AKQA - Senior Designer (Brand & Identity) - Freelance or contract

Brand Designer is needed in Lisbon, Portugal.

Client: AKQA

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Contract: Contractor, Contractor

Job Description

Designers at AKQA are the visual visionaries of culture for our clients. A highly artistic and strategic group of thinkers and problem-solvers, we partner with brands to craft distinct, meaningful, and enduring brand identities that shape the future of design and business. As a Senior Designer, you play a pivotal role in defining, evolving, and expressing brands across all touchpoints. From logos and typography to color systems and visual storytelling, you create design solutions that resonate culturally, emotionally, and strategically. Working closely with Creative, Strategy, and Technology teams, you ensure that every brand experience is cohesive, compelling, and world-class. NOTE - this is a contract or freelance opportunity.

Requirements

• Create, evolve, and refine brand identities, delivering exceptional design solutions that are strategically grounded and visually powerful.

• Conceptualize and execute high-quality work across a variety of formats and platforms, including logos, visual identity systems, motion, digital, print, and experiential branding.

• Develop brand guidelines and toolkits, ensuring consistency and scalability across all brand communications and applications.

• Craft typography, color systems, and iconography, ensuring a cohesive and distinctive brand presence.

• Art direct and collaborate with illustrators, photographers, motion designers, and other visual artists, ensuring creative alignment and excellence.

• Think beyond aesthetics—understand and articulate how branding shapes perception, behavior, and business impact.

• Communicate and present design thinking, storytelling, and proposals clearly and persuasively to both internal teams and clients.

• Lead and contribute to brand workshops and design sprints, helping clients define their identity and voice.

• Stay ahead of industry trends, continuously pushing boundaries in branding, identity, and graphic design.

• Collaborate closely with UX/UI, motion, and product designers to ensure brand consistency across digital experiences.

• Participate in pitches, bringing strong conceptual thinking and inspiring creative solutions.

• Oversee and manage design assets, ensuring proper organization, archiving, and accessibility.

Qualities and Experience

• Proven experience in brand design, visual identity, and graphic design, with a compelling portfolio demonstrating expertise in branding, typography, and visual systems.

• A deep understanding of how brands visually impact culture, with experience in creating, redesigning, or refreshing brand identities.

• Mastery of composition, typography, color theory, and design principles, ensuring work is both conceptually strong and visually striking.

• Experience working across diverse formats and media, from logos and digital design to environmental branding, out-of-home media, and motion graphics.

• Proficiency in Figma, Sketch, and Adobe Creative Cloud (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects), complemented by knowledge of traditional print applications.

• Ability to craft brand experiences holistically, considering elements like naming conventions, color logic, font pairing, motion, and sonic branding.

• Experience in art directing photography, illustration, typography, and animation, ensuring consistency with the brand’s visual language.

• Expertise in digital design systems, design processes, and front-end implementation, ensuring that identity systems translate effectively across digital and interactive platforms.

• A strong strategic mindset, ensuring that visual identity design is aligned with brand positioning and audience insights.

• Experience working in a creative agency or branding studio, with a proven ability to collaborate across disciplines and deliver world-class work.

• Exceptional attention to detail and craftsmanship, ensuring that every element of a brand system is designed with precision and clarity.

• Experience creating brand presentations and storytelling decks, communicating design rationale effectively to clients and stakeholders.

• A passion for pushing the boundaries of brand identity, constantly exploring new ways to evolve and innovate visual communication.

Equal Opportunities Statement

AKQA is an Equal Opportunities Employer, we believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Your race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.