Freelance Social Designer (Static and Motion)

Critical Playground LLC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 74,000; Full time

Job summary

OLS seeks a conceptually strong Social Designer to craft social ads for global brands, with a talent for collage, texture, color, and typography. You will work on static and motion content, ensuring work feels native to how audiences scroll, save, and share.

We value a current visual culture sense, autonomy in project ownership, and experience with GenAI tools (e.g., Figma Weave) to deliver on-brand, distinctive content across multiple brands.

Qualifications

• A portfolio with strong visual culture and Gen Z sensibilities.
• Strong composition skills and confident handling of both static and motion work.
• Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and After Effects.

Responsibilities

• Design social ads from brief to completion (static, motion, video).
• Retouch and composite brand visuals for shareable content.
• Create on-brand collages using diverse images and textures.

Skills

GenAI tools

Adobe Photoshop

After Effects

Visual storytelling

Tools

Figma Weave

GenAI workflows

Job description

About Us

OLS is a creative studio for brands that refuse to blend in. Since 2007 we have worked as an embedded creative partner to in-house teams at brands including Pinterest, Workday, Calm and WHOOP, delivering campaigns, social content, digital advertising and creative rollout. We are employee owned, so everyone here holds a stake in the work and a say in how the studio runs. Our people bring the judgement and the craft. We invest in the tools and the training that take the grind out of production, so the work stays distinctive and the pace stays high.

The Role

We're looking for a conceptually strong Social Designer with razor‑sharp taste and a genuine feel for trends, making social ads for a roster of global brands. You'll know what resonates with a culturally switched‑on audience, especially Gen Z, and make work that feels native to how people actually scroll, save and share.

A big part of this is collage. Static and interactive, editorial and organic, nothing that reads as stock or overly polished. If you have a strong, current sense of visual culture and you love that kind of work, we'd like to see it.

The Work

• Design social ads from brief to completion - statics, motion and video, and layered editorial‑style collage
• Retouch and composite packshots and product visuals, turning a small set of brand assets into content people actually want to share
• Build collages that rely as much on your eye as your craft: sourcing images and elements that genuinely suit each brand, combining texture, colour and type with real style. On brand, but never brand‑heavy
• Generate on‑brand lifestyle assets using GenAI tools (e.g. Figma Weave), with real care for brand IP accuracy
• Take ownership of projects independently, working closely with our Creative Leads across multiple brands

You Have

• A portfolio with real cultural fluency - work made for a Gen Z audience, not adapted for them. Collage, editorial or moodboard‑style work is a strong advantage
• Both static and motion/video work in your portfolio, with strong composition and confident product handling
• Confident Adobe Suite skills (Photoshop and After Effects essential)
• An eye for what's visually relevant right now, and the instinct to know when something is on‑trend versus dated
• The ability to work autonomously to a high standard and hit the ground running with minimal onboarding. GenAI experience (Figma Weave or similar) is a plus

How we work

We move fast and hold ourselves to high standards, and we back that with clear briefs and honest feedback.

The day rate for this brief is £350. For someone exceptional, there may be some flexibility.

This is a rolling freelance brief rather than a single booking. We're building a group of designers we can come back to regularly, so if the work suits you, we'd like to work with you again.