Senior Graphic Designer in London

Watson Farley & Williams is an international law firm advising on complex disputes and transactions through local knowledge and an integrated international network. We have a strong sector focus, combining our technical excellence with deep industry knowledge across Energy, Transport and associated Infrastructure. The firm has achieved rapid expansion and year-on-year growth owed almost entirely to a focused strategy, strong leadership and the quality of its people. The next stage in the firm’s growth plan is to achieve full-service strength within core sectors across the global platform.

We strive for excellence in all that we do and view investment in our people as key to achieving our business goals and values, which rest on developing deep and long-lasting relationships externally and internally through respect, sharing, communication and integrity. Our global practice is integrated across our offices in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and North America delivering consistently high levels of service across borders and locally through a deep understanding of local business customs and culture. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace to attract and retain the most talented people from all backgrounds and cultures. We believe in celebrating difference and that people from any background can rise to the top, ensuring opportunities to develop and progress are available for all.

The global Business Development and Communications team comprises over 60 business development, marketing and communications professionals based across the jurisdictions where we have an office. As our route to market is through our global sectors and our clients are international, team members regularly collaborate to deliver cross-border campaigns and global projects. It is a close-knit and supportive team with an excellent reputation across the firm.

The Executive Graphic Designer/Senior Graphic Designer will report to the firm's Brand & Design Manager. You will act as a guardian of the firm’s global corporate identity, using your role as a trusted consultant to promote and maintain high levels of quality, consistency, and efficacy in the WFW visual brand experience. You will be an advocate for the value that branding and design bring to the firm through the quality of your design work and the communication of your expertise and knowledge. Design work is for external and internal audiences, predominantly in digital but also in print and spans all channels of communication.

The role will centre around producing on-brand design assets used across the firm including social media graphics, video, animation, infographics, brochures, maps, imagery for the firm’s image libraries and designs for internal campaigns. You will need to be creative, a good listener, who can take and follow direction, be a clear communicator, work well in an often demanding environment and be able to manage multiple design tasks and ongoing projects while being mindful of overall progress and deadlines.

Key activities/responsibilities

• Creating and maintaining high quality digital and print design work to effectively brand and market the firm externally. Ensuring only the best work is released to the client.
• Creating design work for internal initiatives and platforms, including but not limited to: Responsible Business, Early Careers, Internal Communications, Firmwide Events.
• Managing and designing campaigns across multiple channels.
• Working closely and collaboratively with the Brand & Design Manager on the creative direction of the firms' brand and subsidiary brands including identifying opportunities to develop new design layouts, infographics, typography and digital assets; and develop and align the brand, including logotype, colour palette, typeface, photography and illustration style.
• Reviewing the work of junior level Brand & Design team members to give guidance and feedback.
• Maintaining quality and consistency in global portrait and office photography and imagery.
• An awareness of current industry trends, both creative and technical, and an aptitude for working with new and changing technology and platforms.

Skills and experience – desired

• Executive Graphic Designer or Senior Graphic Designer with extensive experience.
• Confidence and experience in managing campaigns and working with clients and stakeholders at all levels of seniority.
• Strong understanding of the value of branding and experience of working with corporate brands.
• Confidence in overseeing all design elements, from the conception to final delivery.
• Expert in the following design software and skills: Adobe Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, PowerPoint – presentations with transitions and effects, Adobe Acrobat Professional – including interactive PDFs.
• Experience producing digital assets, including video and sound editing: Camtasia or Adobe Premier – video production and editing, Adobe Audition – audio editing.
• Exceptional organisational and project management skills to manage and prioritise high levels of design projects and tasks running in parallel with tight deadlines.
• High levels of creativity and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and teamworking skills with ability to clearly express brand and design concepts to colleagues with and without design expertise.
• Diplomatic, calm under pressure and a "can-do" attitude.
• Exceptional relationship management skills to influence, enable and empower individuals.
• Understands and demonstrates WFW's core values of respect, sharing, communication and integrity.
• Plays a full part in making WFW a firm they would recommend to others to work in, respecting diversity and acting fairly and inclusively.

We offer a competitive benefits and wellbeing package for all employees.

The Firm promotes a culture of agility and flexibility and is fully supportive of flexible working arrangements where these can be accommodated.

Equal opportunities

Respect for different backgrounds and perspectives is at the heart of our firm’s core values and we recognise the importance of fostering an inclusive environment that allows everyone to reach their full potential. This is a key feature of our Global Code of Conduct, which places diversity and inclusion at the centre of our firm’s ways of working. We believe that exceptional client service can only be delivered by exceptional people. For this reason, we aim to attract, retain and develop the best talent from a wide range of backgrounds. All decisions relating to employment will be objective and based on merit and ability. We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are as inclusive and barrier-free as possible. This includes making adjustments for candidates with a disability or long-term health condition. If you require adjustments to be made at any stage of the recruitment process, we’d encourage you to get in touch with a member of our team who would be happy to discuss options with you.