Experience Designer

Deeplocal•Pittsburgh, PA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Deeplocal creates inspiring moments for brands in the real and virtual worlds. We strategize, imagine, design, and fabricate ambitious experiences from concept to execution. Our work is driven by inventive technology, design, storytelling, craft, and most importantly, humans. We’re seeking a junior-to-mid-level Experience Designer to join our creative team. This role is intentionally broad. Your primary background might be in graphic design, motion design, digital design, art direction, copywriting, strategy, 3D design, interiors, architecture, product design, or experiential design. What matters most is that you can translate ideas into experiences people can see, touch, move through, and interact with. This is not a traditional UI/UX role, and it is not a strict graphic, motion, or digital design position. Deeplocal’s work lives in physical space. We are looking for someone who can think beyond screens and communicate ideas through spatial, physical, interactive, and human-centered experiences. Your portfolio should show strong creative thinking, visual taste, and evidence that you can work with physical interaction. That might mean environments, installations, objects, prototypes, interactive exhibits, spatial storytelling, event experiences, kinetic ideas, product-like concepts, or other work that shows how people engage with an idea in the real world. Although remote employees will be considered, preference will be given to candidates in Pittsburgh, or those willing to relocate. You care deeply about design quality, from the high-level concept to the smallest detail. You are curious about how things work, how people move through spaces, and how physical, visual, digital, and interactive elements come together to create an experience. You may have a primary creative discipline, but you are excited to work across disciplines and learn new tools, methods, and ways of making. You enjoy participating in cross-functional teams, balancing aesthetic considerations with engineering, technology, fabrication, brand, and user experience. You can communicate ideas visually and verbally, whether through sketches, diagrams, storyboards, renders, references, mockups, writing, prototypes, or decks. You can handle multiple projects simultaneously, keeping track of deadlines and self-directing your workload and priorities. You are aesthetically agile and can design for a variety of brands with different styles, tones, palettes, and voices. You are eager to develop creative concepts that integrate thoughtful user experience, physical interaction, and strong storytelling. You like getting your hands dirty, using rapid prototyping, low-fidelity models, tests, sketches, or mockups to prove out design concepts. You have 2–4 years of experience, preferably in a creative agency, experiential studio, design studio, architecture/interiors practice, production environment, or similar setting.

Requirements

Ability to think through physical experience: form, materiality, interaction, layout, flow, behavior, sequence, and user journey.
Ability to craft cross-discipline ideas and support them with visuals, language, references, and clear rationale.
Ability to show how an idea works in space. This could include sketches, diagrams, renderings, models, prototypes, storyboards, plans, sections, physical mockups, or other visual methods.
Ability to communicate abstract concepts through compelling visual mockups using whatever media you feel most comfortable with: sketching, rendering, Photoshop, motion tests, AI tools, deck design, 3D software, or other methods.
You do not need to be a dedicated 3D designer, but you must be able to think spatially and communicate physical ideas.
Strong taste, strong composition, and an ability to make ideas feel considered, polished, and intentional.
Interest in how people engage with physical experiences, objects, interfaces, environments, and technology.
Ideal candidates are those who can contribute across several disciplines. We’re a small, collaborative creative team with mostly multidisciplinary backgrounds. We value people who have a strong primary craft but are eager to stretch into unfamiliar territory.
Your core strength might be in one or more of the following: Physical Design, Interactive Design, Experience Design, Graphic Design, Motion Design, Animation, Art Direction, Copywriting, Strategy, 3D Modeling, Architecture, Interior Design, Environmental Design, Product Design, UI Design, UX Design, 2D + 3D Visualization.
Regardless of your primary discipline, we need to see evidence that you can think about people, space, objects, interaction, and experience.
2–4 years of experience, preferably in a creative agency, experiential studio, design studio, architecture/interiors practice, production environment, or similar setting.

Nice To Haves

Proficiency in Rhino, SketchUp, Blender, Cinema 4D, Unreal, Enscape, or similar tools is a plus.
Portfolio Guidance: Please include work that demonstrates how you think, not just final outcomes. We are especially interested in seeing: Concepts for physical or interactive experiences, Environmental, spatial, installation, or exhibit work, Storyboards, diagrams, sketches, or process work, Prototypes, mockups, models, or tests, Motion or graphic systems applied to physical spaces, Digital concepts that connect to real-world behavior or interaction, Examples of how you communicate an idea to a team or client.
Student work, self-directed projects, prototypes, speculative concepts, small installations, event work, spatial studies, or experimental projects are welcome if they show strong thinking and a clear relationship to physical experience.

Responsibilities

Collaborate with Creative Directors, Designers, Strategists, and Creative Technologists to develop concepts that are inventive, strategic, and meaningful for audiences.
Contribute to ideas that live in physical space, including installations, environments, objects, interactive moments, exhibits, activations, and brand experiences.
Concept, develop, and diagram user experiences through storyboards, flowcharts, spatial diagrams, journey maps, or other tools. Help ensure the experience remains clear, compelling, and on brand.
Create compelling ways to communicate ideas, using the media that best fits the concept: sketches, references, renderings, motion tests, copy, diagrams, layouts, moodboards, decks, prototypes, or AI-assisted visualization.
Depending on your background and the needs of the project, contribute to environmental design, object design, spatial layouts, 3D visualization, or physical product-like concepts. Collaborate with production designers and engineers to make ideas buildable.
Work closely with creative, technology, engineering, fabrication, and production teams to shape ideas that are ambitious but achievable.
Contribute across project phases, from early concepting and pitch development through design refinement, pre-production, and production.
Stay curious about culture, emerging technology, materials, interaction patterns, visual trends, and new tools. Bring references, ideas, and energy that help push the work beyond the expected.