Senior Designer, Blue Bottle Coffee
$120-166k
More information about location
Coffee roaster and retailer
Job no longer available
Coffee roaster and retailer
1001+ employees
Job no longer available
$120-166k
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To provide great coffee for everyone.
Role
Who you are
- 8+ years of professional design experience within an agency, in-house creative team, studio, or similarly multidisciplinary environment
- A portfolio demonstrating exceptional conceptual thinking and versatility across multiple mediums, including digital, print, packaging, product, and/or physical brand experiences
- Experience leading integrated projects or campaigns from initial concept through production and execution across multiple channels
- Experience leading, mentoring, or directly managing designers and creative collaborators
- Strong experience in print and packaging design, including preparing press-ready files and overseeing production and press checks
- Strong understanding of digital design across eCommerce, email, social media, and other digital platforms
- Experience designing within established brand systems while knowing when and how to thoughtfully evolve them
- Fluency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Figma, and Google Workspace
- Strong knowledge of typography and an exceptional eye for composition, hierarchy, image-making, and detail
- Experience working with vendors, fabricators, printers, or production partners to bring physical creative ideas to life
- A multidisciplinary designer who is energized by moving between mediums rather than specializing in only one
- A conceptual thinker who can develop a strong creative idea and translate it into a cohesive visual system
- Equally invested in the idea and the execution—you care about the big picture and the smallest details
- Flexible and quick to respond to changing business priorities and comfortable navigating ambiguity
- Able to move between projects, scales, and mediums while maintaining consistency and quality
- Comfortable working under creative direction while bringing a strong point of view and independent thinking to the work
- Fast and generative, able to explore and iterate multiple creative directions without sacrificing craft
- Comfortable managing multiple, occasionally competing deadlines
- Proactive and solutions-oriented, approaching constraints as opportunities for creative problem solving
- Collaborative and energized by working closely with other designers as well as partners outside of Creative
- A strong communicator—verbally, visually, and in writing
- Comfortable giving and receiving thoughtful, constructive feedback
- Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail
- A strategic design thinker who understands how individual creative expressions contribute to a larger brand system
- Deeply curious about culture, art, design, fashion, food, hospitality, and the world around you
What the job involves
- The Senior Designer, US reports directly to the Creative Director, US and plays a leading role in shaping how Blue Bottle comes to life across the US market
- This is a multidisciplinary design role for someone who thinks in ideas and systems rather than a single medium
- You will move fluidly between brand, campaigns, digital, print, packaging, merchandise, and physical cafe experiences, translating a creative idea across channels while maintaining a cohesive and distinctly Blue Bottle point of view
- You are both a conceptual thinker and a hands-on designer
- You can establish the visual idea for a campaign, then understand how that idea should flex from a digital experience to a printed piece, a package, a product, or a cafe environment
- You are equally comfortable starting with a blank page, refining an existing system, and getting into the details required to bring the work beautifully to life
- Working closely with the Creative Director, you will work on design for US product launches, campaigns, café marketing, activations, and brand initiatives
- You will also help guide freelance designers as needed, providing thoughtful design direction and raising the quality and consistency of the work
- Strong communication and presentation skills are essential
- You will articulate creative ideas and design rationale to Marketing and cross-functional partners, collaborate throughout the development process, and help turn business and brand opportunities into compelling creative solutions
- Lead design from concept through execution across digital, print, merchandise, and physical brand experiences, creating cohesive ideas that translate thoughtfully across mediums
- Develop visual concepts and systems for integrated campaigns, product launches, seasonal initiatives, and other key US brand moments
- Design packaging, merchandise, and branded products with an understanding of how individual expressions contribute to a larger brand system
- Create digital experiences and assets across eCommerce, email, social media, paid media, and other evolving digital channels
- Design physical and printed brand expressions including cafe signage, menus, environmental graphics, marketing collateral, wayfinding, and consumer-packaged goods
- Translate creative concepts across scale and context—from a social asset or email to a package, café window, product, or physical activation—without losing the strength of the original idea
- Prototype ideas through 2D and 3D mockups to explore, communicate, and refine concepts before production
- Partner with Marketing, Product, Cafe, Digital, and other cross-functional teams to understand business needs and turn them into strong creative solutions
- Present creative concepts and design rationale clearly and persuasively to cross-functional partners and senior stakeholders
- Lead projects through iteration, production, and final execution, maintaining a high level of craft and attention to detail throughout
- Guide and provide feedback to full-time and freelance designers, helping establish clear creative direction while supporting their development
- Partner with vendors and production partners to explore materials, fabrication techniques, printing, packaging, and other methods of bringing ideas to life
- Contribute to the continued evolution of Blue Bottle’s brand standards, visual systems, and design guidelines
- Stay curious about culture, design, technology, materials, and emerging creative mediums, bringing new ideas and approaches into the work
Our take
Founded in 2002, Blue Bottle Coffee is a coffee roaster and retailers that became a major player in the third wave coffee movement, helped in part by the investment and expansion opportunities created through Nestlé's majority acquisition in 2017. Blue Bottle now operates more than 100 stores across the US and Asia, and continues to expand product collaborations, read-to-drink beverages, and merchandizing.
Blue Bottle Coffee's subscription business grew significantly following shifts in customer behavior toward premium at-home coffee experiences and recurring subscription services. Showing the company's ability to build a loyal customer base and capitalize on growing demand for higher-quality coffee products outside of traditional cafés.
The company also benefits from the pandemic period, where its scale and backing from Nestlé helped it remain resilient while smaller independent cafés struggled or closed completely.
However, Blue Bottle has now entered a new chapter following Nestlé's decision to sell the company as part of a wider strategy to streamline its portfolio and focus on core brands. The move reflects changing priorities withing Nestlé rather than weakness in Blue Bottle itself, with the brand remaining a recognized name in premium coffee and well positioned to continue growing.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
7% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 4 rounds)
Jun 2015
$70m
SERIES C
Jan 2014
$25.7m
SERIES B
Total funding: $135.7m
Company HQ
Old Oakland, Oakland, CA
Leadership
James Freeman
(Founder)Former Music Analyst at Mongo music and freelance musician.
Karl Strovink
(CEO)Karl initially joined the Blue Bottle team as the President and COO in 2019, becoming CEo in 2020. Prior to this, they spent over 10 years at Converse, holding various VP/GM roles.
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