NOTE: This is a 6–9-month contract role. Candidates must submit a portfolio with their application to be considered.

At Curriculum Associates, we believe a diverse team leads to diversity in thinking, making our products better for teachers and students. If you read this job description, feel energized by what you see here, and believe you could bring passion and commitment to the role, but you aren't sure you meet every qualification, please apply! Above all, we are looking for the right person!

Are you a designer who loves thinking through complex challenges and finding creative solutions? Do you want to work at a mission-driven company who is making an impact on education across the country?

Curriculum Associates is looking for an inspired and passionate Visual and Interactive Designer to create engaging visuals and thoughtful, easy-to-use learning experiences for our groundbreaking i-Ready products. The ideal candidate is a conceptual and critical thinker who can transform ideas into products and demonstrate strong technical and organizational skills.

The Visual and Interactive Designer will dive deeply into Reading content creation for Grades K-8 with a focus on art procurement, design, and user experience. This role will focus on two key aspects of product development-designing and procuring engaging art and visuals to support the content as well as some iterative UX work, participating in user research sessions, creating storyboards and wireframes, prototyping, and creating user interface designs. The right person will thrive working iteratively alongside the Senior Interactive Designer, Curriculum Experts, Producers, Project Managers and Engineers to transform pedagogy and instructional materials into highly engaging and rewarding student experiences.
The impact you'll have:

• Deliver content that's delightful, engaging, clear and supports the pedagogical needs of the product.
• Collaborating with creative team and lesson editors to develop image specs, review sketches, provide thoughtful, articulate feedback to illustrators and photo editors.
• Research artists and visual styles, make directional recommendations to the product team, and follow art from concept through completion, ensuring a high level of finish and polish.
• Develop designs for instructional lessons as a member of a highly collaborative cross-functional team based on a larger product-wide creative.
• Ensure that each experience is user-centered, highly engaging, clear and relevant to students at all levels and according to various demographics such as gender, ethnicity, culture and age.
• Use iterative sketches, storyboards/wireframes and prototypes to communicate and transform ideas into products.
• Create a range of low-fidelity and high-fidelity documentation–from sketches and digital comps to detailed wireframes and pixel-perfect layouts–to communicate to various audiences.
• Collaborate closely with agile development teams to ensure proper implementation of the designs.
• Maintain brand consistency and adhere to design guidelines.
• Assume responsibility for your task and schedule management which includes frequent communication with Project Managers and on-time delivery of assignments in a highly deadline-driven environment.

What we're looking for:

• 2+ years designing engaging visuals and rich interactive experiences preferably for children
• Experience creating innovative and thoughtful products that engage and delight its users
• Experience with animation a plus
• A proven understanding of best practices for user experience and user interface design
• Knowledge of mobile and web-based interactions
• Highly detail-oriented and strong organizational skills with a proven ability to prioritize tasks, manage multiple projects at once and meet deadlines in highly collaborative and fast-paced environment
• Strong communication skills, and the ability to tailor feedback to artists with individual communication
• An enthusiasm for the exploration and consumption of all forms of media, apps and interactive software and the vision to apply them to K-8 education.
• Expert in Adobe CC (XD, Photoshop, Illustrator), Sketch, and MS Office
• Basic understanding of HTML5, iOS and other programming languages preferred
• A record of previous achievement shown through the demonstration of a thoughtful design process

We'd also love to see:

• Experience designing for K-8 curriculum or children's media
• Proficient in prototyping software (Sketch, Adobe XD, Hype, etc.)

Location: This role can be based in our Brooklyn, NY offices or remote.