Designer - Experiential

Cogent World; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Cogent, a culture-forward agency, seeks a Designer who lives sports, from NFL to college football, to shape merch, in-stadium branding, and bar experiences. You will work across surfaces, using AI daily to accelerate direction and final outputs.

You should bring 3-5+ years in design, a strong sports-focused portfolio, and fluency with AI-enabled creative processes, Adobe CC, and Figma. This on-site role in Los Angeles offers a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 3-5+ years of design experience at an agency, experiential shop, brand, league, team, or apparel/merch environment.
• Strong portfolio with real range: apparel/merch, physical environments, brand identity, and presentation design.
• Genuine sports fluency across college and pro leagues and sports.

Responsibilities

• Design merch and co-branded gear including headwear, tees, jerseys, and capsules.
• Create production-ready art: separations, embroidery specs, placement charts, colorways.
• Design for scale across LED/ribbon boards, signage, hospitality spaces, and retail displays.
• Work with vendors to ensure shipped products match approved designs.
• Develop consumer activation concepts to amplify sports partnerships and moments.
• Create brand logos, crests, wordmarks, and color palettes for usable systems.

Skills

Sports fluency

AI in design

Brand identity

Presentation design

Collaboration

Tools

Adobe CC

Figma

Google Slides/Keynote

3D rendering

Job description

$80k-$100k base (commensurate with experience)

ABOUT US

Cogent is an independent culture agency that earns category-defining brands a place in the moments and communities that matter.

Now in our fifteenth year, we bring brands into the real world through brand experiences, consumer activations, on-premise and field marketing, creator programs, and branded content across music, sports, and lifestyle consumer communities. We execute 200+ programs annually across 50+ markets. Culture lives in the real world, and social is where it travels: the moments worth sharing are the ones that meant something first. We create those moments, experiences, and content…then make them impossible to ignore. We are a lean, entrepreneurial team that moves fast, builds with intention, and holds a high bar for the work.

ROLE OVERVIEW

We’re looking for a Designer who loves sports — not as a category on a client list, but as something you actually follow.

Pro and college sports from NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, March Madness, College Football, Golf, tennis and action sports. You know the rivalries, the uniform drops, the tunnel fits, the crest redesigns people argued about. You have opinions about which jersey worked and why.

This role designs everything a brand needs to show up in that world: the merch, the in stadium branding, the bar, the footprint, and the deck that sells it. You’ll work fast, across a lot of surfaces, with AI as a daily part of how you get there.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

• Design merch and co-branded gear — headwear, tees, hoodies, jerseys, capsules, giveaways.
• Build production-ready art: separations, embroidery and appliqué specs, placement and size charts, colorways against blanks.
• Work with vendors and sourcing partners so what ships matches what was approved.
• Design for scale — LED and ribbon boards, concourse and fascia signage, hospitality and suite spaces, entry moments, wayfinding.
• Understand sightlines and distance: what reads from row 40 versus what reads in a mockup.
• Design bar builds and back-bar programs, tap handles, coasters, menus, POS, cooler and case wraps, retail displays.
• Respect the constraints — footprint, durability, compliance, and what a distributor rep can actually install.

Consumer Activation Creative

• Develop consumer activation and content concepts to amplify sports partnerships and moments
• Design the physical elements of activations: structures, scenic, photo moments, signage, wearables, premiums.
• Think in fabrication, not files — materials, print methods, tolerances, install.

Brand Development

• Build logos, marks, crests, wordmarks, type systems, and color palettes.
• Extend them into usable systems that hold across apparel, environments, digital, and social.

Pitch Decks & Presentation

• Partner with Strategy and Account leads to turn the brief into creative concepts and designs
• Design new-business and client decks that sell the idea, not decorate it.
• Take a strategy brief and turn it into a visual argument with a clear through-line.

Create & Prototype with AI

• Use AI creative tools daily to generate directions, mood boards, environment renders, and mockups at speed.
• Test multiple styles and formats fast, then refine final outputs with a critical human eye.
• AI handles volume. You handle meaning — taste is the final filter.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

• 3-5+ years of design experience at an agency, experiential shop, brand, league, team, or apparel/merch environment.
• A strong portfolio with real range: apparel and merch, physical environments, brand identity, and presentation design.
• Genuine sports fluency across college and pro — football, basketball, soccer, baseball, golf, tennis, and action sports. You follow it.
• Demonstrated use of AI in day-to-day creative work; fluent, or fast-learning and genuinely curious.
• High-level proficiency in Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects), Figma, and Google Slides / Keynote.
• Working knowledge of 3D or spatial rendering a plus (Blender, Cinema 4D, SketchUp, Vectorworks).
• Understanding of print, fabrication, and apparel production — you’ve had work built, not just approved.
• Experience in alcohol, CPG, sports, or lifestyle brands preferred.
• Ego-light, idea-first collaborator who wants the team’s output to be excellent, not just your own.

HOW SUCCESS IS MEASURED

• Work that reads as authentic to the sport, not brand-safe wallpaper on top of it.
• Merch people would actually wear and buy.
• Environments and bars that look as good built as they did rendered.
• Decks that win.
• Speed and creative range unlocked through AI.
• You bring a proactive visual POV — you don’t wait to be told what to design.