Head of Design - remote job

garden3d is hiring a Head of Design - a lead role, which means responsibility for a team or a direction. The role sits in Design and is fully remote. The company places no restriction on where the candidate lives, so you can apply from anywhere.

The advert singles out Figma, so experience with that one tool is what will decide it.

The employer did not publish a figure; that is settled at interview. The advert sets no condition on working hours.

This vacancy passed an automated check: the list excludes any advert requiring a foreign work permit, visa sponsorship, a particular citizenship, or residence in a specific country.

Headquarters: New York City

URL: https://garden3d.net/

We are hiring a Head of Design for the garden3d creative collective, to uphold an exceedingly high bar on every single thing we make

More details if you check our  original job posting link

About garden3d

We are worker owned creative collective, innovating on everything from brands and IRL communities to IoT devices and cross platform apps. We share profit, open source everything, spin out new businesses, and invest in exciting ideas through financial and/or in-kind contributions.

Our client roster includes  Google ,  Stripe ,  Figma ,  Hinge ,  Black Socialists in America ,  ACLU ,  Pratt ,  Parsons ,  Mozilla ,  The Nobel Prize ,  MIT ,  Gnosis ,  Etsy  &  Gagosian .

We’re the software team behind innovative products like  The Light Phone  &  Mill , and we operate a global, decentralized community space collective called  Index Space .

We think of our garden3d as collective for creative people, prioritizing a happy, talented, and diverse studio culture. We work on projects that bring value to our world, and we balance deep care for the work we do with a genuine curiosity about life outside of our jobs.

Sanctuary Computer  - Development

At  Sanctuary Computer  we’re building a different type of technology shop - one that prioritizes close collaboration between the client and the craftsperson.

Our projects range from design-forward websites, to robust web apps, to native mobile development.

XXIX  - Design

When we started  XXIX  in 2013, we set out to create a different kind of design studio and we’ve thrived because we continually ask what a creative practice can be.

We’re building a radically different kind of organization that values autonomy, growth, transparency, and shared responsibility.

Index Space  - Community

A network of physical spaces all around the world,  Index  provides space for the exchange of knowledge and tools.

We nurture trust within the creative community through generosity and abundance of ideas and care.

garden3d TK  - Media

At garden3d, we’re in the early stages of building an experimental media company exploring emerging themes related to the evolving landscape of technology, design and culture.

We aim to monetize this outlet, publish books, produce screenplays, and release music.

Plus, our partner organizations https://www.thelightphone.com/ https://www.mill.com/ https://www.ingredient-ai.com/

The Head of Design Role

The garden3d Head of Design has one mandate: nothing we put on the internet falls below an 8 out of 10. We are a house of brands - Sanctuary Computer (development), XXIX (design), Index Space (community), USB Club (digital community), and the garden3d umbrella itself - and all of them ship work into the world under our name. Working in close partnership with our founder & president Hugh Francis , this person sets the craft standard, and builds the culture that holds it.

You can be based anywhere. A lot of our people are in New York and there's some gravity here, but we already work across timezones and we would happily hire in Europe, Singapore, Chicago, or wherever you are. If you're the right person, we want to hear from you.

This role works with studio leads, designers, developers, editors, animators, photographers and clients across every garden3d vertical. 

This person can move between a brand identity, a product interface, a case study and a launch film in the same week, and raise the bar on each of them.

They span all of garden3d, but their home base is XXIX . Our design studio is where the standard gets set, and where it either holds or slips, so this person runs critique there. Regular reviews. Honest and specific feedback. A shared language for why one thing is better than another, and what practically to do about it. Then they carry that same bar everywhere: to Sanctuary Computer's product and web work, to Index, to new USB Club product launches, to garden3d TK and everything we publish.

They are also how we get better people. Our work is only as good as the designers making it, so this person hunts for exceptional talent, sells them on us, and sets them up to do the best work of their careers. The ideal candidate looks at a worker-owned collective with four studios, an open P&L and clients like Google, Figma and The Nobel Prize, and sees a design practice they can propel among the best in the world.

They span all of garden3d, but their home base is XXIX . Our design studio is where the standard gets set, and where it either holds or slips, so this person runs critique there. Regular reviews. Honest and specific feedback. A shared language for why one thing is better than another, and what practically to do about it. Then they carry that same bar everywhere: to Sanctuary Computer's product and web work, to Index, to new USB Club product launches, to garden3d TK and everything we publish.

They are also how we get better people. Our work is only as good as the designers making it, so this person hunts for exceptional talent, sells them on us, and sets them up to do the best work of their careers. The ideal candidate looks at a worker-owned collective with four studios, an open P&L and clients like Google, Figma and The Nobel Prize, and sees a design practice they can propel among the best in the world.

Responsibilities & Mandates

‍Quality never less than 8/10

We aspire for 10/10, celebrate 9/10 and never publish anything that’s not an 8/10 - visually, narratively, and in production quality. This person holds that line across every website, brand, deck, film, case study and post, on every vertical. They would rather kill a piece than let a 6 out the door. Their feedback makes work better and faster, without micromanaging the people who make it.

A critique culture at XXIX

XXIX is where our standard lives, so this is where most of their energy goes. They build and run its critique practice: reviews with teeth, feedback that is specific rather than polite, and a vocabulary the whole studio shares. A designer should leave a crit knowing exactly what to do next. Done well, the crit is what makes the studio better than any one person in it, including them.

Hiring and empowering the very best

They are a magnet for exceptional designers. They know where to find them, how to convince them, and how to give them enough room to do their best work while still holding them to the standard. People who work for this person should get visibly better, and should say so.

Client craft, at blue-chip standard

Our clients include Google, Stripe, Figma, Mozilla, The Nobel Prize and Gagosian. This person has sat across the table from companies like these, presented work, defended it, and shaped a brand narrative the client's own leadership could repeat back to their board. They can run a room, and they've done it across many industries, not just one.

New design business, and the projects that matter most

They run new business for design. Pitching, scoping and closing the work we actually want, and building the relationships that bring the next one back. When a project is our highest-profile or highest-budget, they're in it: not always as the day-to-day lead, but as the person shaping the creative direction and making sure it lands. The work we win, and the work we're known for, is the clearest measure of whether this is going well.

Type and editorial design

Typography and editorial systems are core craft here, not a specialism we farm out. This person has a real practice in both. Their type choices should be one of the first things you notice about their portfolio, and one of the first things our designers learn from them.

Case study production

Every engagement across our studios should end in a case study you'd want to read…