Employment Opportunities
Graphic Designer & Marketing Production Assistant
Position Title: Graphic Designer & Marketing Production Assistant
Department: Marketing and Communications
Reports to: Director of Marketing & Communications
Salary: $53,000 annually, benefits, Non-Exempt
Full-time: Full-time, 40 hrs per week
Position Summary:
The Cradle of Aviation Museum seeks a creative, hands-on Graphic Designer & Marketing Production Assistant to support the Museum’s exhibits, events, programs, and marketing initiatives.
This is a design-focused position for an emerging graphic designer who enjoys taking projects from concept through production. The ideal candidate has a strong visual sense, solid design fundamentals, and the technical skills to create effective work across print, digital, environmental, and exhibition applications.
In addition to graphic design and production, this position will support the Museum’s day-to-day marketing efforts, including social media, website updates, email marketing, and other digital communications. This is an excellent opportunity for a recent graduate or early-career designer looking to build broad, real-world experience while working on a diverse range of creative projects.
Essential Functions:
Graphic Design & Creative Production
Design and produce a wide variety of materials for museum exhibits, events, educational programs, membership, development, and marketing.
Create print and digital materials including posters, flyers, brochures, advertisements, invitations, signage, banners, social media graphics, email graphics, and web content.
Assist with designing and producing exhibition graphics, interpretive panels, labels, displays, and other environmental graphics.
Prepare production-ready artwork and files for commercial printing, large-format output, signage, and digital applications.
Work within existing brand standards while also helping develop fresh, engaging visual approaches for individual programs and projects.
Resize, adapt, and version creative materials for multiple formats and platforms.
Perform basic photo editing, retouching, color correction, image preparation, and asset management.
Assist with hands-on installation and production of graphics, signage, displays, and exhibition materials.
Marketing & Digital Support
Create graphics and content for the Museum's social media channels, and help maintain an active social media presence.
Assist with updating and maintaining content on the Museum website.
Support email marketing campaigns, event promotions, and other digital communications.
Help maintain consistency of the Museum's visual identity across print and digital platforms.
Assist with photography and basic content creation for events, exhibits, programs, and social media.
Support marketing campaigns and special projects as needed.
Qualifications/Education:
Degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience and portfolio.
Entry-level to 1-3 years of professional design experience.
Strong portfolio demonstrating graphic design fundamentals, typography, layout, composition, and visual communication.
Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, particularly InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
Familiarity with QuarkXPress is a plus.
Understanding of print production, including file preparation, bleeds, resolution, color modes, and working with commercial printers.
Familiarity with large-format graphics, signage, mounting, finishing, and other graphic production techniques is highly desirable.
Comfortable designing for both print and digital environments.
Familiarity with social media platforms and creating content optimized for different channels.
Experience working with or maintaining a content management system (CMS) is a plus.
Familiarity with email marketing platforms is a plus.
Basic photography, video, or motion graphics skills are a plus.
Strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.
Comfortable working both independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced creative environment.
Willingness to be hands-on. This position involves more than designing at a computer and may include preparing, mounting, installing, and troubleshooting graphics and displays.
The Person We’re Looking For:
You’re a designer at heart. You notice typography, composition, color, spacing, and the details that make something feel finished.
You also like making things. You’re just as comfortable preparing a file for production, trimming or mounting a graphic, photographing an event, or updating a webpage as you are developing a design concept in Adobe Illustrator or InDesign.
You’re curious, adaptable, and eager to learn. You enjoy working on different kinds of projects and seeing your work move from your screen into the real world, whether that means a museum exhibition, a billboard, an event invitation, a social media campaign, or a graphic installed in one of our galleries.
Most importantly, you bring creativity, craftsmanship, and enthusiasm to the work.
Language Skills: English required; additional languages a plus
Physical Demands/Work Environment:
Normal office and museum environment; occasional evenings and weekends required for events or programs.
Prolonged periods of sitting, standing, and computer use.
Ability to assist with production, installation, event setup, and light lifting as needed.
Please email your cover letter and resume to hr@cradleofaviation.org
