Senior Graphic Designer

National Food Group•Novi, MI

24d•Onsite

About The Position

The K12 Senior Graphic Designer owns the visual identity and graphic design execution for the Zee Zees and ZeeKitchen brands. Beyond day-to-day creative, this role serves as the brand's visual steward, maintaining and evolving brand guidelines, setting creative direction, and helping build the future design state for the growing Zee Kitchen brand. This is a senior individual contributor role that sets the creative bar across both brands.

Requirements

7+ years of graphic design experience on a brand team at a CPG company, at an agency serving CPG brands, or in a comparable brand-driven environment.
Expert command of Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
A portfolio that demonstrates strong brand identity and design-system work — building, extending, and safeguarding a brand's visual language across formats and touchpoints.
Proven ability to own and evolve brand guidelines, with strong conceptual thinking, typography, and layout, and a sharp eye for craft and detail.
A self-directed senior contributor who sets creative direction, manages multiple projects to deadline, and collaborates across marketing, cross-functional partners, and outside agencies.
Experience with AI creative tools and genuine interest in shaping how they fit into a brand design workflow.
Print and packaging production knowledge, including prepress and preparing final production files.

Nice To Haves

Illustration, character-design, typography, and iconography experience.
The ability to extend a character-driven visual system is a strong plus for the Zee Zees and Zee Kitchen brands.
Web and digital design experience, including Figma and a working grasp of UX principles.
Motion and video skills (e.g., After Effects) to support animated and short-form content.
Hands-on experience applying AI design or automation tools within a production creative workflow.
Experience with Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE).
Background in food & beverage, K-12/foodservice, or other kid-focused categories.

Responsibilities

Own and uphold the visual identity and brand guidelines for Zee Zees and Zee Kitchen, ensuring every asset is consistent, on-brand, and elevated.
Help define and build the future design state for Zee Kitchen, extending the shared character system into its distinct brand world and establishing the visual standards that will guide the brand as it grows.
Set creative direction across both brands, bringing a cohesive point of view to how each brand looks, feels, and tells its story.
Collaborate with the brand marketing associate to ideate and design content for the K12 email and social media content calendars, pulling in video and photography resources as needed.
Design advertising materials, including print ads, digital ads, and other promotional needs, to support campaigns and launches across both brands.
Lead the creative development of K12 tradeshow materials, using the Zee Zees and Zee Kitchen character systems to tell each brand's story.
Partner with outside agencies, as needed, to ensure high-quality, on-brand creative execution.
Drive innovation by exploring new design ideas, formats, and storytelling techniques that push creative boundaries.
Serve as a design thought leader in applying AI creative tools to the brand design workflow, identifying where they can speed execution and expand creative output without compromising brand quality.
Pilot and evaluate emerging AI design and automation tools, sharing findings and recommendations with the Design Manager and broader team.
Build and document AI-enabled design workflows for repeatable brand work, helping establish best practices and guardrails for responsible, on-brand use.
Stay ahead of emerging AI and creative-tech trends, bringing fresh approaches that keep both brands at the leading edge of design.