Junior Designer FTC

We’re looking for a Junior Designer to join our creative studio team on a fixed term basis for 12 months. You’ll provide creative designs for Wickes’ communication channels to support promotional activity and customer experience.
As part of a high-performing creative team, you will be responsible for improving the customer experience and sales potential through high standards of creative design. We’re looking for a designer who is confident, articulate and keen to add value in a high profile team. Your responsibilities will include developing creative ideas and producing visual solutions to meet the needs of our communication channels.

We want a switched on, creative, eager person; who works well across teams, and will proactively come up with creative ideas for assets we could use for our social platforms.  They will be active and excited by social media creative, constantly looking for new ways to bring our products and offers to life. They should be positive and live our behaviours.  

What you’ll be doing 

• Lead the creative development of impactful, category leading, on brand content for social platforms that drives clicks, swipe ups and traffic to the website.

• Work with the Marketing Manager - Social Media to understand the results delivered through the creative, what works, what doesn’t and what we should do next time as a result of that.

• Excellent understanding of social media and digital assets across all devices and platforms and have knowledge of dynamic creative tools.

• Become a gatekeeper for social media creative, challenging the status quo and striving to drive improvement of social. 

• Work with the Studio Manager and brief owners to ensure briefs and feedback are delivered on time and drive the Wickes brand forward

• Support in the delivery of other briefs including artworking Point of Sale for campaigns, brochures and website work to maintain workflow across the studio team

• Demonstrate Wickes behaviours and support their own development goals

• Creation of concepts/designs to support creative activity, utilising a variety of methods (storyboards, Figma designs, prototypes) 

• Producing graphic content in line with briefs including page layouts and themes, site graphics and banner ads

• Creation of UI designs across all digital platform and device channels

• Owning and assuming accountability for the delivery of all the above BAU changes – ensuring that changes are delivered effectively and any issues with changes are resolved promptly

• Designing concepts for site changes and new projects (e.g. new season launches, promotional campaigns)

• Presenting creative solutions to the wider team with relation to the original brief, which ensure we are always looking ahead and keeping up with competitors

• Digital asset management

• Upkeep of digital brand guidelines and frameworks 

• Proficient across Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator

• Stays ahead of trends and digital innovations to produce new ideas and content

• Can create effective, response and trend-driven social media creative

• Able to storyboard original authentic ideas

• Able to recognise how to drive engagement and look at ways to push the brand forward in social

What are we looking for in you?

• You’ll be an online design professional with demonstrable experience of commercial web design

• You will have excellent communication skills, be a strong team player and be able to work in a busy and demanding environment. Previous experience from a multichannel retail environment is essential 

• Experience in a similar role where your focus was on delivering engaging and inspiring content

• Experience of working with Content Management Systems

• An in-depth knowledge of current design trends and technique

• The ability to communicate creative ideas clearly and succinctly

• Demonstrable knowledge of the latest web standards and best practices, accessibility requirements, usability guidelines and web technologies

• A high level of attention to detail in all aspects of design

• The ability to work well within a team, meet tight deadlines and manage workload effectively

• You must be a solid decision-maker – aware of commercial impacts of their delivery and able to react quickly and effectively in difficult or time-sensitive situations

• You will be flexible and adaptive – able to manage multiple streams of activity and prioritise your own workload to ensure key project or change timeframes are met

Necessary technical skills/experience

• Proficient user experience design – wireframes, prototyping and usability testing

• Proficient in Adobe creative suites including Photoshop and Illustrator 

• Proficient in Figma similar prototyping tools

• Proficient in CSS, HTML and JSON (preferred) 

• The ability to interface between marketing and technology functions

• The ability to balance delivery of immediate tactical work with longer-term requirements 

• Ideally demonstrative experience of social media creative development for a retail brand

• Good experience and understanding in moving image, photography, graphics and other techniques to drive engagement 

• Must be able to use; Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign

• Knowledge and experience of videography

• Able to storyboard ideas to convey response to brief and flow the storyboards in social assets

• Keen creative eye, able to recognise how to drive engagement and look at ways to push the brand forward in social

• Understand the results delivered through the creative, what works, what doesn’t and what we should do next time as a result of that.

• Understanding of creative best practice across Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube

• Being able to turn around quick video edits (including text on screen) for multiple channels.

What can we offer you?

You’ll be supported with fantastic learning and development and have the opportunity to grow and develop your career with us. We also have an early careers network to support you if you’re in your first few years of your career. 

We’ll also equip you with a benefits package that includes: 

Competitive bonus

Save-as-you-earn scheme

Life Assurance

Contributory pension scheme

Colleague discount 

Discount platform including savings and cash back at numerous retailers, savings on gym membership, cycle to work scheme

Our widely recognised wellbeing strategy is something we’re proud of at Wickes. As part of this, we offer a range of health and wellbeing benefits and support, including an Employee Assistance Programme, financial education & loans, and access to parental, menopause and fertility support. 

You’ll work from our Support Centre in Watford, where our Marketing and Studio teams are based, along with our other support functions.  We recognise the value of bringing our teams together to collaborate, support each other and build on our amazing culture.  We are also encouraging our teams to work flexibly, with a blend of remote / office working. 

About Us: 

Wickes is a multi-channel retailer operating in the home improvement market.  With 50 years in industry, Wickes now generates revenue in excess of £1.6bn across 230 stores delivered by 8,000+ colleagues.  

But it is the Wickes’ culture that is considered its best kept secret; it’s a collaborative, down to earth, fun and inclusive environment where people feel part of a winning team. All our colleagues come from different backgrounds, but what we all have in common is a determination to succeed and a passion for being the best we can be. If that sounds like you, we’ll make you feel right at home.