Sports Visual Designer & Photographer

Charlotte Hornets; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The Charlotte Hornets are seeking a Digital Designer & Photographer to elevate our brand across social and digital platforms. This role blends high-level graphic design with content capture, photography, and visual storytelling to create platform-specific content that resonates with fans and supports marketing initiatives.

The position involves collaboration across departments and travel with the team as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Digital Media, Visual Communications, or related field.
• 2+ years of professional graphic design experience with a strong digital and social media portfolio.
• Advanced understanding of layout, hierarchy, and color theory.
• Demonstrated photography and photo editing experience.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Lightroom.
• Strong understanding of social platform specifications, trends, and best practices.
• Ability to create engaging content in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• Excellent visual storytelling, organization, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of sports, basketball, and digital fan engagement preferred.
• Ability to work evenings, weekends, holidays, and travel as required during the season.

Responsibilities

• Design high-impact, platform-specific graphics for all Hornets social media platforms.
• Concept and develop creative assets for game days, player features, partnerships, and other overarching organizational initiatives.
• Capture content and create real-time graphics during most home games and approximately half of away games (either on-site or remotely from Charlotte).
• Identify opportunities to evolve the Hornets' visual identity by introducing new creative approaches, emerging design trends, and platform-native storytelling techniques.
• Capture high-quality basketball and lifestyle photography, including behind-the-scenes content at games, practices, player appearances, community events, and select road trips.
• Assist with non-basketball photography including Community Impact events, grassroots marketing events, and more.
• Edit, organize, and distribute photo galleries in a timely manner to key stakeholders.
• Work with Asset Manager to establish and adhere to tagging and naming conventions for photos and graphics.
• Optimize content for platform-specific formats and best practices.
• Collaborate directly with Social Media, Creative, Marketing, Communications, Community Impact, and Partnership teams to execute digital campaigns.
• React quickly to breaking news and live events with timely creative.
• Monitor emerging trends across social media, design, photography, and digital storytelling, applying insights to evolve the team's creative approach.
• Help maintain brand consistency across all digital platforms.
• Travel with the team as assigned to support content capture.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

Graphic design

Photography

Social media

Brand storytelling

Deadline-driven

Team collaboration

Evening/weekend travel

Education

Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Cloud

Photoshop

Illustrator

InDesign

Lightroom

Job description

The Charlotte Hornets are seeking a Digital Designer & Photographer to elevate our brand across social and digital platforms. This role blends high-level graphic design with content capture, photography, and visual storytelling to create platform-specific content that resonates with fans and supports marketing initiatives.

The position involves collaboration across departments and travel with the team as needed.