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About the Role
The Cato Institute seeks a Junior Graphic Designer to produce a high volume of visual work that carries Cato's ideas to a broad audience. This role is approximately 80% digital design and 20% print design, working from established brand systems while contributing original concepts and collaborating with various teams.
Responsibilities
- Design social media graphics across platforms, including feed posts, quote cards, carousels, event promotions, data-driven graphics, and cover images sized and adapted to each channel's specifications.
- Produce web assets, including page banners and graphics, article headers, thumbnails, and icons, in collaboration with the web and marketing teams.
- Build and adapt graphics for email campaigns and newsletters.
- Design event background graphics for LED screens.
- Design and format panel graphics for events using established templates.
- Resize, adapt, and version approved designs across formats and channels while preserving visual integrity.
- Apply and extend existing brand systems and templates, flagging gaps and inconsistencies as they arise.
- Lay out and produce brochures, fliers, booklets, one-pagers, and event signage.
- Prepare print-ready files, including bleeds, color spaces, and export specifications.
- Assist with the layout and production of longer-form publications and reports.
- Contribute ideas during brainstorms and concept reviews.
- Track assigned projects in the Institute's project management system, keeping tasks, due dates, and file versions current.
- Incorporate feedback from art direction and stakeholders into revised designs with care and attention to detail.
- Maintain organized working files, asset libraries, and naming conventions so work is easy for the team to find and reuse.
- Balance concurrent requests against firm deadlines.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in graphic design, visual communications, or a related field.
- At least one year of graphic design experience within an organization, such as an in-house team, agency, nonprofit, or comparable setting. Substantive internship experience will be considered.
- A portfolio demonstrating strong use of typography, layout, hierarchy, and color, with examples of both digital and print work.
- Ability to work within an established brand system and follow art direction.
- Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage several concurrent projects against deadlines.
- Clear, professional communication with colleagues outside the design team.
- Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. This position does not offer visa sponsorship.
Skills
- Advanced knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.
- Proficiency in Microsoft PowerPoint and Word.
- Working knowledge of project management software such as Wrike, Asana, Monday.com, Basecamp, or a similar platform.
- Motion graphics skills and experience.
- Basic familiarity with user interface and user experience principles.
- Experience with Adobe After Effects.
- Experience with Adobe Premiere Pro.
- Familiarity with generative AI image tools such as Adobe Firefly, DALL-E, Nano Banana, or Midjourney, including sound judgment about when AI-generated imagery is appropriate for published work.
- Comfort using AI assistants such as Claude or ChatGPT as part of a routine workflow.
- Email design experience using Mailchimp or Stripo.
Location
- Washington, DC
Work Type
- Full-time
- Hybrid
Experience Level
- Junior
Education Level
- Bachelor's degree in graphic design, visual communications, or a related field
Salary/Compensations
- $54,000 to $64,000 per year
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Employer contribution to a Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Generous vacation and sick days
- Paid parental leave
- Employer-provided life and disability insurance
- 401(k) employer match
- Transit/ Parking benefits
- Pet discount plan
About the Company
- The Cato Institute is a public policy research organization — a think tank — dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Its scholars and analysts conduct independent, nonpartisan research on a wide range of policy issues.
- Founded in 1977, Cato owes its name to Cato’s Letters, a series of essays published in 18th-century England that presented a vision of a society free from excessive government power. Those essays inspired the architects of the American Revolution. And the simple, timeless principles of that revolution — individual liberty, limited government, and free markets — turn out to be even more powerful in today’s world of global markets and unprecedented access to information than Jefferson or Madison could have imagined. Social and economic freedom is not just the best policy for a free people, it is the indispensable framework for the future.
Equal Opportunity
- The Cato Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer.