Senior Graphic Designer

Burst Digital; South Africa; On-site; ZAR 360,000 - 480,000; Full time

Job summary

Burst Digital is a fast-moving, full-stack creative agency delivering across brand strategy, identity, social, paid ads, content, websites and production. We hire a designer who uses AI as a real part of their workflow to move quickly yet maintain craft.

This role is open to full-time or freelance, and covers brand identity, logo design, organic social, paid ad creative, landing pages, pitch decks and video/motion content for multiple client accounts.

Qualifications

• End-to-end brand identity development experience.
• Strong typography, color theory and visual hierarchy skills.
• Knowledge of platform specs across Meta, Google, TikTok.
• Hook-based ad design and CTA hierarchy.
• A/B testing principles; retargeting vs. prospecting.
• Mobile-first, accessibility-aware design thinking.

Responsibilities

• Develop brand identity systems, logos, color palettes and typography.
• Research brand and competitors to inform creative strategy.
• Create concepts, moodboards and campaigns beyond simple briefs.
• Own briefs: define problem, objectives, priorities and deliverables.
• Design marketing materials: social, ads, landing pages and decks.
• Produce UI/UX layouts for pages with mobile-first responsive design.
• Use AI throughout to speed ideation while applying good judgment.
• Present concepts and defend your reasoning to clients and team.

Skills

Brand identity

Typography & color

Platform specs

Ad design & CTA hierarchy

A/B testing basics

Mobile-first design

Loose direction

Tools

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

Figma

Adobe XD

Canva Pro

Canva Affinity

Premiere Pro

CapCut

After Effects

Claude Design

Claude Code Routine

Job description

Burst Digital is a fast-moving, full-stack creative agency working across brand strategy, brand identity, social media, paid advertising, content, websites, and creative production. Our clients range from ambitious startups to established brands, and no two briefs look the same.

We don't do bureaucracy or slow decision-making. We move quickly, back ideas with research and data, and hold our creative work to a high standard. We're also building Burst as an AI-forward agency - AI isn't a bonus here, it's central to how we work. We use it to think faster, test more ideas, and produce at a higher level without cutting corners on craft.

Senior Designer (AI-Native)

Burst Digital — Full-time or Freelance

Who We Are

Burst Digital is a fast-moving, full-stack creative agency working across brand strategy, brand identity, social media, paid advertising, content, websites, and creative production. Our clients range from ambitious startups to established brands, and no two briefs look the same.

We don't do bureaucracy or slow decision-making. We move quickly, back ideas with research and data, and hold our creative work to a high standard. We're also building Burst as an AI-forward agency - AI isn't a bonus here, it's central to how we work. We use it to think faster, test more ideas, and produce at a higher level without cutting corners on craft.

The Role

We're hiring a creative designer who thinks conceptually, executes at a professional production standard, and knows how to use AI as a genuine part of their workflow.

This isn't a template-filling role, and it isn't one for someone who needs every task heavily briefed and reviewed. You'll take loose direction - from an internal meeting, a client call, a strategy note - and turn it into a clear brief, a concept, and finished creative. You'll work across brand identity, logo design, organic social, paid advertising creative, landing pages, pitch decks, and video/motion content, across several client accounts at once.

We're open to full-time or freelance, depending on the right fit.

What You'll Do

• Brand identity & CI: Logo systems, colour palettes, typography, guidelines, and asset libraries.
• Research & Strategy: Diving into brand and competitor research to deliver well thought out audits, and applying those insights to shape creative strategy.
• Concept development: Moodboards, campaign routes, creative territories - idea origination, not just execution.
• Own creative briefs: Turn loose meeting notes into clear direction - define the problem, the objective, the priorities, and what needs to be made.
• Marketing & UX thinking: Design rooted in audience, hooks, CTAs, conversion, and how people actually read and interact with the work.
• Organic social & paid ad creative: Paid ad sets (Meta, Google, TikTok) across static and animated formats, retargeting and prospecting variations, organic social content (feed posts, Stories, Reels covers, carousels), email graphics, pitch decks, and campaign concept boards — all built with hooks, CTAs, and A/B testing in mind.
• Video & motion: Short-form editing for Reels/TikTok, motion graphics for ads, animated templates.
• UI/UX design: Landing page and website section layouts, user flow and information hierarchy for key journeys, wireframes for new pages or features, mobile-first responsive layouts, and conversion-focused page structures (hero sections, CTA placement, form design) — with accessibility considered throughout.
• Own creative briefs: Turn loose meeting notes into clear direction - define the problem, the objective, the priorities, and what needs to be made.
• AI-enhanced workflow: Use AI throughout, research, ideation, image generation, variation and resizing, templating, testing, automating; to work faster and stronger, not to replace your own judgement.
• Present your thinking: Walk clients and the internal team through concepts and defend the reasoning behind them.

What We're Looking For

Tools:

• Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign
• Figma, Adobe XD
• Canva Pro, Canva Affinity
• Premiere Pro or CapCut
• After Effects (advantageous)
• Claude Design, Claude Code Routine

Skills & knowledge:

• End-to-end brand identity development
• Typography, colour theory, visual hierarchy
• Platform specs across Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn
• Hook-based ad design and CTA hierarchy
• A/B testing principles; retargeting vs. prospecting creative
• Mobile-first, accessibility-aware design thinking
• Comfort operating from loose direction rather than tightly managed briefs

What Makes You Stand Out

• Video & motion skills — short-form is the dominant format everywhere; being able to edit and animate, not just design static, is a real differentiator.
• Strategic thinking — understanding a brief at the level of audience, goal, and message, and being able to argue for a creative direction, not just deliver it.
• AI fluency — actively using tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Runway, or similar to speed up ideation, variation, and production, with the judgement to know where AI helps and where it doesn't.
• Template mastery — building smart, locked-down, on-brand templates (on Canva or Indesign) that clients can self-serve from.

Your Portfolio Should Show

• A brand identity case study (thinking, not just final output)
• Paid ad creative across formats, ideally with performance-informed iteration
• Organic social content across at least two platforms
• Video or motion work (Reels, TikTok edits, animated ads)
• Template systems built for client self-service
• Conceptual/campaign work that shows idea-first thinking
• Examples of AI-supported workflow — a short write-up of where AI genuinely improved speed, ideation, or output, with the creative thinking still clearly your own, alongside some visual representation of this.

Life at Burst Digital

We're fast-moving and low on bureaucracy. You'll be trusted to own your work and manage your time, working closely with strategy, account management, and paid media, but expected to bring your own perspective rather than wait for a fully-formed brief. If you need heavy oversight and detailed step-by-step direction, this probably isn't the right fit. If you're a strong designer who thinks like a marketer, uses AI daily, and can move fast without cutting corners — this is exactly the kind of role we're hiring for.