Designer, Visual Storytelling

Role details

• Salary: $80,000 – $105,000
• Location: Remote (U.S. Only)
• Application deadline: August 24, 2026 at 12 p.m. CT.
• Department: Creative
• Reports to: Editorial director of visuals
• Direct reports: None
• Travel requirements: 1-2 times per year

Role description

We are seeking a full-time designer, visual storytelling to join The 19th’s award-winning creative team. This role will be instrumental in bringing our most ambitious journalism to life visually, in service of our mission to center women, LGBTQ+ people and others historically underserved by traditional news media.

You will work closely with the editorial director of visuals to develop original visual storytelling across illustration, social graphics and visual identity systems, spanning both daily news and long-term editorial projects. On the creative team, you’ll work within the social and brand systems built by our brand designer, who owns The 19th’s brand identity, social templates and design library, while focusing your own work on story-specific visual journalism. You’ll also collaborate with our multimedia producer to ensure visual consistency across platforms and formats. Collaborating with reporters, editors and audience producers across the newsroom, you will create work that makes our journalism more compelling, accessible and impactful to the communities we serve.

This is a multidisciplinary role for a visual journalist who can move quickly between editorial illustration, social design, daily news graphics and larger visual projects. This person will support the newsroom’s daily publishing needs while also partnering with the brand designer to develop distinct visual identities for features, series, elections and other major coverage. This visual journalist will sit on the creative team and report to the editorial director of visuals, working closely with reporters, editors, designers and audience producers across the newsroom. This visual journalist will independently manage many assignments from concept through publication, and will assign and art-direct freelance illustrators when a project requires a particular style, perspective or additional capacity.

A typical week may include creating several rapid-turnaround graphics or illustrations, developing a visual approach for an upcoming editorial project, adapting work for social and digital platforms, and directing a freelance illustrator from sketches through final delivery. The balance of assignments will change with the news cycle, so this visual journalist must be able to manage competing deadlines and adjust the scope of their work based on urgency and editorial need. They will work in tools like Figma, Adobe Creative Suite and WordPress, and pull content from Getty Images and the Associated Press.

Responsibilities

• Create daily editorial designs and illustrations, often completing multiple assignments in a day: Produce story art, original illustrations and social graphics for breaking news and planned coverage. Match the complexity of the work to the deadline, platform and editorial importance of the assignment.
• Develop thoughtful visual approaches for The 19th’s core coverage areas: Find original, specific ways to visualize reporting on gender and sexuality, reproductive health, caregiving, disability, economic inequality and political representation, particularly when stories are sensitive or lack an obvious visual solution. Avoid clichés, stereotypes and repetitive visual shorthand.
• Translate reporting into clear and accurate visual concepts: Read story drafts, identify the central idea the visual(s) should communicate and collaborate with reporters, editors and audience producers to confirm framing and factual details.
• Collaborate with Audience on visual strategy: Partner with the Audience team in an ongoing feedback loop — bringing audience insights, visual expertise, editorial judgment and the needs of the story together to shape and refine visual approaches over time.
• Manage projects and communicate clearly from assignment through publication: Track timelines, deliverables and feedback across multiple concurrent projects. Keep the editorial director of visuals and project stakeholders informed about progress and raise questions about deadlines, scope or blockers early.
• Develop visual identities for major editorial projects: Create visual systems for series, features, elections and other special coverage in partnership with the Brand Designer. Build approaches that feel distinct to the project while remaining connected to The 19th’s broader visual identity.
• Assign and art-direct freelance illustrators: Identify appropriate artists, review portfolios, write creative briefs and guide commissioned work from initial sketches through final delivery. Coordinate artist selection, scope, schedule and budget with the editorial director of visuals.
• Collaborate across the newsroom to develop and refine visual storytelling: Work closely with the editorial director of visuals and other members of the Creative team, as well as audience producers, reporters and editors, to brainstorm concepts, identify the strongest visual approach and incorporate editorial and creative feedback from assignment through publication.
• Adapt and prepare work for publication across platforms: Create versions of the work adapted to The 19th’s website, newsletters and social channels, as well as other channels or platforms we experiment with as the digital media landscape evolves, accounting for mobile presentation, cropping, accessibility and platform requirements.
• Manage assignments from brief through final delivery: Confirm deliverables and deadlines, communicate progress, incorporate feedback, maintain organized files and flag when competing priorities require a reduced scope, adjusted timeline or outside support.
• Maintain editorial, brand and accessibility standards: Review final work for accuracy, spelling, sourcing, licensing, legibility and technical quality. Avoid visual framing that misrepresents the reporting, reinforces harmful stereotypes or implies facts that have not been established.
• Contribute to editorial and creative planning: Participate in relevant meetings and visual critiques, surface upcoming design needs and recommend when a story should use an existing template, an original illustration, a new visual system or a freelance collaborator.

Non-essential functions (as capacity permits):

• Participate in culture building and inclusive decision making, as well as bringing ideas to different parts of our work to help us improve as an organization, such as hiring and onboarding new staff members
• Contribute to cross-team learning, leadership development and organizational planning
• Participate in team, organizational and individual relationship building and professional development throughout the year
• Other responsibilities as needed

Relevant skills and experience

Who you are

• A visual storyteller who understands the power of design in journalism and audience engagement.
• An independent problem-solver who can bring creative ideas to life while balancing multiple priorities.
• A team player who thrives in cross-functional collaboration and can work seamlessly with both creative and editorial teams.
• Passionate about The 19th’s mission and committed to making journalism more inclusive, accessible and impactful.

What you’ll bring

• 4+ years of experience in visual journalism, editorial design, illustration or a related field, ideally within a newsroom, media organization or agency setting, working in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
• A strong portfolio of editorial illustration, story-specific graphics and identity systems built for special projects.
• Demonstrated ability to work as a visual generalist and move efficiently between daily production, original illustration and larger creative projects.
• Demonstrated ability to develop original visual concepts for complex, abstract or sensitive subjects that may not have an obvious visual solution.
• Experience developing visual identities or design systems for individual stories, series or special coverage.
• Experience commissioning illustrators, writing creative briefs and art-directing work through final delivery.
• Strong working knowledge of Figma and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Strong prioritization, communication and project-management skills, including the ability to work independently and manage several assignments at once in a remote workplace.
• Working knowledge of accessibility principles for digital design, including contrast, typography, reading order and mobile presentation.
• A demonstrated commitment to journalism that serves women, LGBTQ+ people and communities historically underserved by traditional news organizations.

Preferred, but not required

• Experience working in nonprofit media organizations or public-interest journalism environments.
• Experience creating maps, charts, timelines or other explanatory graphics.
• Familiarity with motion design, simple animation or video graphics.

We know there are great candidates who might not check all these boxes or who possess important skills we haven’t mentioned. If that’s you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself. We also encourage members of traditionally underrepresented communities to apply, including people of color, LGBTQ people and people with disabilities.

Benefits

• Vacation time off (20 days per year)
• Sick time off (10 days per year)
• Personal time off (6 days per year)
• Holidays (18 days on average)
• Paid family leave (100% up to 6 months)
• Caregiver leave (100% up to 4 months)
• 401(k) plan (up to 3.5% matching on 6% contribution)
• Flexible Spending Plan (for qualifying medical or child care expenses)
• Health Savings Account
• Health, vision, and dental insurance (100% for employee / 60% for dependents)
• Professional development stipends
• Wellness and work-from-home reimbursement benefits
• Long-term and short-term disability insurance
• Life insurance