communications

• Graphic Design

• Fine Arts

• Marketing

• Other Related Field

• Unrelated Field

• N/A; No Degree

03

Which of the following best describes your verifiable graphic design professional experience? (Note: To be eligible for consideration, relevant experience should be clearly outlined in the employment history section of your application.)

• Less than three (3) years

• Three (3) years or more but less than four (4) years

• Four (4) years or more but less than five (5) years

• Five (5) years or more

• I do not have this experience

04

Which of the following describes your level of proficiency using a personal computer and common office software such as MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook). Please select your level of proficiency based on the following descriptions: Advanced: A person with this level of skills is able to produce very large, complex formal documents that require a table of contents, footnotes, endnotes, bookmarks, and other special elements; a wide range of graphic effects, and use advanced techniques for analyzing and manipulating data. Has full mastery of Macro commands and skills to tie the objects together into a cohesive system by using Macros and Visual Basic for Applications code. Makes interactive presentations by using hyperlinks and action buttons. Intermediate: A person with this level of skills is able to customize toolbars, import and insert graphs, embed Excel data, and elaborate reports. Understands the concepts of databases and is able to work with charts and to use the list management capabilities of Excel. Able to use complex query techniques, create efficient forms and reports, and create Macros to automate these forms. Makes interactive presentations by using hyperlinks and action buttons. Basic: A person with this level of skills is able to use basic formatting, editing, printing functions, and understands the document page setup. Has the ability to enter and correct data, modify a workbook, format a worksheet, and use printing functions. Understands the different database concepts and structures and is familiar with data validation and is able to create a simple presentation in PowerPoint, run it, and print it. Entry Level: A person with this level of skills has the ability to open, create, save and modify documents in Word, send and receive email in Outlook and create spreadsheets in Excel. Format documents for printing, comfortable using the printer menu to preview documents. Has ability to change the font, the margins, insert or delete pages and use the built-in spellchecker and grammar check.

• Advanced

• Intermediate

• Basic

• Entry Level

• Not proficient

05

Which of the following do you have working knowledge of and/or experience with? [Select all that apply.]

• Experience with packaging printed materials for various vendors.

• Strong knowledge of design principles and how they apply to various materials.

• Experience in reformatting materials to different channels, both digital and print.

• Skills in photography and videography, especially in how it relates to creating a visual brand.

• Working knowledge of organizational and design tools (social media management, Trello, Facebook Business Suite, Adobe Creative Suite, Constant Contact, WordPress, Canva.)

• None of the above

Required Question

Agency Harris County

Address 1111 Fannin St

Ste. 600

Houston, Texas, 77002

Phone 713-274-5445

Website https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/harriscountytx