Graphic Designer (Maternity Cover)

Where: Remote - Accessible to London for occasional meetings

Type: 8 Month Fixed Term Contract (Maternity Cover - Feb 2026 to Nov 2026)

Join Us at Social Element!

Founded 23 years ago Social Element is a leading global and independent full-service agency connecting brands and people socially. Our core purpose is to make better social for brands and social better for society.

We are looking for an exceptional Graphic Designer with a strong skill set in art direction to join our Creative & Innovation team. Youll help fulfil our mission by delivering beautiful meaningful work for some of the worlds largest brands globally producing work thats good for people and the wider world.

Our promise to you is that no two days will ever be the same. Youll go to sleep each night knowing youve built creative that is not only stunning but impactful.

Think this could be you Read on dear reader

About You

You are a proven Graphic Designer comfortably fulfilling a role across both Creative and Design: concepting solo and collaboratively and often taking those concepts into design for client output.

You have strong graphic design skills and extensive experience in the industry helping brands show up as themselves whatever the medium. You have exceptional attention to detail and craft and know when to dial it up for high-level campaign craft or pare it back for mobile-first low-fi designs tailored to the specific needs of the client and campaign. You consistently think outside the box when concepting creating and delivering engaging socially-native content that sparks genuine engagement within brand communities.

Youre a true ideas person comfortable collaborating with a broad creative team to create eye-popping thumb-stopping visuals for our clients. You have a proactive approach always bringing fresh thinking to the table whether its introducing innovative concepts driving self-initiated projects or identifying new creative opportunities for the agency.

You are actively up to speed on how brands are evolving on social. While social media is our world youll also play a part in helping brands socialise beyond digital. This means collaborating across concept art direction and design for new and existing brand campaigns always guided by brand guidelines and agency strategy to ideate and deliver 360 / social-first campaigns.

Roles & Responsibilities

• Art direct craft and create on-trend highly shareable social content that drives engagement and connection with brand communities including stills GIFs and short-form video (Reels TikTok).

• Build Social Brand Guidelines for clients by translating their existing brand guidelines into social-first frameworks for our content creation team and clientsalways seeking to enhance visual approaches for social.

• Design for internal and external facing decks case study decks pitch decks - in a conceptual branding and design capacity for both brands and Social Element.

• Capitalise on real-time cultural opportunities identified by our social media management teams by swiftly turning them into relevant thumb-stopping social-first content for brands.

• Produce and support design recommendations with strong written editing presentation and communication skills.

• Lead visual concepting look & feel and design across a variety of internal and client-facing projects collaborating closely with our Creative team Content Creators and Social Media Managers.

• Maintain social fluency by staying up-to-date with new platform trends features and creative best practices across TikTok Instagram YouTube Pinterest and Facebook.

• Always be switched on to new design and creative ideas proactively suggesting fresh approaches for brands we work with and for The Social Element itself.

Skills & Qualities

• You are proficient in Adobe Creative Cloud and willing to learn more on CapCut to support the team further in the future.

• An ideas person able to look at the big picture but also see the small details and always be solution oriented.

• Can work with some levels of ambiguity whilst always having your own solutions and ideas to overcome missing information & issues.

• A thorough understanding of the evolving social media landscape with a continuous thirst to learn more.

• A joyful collaborator and solution orientated person with a positive & forward thinking outlook.

• Ability to set clear objectives timelines and deadlines for own work whilst also knowing how to be a balanced project lead and know when its appropriate to push deadlines in order to avoid the work suffering.

• Preferred skills in Canva CapCut and other mobile editing tools when needed.

• Optional skills in AI image generation and strong content creation abilities in the form of low-fi (UGC style/ staged reality) and high quality product photography.

• Motion or animation skills a plus

• A strong drive and dedication to contribute to our clients brand the agency and the work as if they were your own company.

• Bring vast experience of international markets with experience working with brands across Europe.

Benefits

Please note: These benefits are for UK employees only and will be pro-rated for this fixed term contract:

Remote/Hybrid working (occasional travel)

33 days of holiday (including the bank holidays)

Birthday off

Annual Occasion Day off for an important event (eg moving house getting married)

1 Volunteer day off

3 Wellbeing days off

Flexible Fridays (Working half day)

Eye care: Contributions towards eye tests and glasses

Enhanced sick pay: 4 weeks full pay 4 weeks half pay

Enhanced family friendly policies

Employee Assistance Programme and wellbeing support

Access to our discounts website

The Hiring Process

The hiring process for this position will be made up of the following stages:

Culture Connect Interview - with one of the talent team

Portfolio Walkthrough - with Global Director Creative & Innovation

Skills Experience Interview (with short task) - with Global Director Creative & Innovation and another key member of the senior leadership team

Social Element Values

Bring the joy: Our people bring the joy by radiating energy creating an uplifting atmosphere and spreading positive vibes thats magnetic to everyone around them!

Trusted Pioneers: Our trusted pioneers are trailblazers driven by curiosity leading the way with best-in-class solutions and innovative ideas.

Everyones welcome: We create an inclusive and respectful environment where communication is jargon-free and everyone feels welcome

Weve got you: With a team thats professional reliable smart and prepared we are problem-solvers who get it done and do it brilliantly.

Genuine humans: Our genuine humans are compassionate honest and unapologetically real.

Our Diversity Equality & Inclusion Commitment

We welcome applications from diverse and under-represented groups regardless of their background.

We know the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates so even if you feel you dont fulfill all the requirements we encourage you to still apply wed love to hear from you!

We value having divergent thinkers who bring various experiences and viewpoints to the table at The Social Element. We strongly encourage members of underrepresented groups to apply.

We are also able to make reasonable adjustments throughout the full recruitment process so we invite you to identify any additional support that you may require to ensure you are supported throughout the full process.

How To Apply

If all this sounds like you simply upload your CV/resume with a portfolio link and complete the application form. While a cover letter is optional we welcome any other way for you to share what draws you and motivates you about this role and the agency.

We encourage candidates to express their interest and motivation in the format that best showcases their talents.

***If you would prefer to submit your application in a different format please feel free to get in touch with us at and we will be happy to assist you in any way we can. We will be unable to process applications via this inbox.

We are excited to receive your application!