Art Director & Graphic Designer

Chip Theory Games; Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory (MN); On-site; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance reimbursements

Nice employee healthcare plan

Weekly work-from-home day

Paid holidays

Negotiable personal time off

401k program

Crowdfunding bonuses

Job summary

Chip Theory Games is seeking an art lead to drive creative, managerial, and administrative processes that produce original art for our board and card games. You will also craft graphics for boxes, cards, dice, and components while guiding staff and freelancers.

The role emphasizes strong illustration credentials, leadership, and collaboration within a fast-paced team to maintain the brand's high design standards.

Qualifications

• Must demonstrate top-notch illustration for board and card games.
• Clear communication of art direction via sketches and notes.
• Experience hiring and directing artists.
• Proficient with Adobe Creative Suite and design standards.

Responsibilities

• Manage art pipeline: requirements, briefs, assignments, contracts, budgets, artist coordination, and revisions.
• Define processes for receiving and storing sketches and final art (2D/3D).
• Maintain a standard of art excellence across the Chip Theory Games brand.
• Create and iterate designs for boxes, cards, rulebooks, chips, dice, and components.
• Lead staff artists, engage freelance artists, and handle contracts.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Skills

Illustration quality

Art direction

Direction of art

Hiring artists

Adobe Creative Suite

Task management

Team collaboration

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

The person in this role will drive the creative, managerial, and administrative processes that produce original art at Chip Theory Games. They will also produce graphic designs in a fast-paced team environment.

Key Skills

The person in this job must have these skills or characteristics:

• A veteran understanding of what constitutes top-notch illustration in the board and card game marketplace.
• The ability to communicate about art with clarity in sketches, paint-overs, written direction, and personal conversations.
• Experience hiring and directing artists.
• Demonstrated graphic design experience using the Adobe Creative Suite.
• A bulletproof personal system for managing tasks and responsibilities.
• The ability to work productively and respectfully with passionate co-workers.

Job Responsibilities

These are the core job responsibilities associated with this position:

• Manage our art pipeline by gathering requirements, crafting briefs, making assignments, negotiating contracts, managing budgets, corresponding with artists, collecting and collating feedback across departments, directing revisions, verifying adherence to specs, revising and touching up turnovers, and delivering layout-ready assets to the graphic design and marketing teams.
• Define and administer flexible and functional processes for receiving, organizing, managing, and storing sketches and final art, including both 2D and 3D assets.
• Collaborate to define a standard of excellence for art, and maintain it across the Chip Theory Games brand in daily practice.
• Create and iterate graphic designs for boxes, playing cards, reference sheets, poker-style chips, dice, rulebooks, and other components for tabletop games.
• Lead, manage, and hold accountable staff artists; identify and engage the services of freelance artists, including contract administration.
• Other tasks as assigned.

Core Values

At Chip Theory Games, we hire and fire around five core values:

• Joy in the Journey: We love the work of making games, from design and development, to telling our stories, to serving our fans. We trust that leaning into the process will lead us to great results. We’re always excited to be challenged.
• Stay Nimble!: Our ever-shifting business requires us to be open-minded and focused on the horizon. We value the ability to pivot when an opportunity or idea warrants attention. We’re always excited to take a swing, and we embrace the challenge of the question, “What would it take?”
• Fascination First: We’re aiming for a fan’s first response to a Chip Theory game or experience to be, “Wow!” And then, as they sink in further, for them to slowly realize, “This team thought of everything.” Other factors matter, but we always prioritize fascination above cost, ease, and speed.
• Respect the Fans: We respect our fans’ passion, discernment, and thoughtfulness. We communicate transparently and honestly. We never take our customers’ loyalty for granted and we support our games—and especially our community—even after the game’s been sold.
• High Standards Without Ego: We strive to set aside our egos and hold one another to high standards regardless of position or past achievements. We value open minds, clear communication, follow through, problem solving rather than deflecting, and knowing great ideas can come from anywhere.

Location, Salary, & Benefits

• This is a full-time position, on-site at the Chip Theory Games office in Plymouth, Minnesota, a western suburb of Minneapolis.
• Our budget for this position calls for a full-time salary in the range of $60,000 to $80,000.
• Benefits include health insurance reimbursements, the Nice employee healthcare plan, a weekly work-from-home day, paid holidays, negotiable personal time off, a 401k program, and crowdfunding bonuses.
• Minnesota is a fantastic place to live and work with four bona fide seasons every year, an excellent state government, and strong schools. U.S. News and World Report lists Minnesota as #3 in its Best States Rankings.