Communications and Design Coordinator

Detroit Disability Power is looking for an artist at heart – a graphic designer and visual storyteller who can translate our organizing into media people connect with and take action as a result of. We want someone whose first instinct is to create access through the power of design. You are excited to illustrate, curate, and help refine a brand that looks and sounds like the Detroit-based disability justice movement it comes from.

You bring a strong commitment to the disability justice principles and accessible design, and you understand that beautiful work and accessible work can be the same work. You can create (or learn quickly how to create) digital, illustrated, video/audio, and text-based content that meets accessibility requirements for social media content. You can carry several creative projects at once without losing the core message. Finally, you're collaborative – your work genuinely reflects the work of every department and the community we organize with – not just your own creative vision.

Primary Responsibilities

The Communications and Design Coordinator reports to the Communications Director.

Content Creation & Original Design

• Design accessible, brand-aligned materials across all of our channels – social media, email, print, and web.
• Make original art. Simple illustration (like for Zine making) and visual-art skills are central to this role. This position requires someone who can produce original work, not only assemble templates. No use of generative AI will be allowed when creating art for the organization.
• Build compelling, reusable design assets for the whole team, like polished slide-deck templates and well-designed report templates that make DDP's work easy to read and beautiful.
• Capture the organization at work: regularly take photos, record video, and gather interview sound bites at DDP events.
• Write and distribute a bi-weekly e-newsletter.
• Minimal website management of select pages.

Social Media Management

• Co-develop and support an outreach calendar detailing what we publish, when, and where across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Correspond with followers across our various inboxes.
• Grow our base of online supporters, and improve the rate at which a follower becomes an active supporter.
• Write accessible, compelling caption copy for primarily Instagram and Facebook content.

Creative Asset Stewardship

• Keep our visual archive usable: organize and maintain photos and media across Canva, EveryAction, and our Google Drive photo archives.
• Design, organize, and coordinate the printing of our “swag” (merchandise, apparel, outreach materials).

Tech and Data Support

• Provide behind-the-scenes support at virtual events – troubleshooting access issues, sharing slides and video, and creating breakout rooms.
• Co-develop and maintain a basic, org-wide file-naming and storage system so our digital content, documents, and materials stay archived and findable.

Other duties, as required

• All DDP staff support bi-annual Member Meetings.
• All DDP staff participate in Election Protection or Poll Audits during elections.
• All DDP staff must be familiar and comfortable with EveryAction by Bonterra, the CRM we use to conduct our work.
• All DDP staff facilitate engaging 2-hour Anti-Ableism 101 workshops.
• All DDP Communications staff periodically facilitate a 1-2 hour Accessible Comms 101 workshop.

Desired Skills

• You have knowledge of disability issues, rights, and culture, and a commitment to disability inclusion, dismantling ableism, and intersectional strategies — specifically a strong racial equity analysis.
• You are a designer and/or illustrator. You're professionally fluent in Canva and comfortable with tools like Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop (or eager to grow into them). Original illustration or visual-art practice is a strong plus.
• You can design for reuse – building clean, on-brand slide-deck templates and reports that other staff can pick up and run with.
• You practice, or are ready to develop, accessible graphic design: designing with color contrast, font size, and typeface choices that keep our work readable and usable for everyone. This is a skill we'll invest in growing with you.
• You are comfortable being on camera (or know how to bring out the best in those who are). You know that real faces build real trust, and you're excited to showcase our staff and members on social media to build a stronger connection with our community.
• You're comfortable making minor updates to a website (e.g., keeping an events calendar current) in a platform like Squarespace.
• You're comfortable with Asana, Excel, and Google Sheets for the tracking a creative workflow needs.
• You have a basic understanding of the political process and how decisions are made.

Desired Mindset

• An artist's sensibility: you prioritize how the work looks and feels, and you care for the details.
• Meets deadlines with ease, budgeting time to account for the margins necessary to balance the expected with the unexpected.
• Openness and willingness to learn new skills and maintain a learning attitude.
• Openness and willingness to be part of a department – you're a team player.
• Ability to think and work creatively and critically.
• Willingness and ability to move between big-picture and detail-oriented work.
• A natural sense of curiosity about people and the ability to relate to them.
• Willingness to speak up, suggest new ideas, receive feedback, adjust plans, and be part of the solution.
• Ability to show up for co-workers with consistent follow-through and good communication.
• Ability to drive your own work – often independently – learning quickly, setting goals, being resourceful, and asking for help when needed.
• Reflective and open to feedback; recognizes their own strengths, limitations, and opportunities for growth
• Able to reflect on their own impact, receive feedback without defensiveness, and take accountability when things don’t go as intended

Required Experience

• 2+ years in a similar role (graphic design, illustration, social media, communications, or organizing).
• 1 or more years working for a social justice and/or nonprofit organization.
• Basic portfolio prepared: a body of creative work you can show us, design, illustration, and/or content you've made.
• Relevant lived experience and the ability to articulate learning from those experiences.

We offer a generous benefits package that includes earned paid time off (8 hours biweekly); holiday pay; medical, dental, vision; 403(b) employer match; and parental leave.