Art Director

Horizontal Talent; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 40,000 - 83,000; Part time

Job summary

Horizontal Talent seeks a creative Art Director for a 2-month contract to shape visual communications across digital, print, environmental, and experiential formats. You’ll develop concepts, produce polished visuals, and tell compelling brand stories while aligning with guidelines.

Strong portfolio and Adobe CC mastery are required. Responsibilities include delivering across employee comms, campaigns, events, and data visuals, collaborating with teams, and ensuring print/digital production

Qualifications

• Strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking and high-quality design execution.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, especially InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
• Experience working with complex brand identity systems.
• Excellent typography, layout, hierarchy, and composition skills.
• Ability to choose imagery, color, and visual treatments that support clear and compelling storytelling.
• Solid production knowledge and the ability to deliver press-ready and digital-ready files.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop thoughtful creative concepts and translate them into polished, production-ready design solutions.
• Create visual assets for employee communications, consumer digital campaigns, environmental graphics, branded spaces, meetings, events, data visualizations, infographics, and sponsorship activations.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to turn business goals into engaging visual stories that connect with target audiences.
• Work within established brand guidelines while identifying opportunities to strengthen and evolve the brand expression.
• Prepare accurate files for both print and digital production, with strong attention to detail throughout the process.
• Contribute to integrated campaign work across multiple channels and formats.

Skills

Portfolio

Adobe CC proficiency

Brand identity systems

Typography/layout

Imagery/storytelling

Production knowledge

Collaboration/communication

Tools

InDesign

Illustrator

Photoshop

Job description

We're looking for a creative Art Director to help shape and elevate visual communications across a wide range of touchpoints. This is a 2-month contract opportunity supporting concept development, polished design execution, and brand storytelling for projects that span digital, print, environmental, and experiential formats.

Responsibilities

• Develop thoughtful creative concepts and translate them into polished, production-ready design solutions
• Create visual assets for employee communications, consumer digital campaigns, environmental graphics, branded spaces, meetings, events, data visualizations, infographics, and sponsorship activations
• Partner with cross-functional teams to turn business goals into engaging visual stories that connect with target audiences
• Work within established brand guidelines while identifying opportunities to strengthen and evolve the brand expression
• Prepare accurate files for both print and digital production, with strong attention to detail throughout the process
• Contribute to integrated campaign work across multiple channels and formats

Skills

• Strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking and high-quality design execution
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud, especially InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop
• Experience working with complex brand identity systems
• Excellent typography, layout, hierarchy, and composition skills
• Ability to choose imagery, color, and visual treatments that support clear and compelling storytelling
• Solid production knowledge and the ability to deliver press-ready and digital-ready files
• Strong collaboration and communication skills

Preferred Skills

• Experience designing across employee communications, digital marketing, events, environmental graphics, and branded experiences
• Ability to move seamlessly between big-picture creative thinking and detailed production work
• Experience creating infographics and data-driven visuals
• A proactive mindset and a passion for creating work that is both strategic and visually engaging

Horizontal is committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds can thrive. We value unique perspectives and encourage candidates from all communities to apply.

Benefits

• benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement.

The pay range for this role is $29 - $60 per hour based on qualifications and experience.