Charlottesville Tomorrow is expanding its design capacity and seeks a talented contract designer passionate about visual storytelling that serves diverse communities. This contractor will work with our product and technology team to maintain brand consistency, create compelling print materials, and support our digital presence across platforms.
This designer will report to our Director of Product and Technology and collaborate with editorial, advancement and product teams to translate our mission-driven journalism into accessible, engaging visual content. We are seeking a creative professional who understands how design serves community needs and can work independently while staying aligned with our brand values.
We work hard to create a healthy and inclusive work environment that is rethinking how local news is produced, both for the sake of journalists and business staff doing the work and the communities we serve. While we are outlining job responsibilities and skills here, above all, we are looking for someone who wants to join our team to help build on that culture.
Here’s some of what the designer will do
- Create and adapt designs for print materials including flyers, postcards, programs and event materials
- Design graphics for social media, newsletters and web content that align with brand guidelines
- Maintain and organize Canva account with templates accessible to the team
- Provide design consultation for email campaigns in Mailchimp, including user journey visualization
- Support WordPress/Newspack troubleshooting related to visual presentation and layout
- Act as brand steward, monitoring consistency across platforms and providing guidance to team members
- Collaborate with the editorial team on visual storytelling for special projects
- Recommend improvements to design systems and processes
Here are some skills that will help
While we don’t expect any single candidate to possess all of these skills or experiences, the ideal candidate will have some of the following qualifications:
- Required: Strong portfolio demonstrating print and digital design work
- Required: Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) and Canva
- Experience with WordPress or similar content management systems
- Understanding of accessibility principles in design (color contrast, readable typography, alt text)
- Familiarity with email marketing platforms (Mailchimp or similar)
- Ability to translate editorial content into compelling visual narratives
- Experience working with brand guidelines and maintaining visual consistency
- Strong communication skills for collaborating with non-designers
- Ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines independently
- Personal or professional experience in multiple cultural settings
We are seeking a designer who understands that visual communication is a critical part of serving diverse communities. The ideal candidate recognizes that inclusive design means considering different abilities, literacy and cultural contexts. We seek someone who can balance creative expression with accessibility and brand consistency, always keeping community needs at the center of their work.
About Charlottesville Tomorrow
Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. We serve our neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.
This is a newsroom at the forefront of local news. It’s a place for talented journalists and big thinkers to dig into mission-driven work that impacts people’s lives regularly.
Our reporters and editors dig deeply into issues that affect our community, regularly producing work that highlights issues often ignored by other media. We center our organization and news processes on our values — truth, community, and equity — and we work to improve the health of our local news community and ecosystem through inclusive practices in hiring, journalism and partnerships.
Our newsroom covers the issues most important to our community, with a focus on race and equity and reaches a large share of our market through free email subscriptions, news apps, social media and events.
Location
Charlottesville is a college town with many opportunities for learning and recreation. It is a competitive and fast-changing small media market with high visibility in state and national news cycles. Charlottesville is also a fast-growing, multicultural node in the region’s knowledge and finance economy. The quality of living is high, and it is a short drive from Washington D.C. and Richmond.
This is not a remote position. Our team lives and works in the communities we cover in central Virginia and regularly spends time in our Charlottesville newsroom.
Compensation
We are building compensation packages to help create equity in the news industry. Our pay is competitive for our local area and among nonprofit news organizations around the country.
Contract structure: 6-month initial contract with strong potential for an ongoing relationship
Retainer: 10-20 hours per month at $40/hour, negotiable based on experience
Payment terms: Monthly invoicing with Net-15 payment
Flexible hours: This contractor position offers flexibility in when and where work is completed. We’ll establish a regular check-in cadence and project review schedule, with most communication happening asynchronously via Slack and Asana. We pride ourselves on building a team that allows people to do work in the ways and hours that work best for them.
Professional development: Contract team members are welcome to participate in relevant training opportunities and team meetings that support their growth and connection to our mission.
How to apply
Our application process is designed to help us find candidates who will thrive in our organization.
The first step is a written application with a portfolio. Candidates who progress should expect two to three rounds of interviews and a possible paid assessment. This listing will be open until we fill the position, with a target start date of January 2026.
To get started, please tell us or provide:
- Why are you interested in working with Charlottesville Tomorrow?
- A link to your portfolio showcasing relevant print and digital design work
- Please describe a project where you had to balance brand consistency with creative problem-solving. What was your approach and what was the outcome?
To apply, send your portfolio link and answers to these questions to hiring [at] thedpi.org, with the subject line “Charlottesville Tomorrow Design Contractor.” Due to the volume of inquiries we receive, we will not be able to answer emailed questions about this role.
