Senior Brand Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Brand Designer

Company: Tolan

Location: San Francisco, California, United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Brand Design / Marketing

Date Posted: 2026-08-21

Experience Level: 4-6 Years

Remote Status: On-site

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the creation and evolution of Tolan's brand identity, visual language, typography, illustration, and motion design to ensure consistent and scalable application across all touchpoints.

• Develop comprehensive brand guidelines to empower non-designers to produce high-quality work independently, fostering brand consistency throughout the organization.

• Drive campaign concept development from ideation through to final asset creation, ensuring alignment with brand strategy and marketing objectives.

• Craft visually compelling flagship reports, whitepapers, and long-form editorial content where hierarchy and typography are critical for effective communication.

• Oversee and refresh marketing site designs, ensuring a cohesive and engaging user experience that reflects the brand's personality and values.

• Identify and manage external specialists (illustration, motion, photo, print) for projects requiring specific expertise, ensuring seamless integration with the core brand vision.

• Build and maintain scalable design systems and templates to facilitate rapid execution of design assets without compromising brand quality or integrity.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as the first dedicated brand designer, implying a foundational responsibility for establishing and scaling brand systems. The emphasis on "building scalable systems" and "creating guidelines for non-designers" suggests a strong need for strategic thinking and process ownership, beyond just creative execution. The target audience for this role is likely someone who thrives in an early-stage, high-growth environment and can operate with a high degree of autonomy.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the Tolan brand identity, encompassing visual language, typography, color palettes, illustration style, and motion graphics, ensuring a cohesive and scalable presence across all customer touchpoints.

• Develop and maintain a comprehensive brand style guide and system documentation, providing clear direction for internal teams and external partners to ensure consistent brand execution.

• Conceptualize and execute creative strategies for marketing campaigns, translating strategic objectives into impactful visual narratives and assets.

• Design and produce high-quality editorial content, including reports, whitepapers, and long-form articles, with a focus on strong typographic hierarchy and layout design for maximum readability and impact.

• Lead the design and ongoing optimization of the company's marketing website, ensuring it reflects the brand's personality and effectively communicates value propositions.

• Source, vet, and direct freelance talent or agency partners for specialized design needs (e.g., custom illustration, animation, photography) when required for specific projects.

• Design, build, and maintain robust design systems and reusable templates that empower product, marketing, and other teams to create on-brand assets efficiently and consistently.

• Collaborate closely with founders and the Head of Brand to define and elevate the brand's aesthetic and strategic direction as the company matures.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize both strategic ownership of the brand's evolution and tactical execution across various mediums. The mention of "building scalable design systems and templates" and "creating guidelines that let non-designers... produce decent work" highlights a critical need for process-oriented thinking and the ability to operationalize design standards for broader organizational use.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong educational foundation in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field is often beneficial for demonstrating foundational design principles and aesthetic understanding.

Experience: Approximately 4-6 years of dedicated brand design experience, with a proven track record of delivering both strategic brand initiatives and high-quality tactical design assets. Experience in fast-paced, growth-stage environments is highly valued.

Required Skills:

• Portfolio Excellence: A strong, impactful portfolio showcasing depth of taste, strategic thinking, and demonstrable success in driving product, team, or company growth through design.

• Brand Identity & Systems: Expertise in developing and scaling comprehensive brand identities, including visual language, typography, color theory, illustration, and motion design.

• Editorial & Layout Design: Proven ability to craft compelling long-form content, reports, and whitepapers with a focus on strong typographic hierarchy and layout principles.

• Campaign Development: Demonstrated experience in conceptualizing and executing integrated marketing campaigns from ideation to asset creation.

• Design Systems Thinking: Proficiency in building and maintaining scalable design systems and templates that enable consistent brand execution across diverse touchpoints and teams.

• Autonomy & Ambiguity Navigation: Ability to independently manage projects, interpret vague briefs, and deliver high-quality work with minimal oversight.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Skill in working effectively with founders, marketing, product, and other teams to align design strategy with business objectives.

• AI Tool Proficiency: Comfort and willingness to leverage AI tools for design ideation and execution, while ensuring the final output remains distinctly human and on-brand.

Preferred Skills:

• Agency experience, either working within an agency or transitioning from an agency background.

• Experience in VC-backed consumer tech or CPG industries.

• Familiarity with directing specialized creative talent (illustration, motion graphics, photography, print production).

• Understanding of marketing site design principles and user experience best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "depth, taste, and impact" in the portfolio, coupled with the requirement for "range" (fast-turn social assets to launch campaigns), suggests the need for a versatile designer capable of high-level strategic thinking and hands-on execution across various formats and project types. The "AI-Forward" requirement is unique and implies a need for experimentation and adaptation to new technologies within a creative context.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Demonstrated Brand System Development: Showcase examples of how you've built or significantly evolved brand systems, including guidelines, style guides, and reusable components.

• Process Improvement Case Studies: Include projects where your design work directly led to measurable improvements in brand perception, campaign effectiveness, or user engagement. Quantify impact where possible.

• Scalable Design Solutions: Highlight instances where you designed templates, systems, or guidelines that enabled others (non-designers) to produce consistent, high-quality work independently.

• Project Lifecycle Management: Present work that illustrates your ability to manage projects from initial concept and strategic brief through to final execution and implementation across multiple channels.

• Strategic Impact: Ensure your portfolio clearly articulates the strategic goals behind your design choices and demonstrates how your work contributed to achieving those objectives.

Process Documentation:

• Brand Guideline Creation: Provide examples or descriptions of how you approach creating comprehensive brand guidelines, ensuring clarity, accessibility, and practical application for diverse teams.

• Design System Implementation: Detail your process for building, documenting, and maintaining design systems, including how you ensure adoption and iteration.

• Campaign Workflow: Illustrate your typical workflow for developing marketing campaigns, from initial brainstorming and concepting to asset creation and deployment.

• Cross-Functional Design Collaboration: Describe your methods for collaborating with non-design stakeholders, incorporating feedback, and ensuring alignment on design outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given this is the first dedicated brand designer role, the portfolio should strongly emphasize the ability to build foundational systems and processes. The expectation is not just for beautiful design, but for design that is strategic, scalable, and empowers others. Demonstrating an understanding of how to operationalize brand guidelines and design systems will be crucial.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: $150,000 - $180,000 USD per year.

Benefits:

• Equity: Stock options or grants, providing ownership in the company's growth.

• Comprehensive Health Insurance: Medical, dental, and vision coverage.

• Paid Time Off: Generous vacation, sick leave, and holiday policies.

• Professional Development: Budget for conferences, workshops, and learning resources to support skill advancement.

• Unlimited AI Token Budget: Access to cutting-edge AI tools for design exploration and execution.

• Other potential benefits may include: 401(k) matching, commuter benefits, wellness stipends, etc.

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours are expected, likely around 40 hours per week. While the role is on-site, the company culture may offer some flexibility in daily scheduling, provided core responsibilities and team collaboration needs are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is for the base salary. The "Equity" benefit is significant for early-stage startups like Tolan, as it offers substantial upside potential. The "Unlimited AI Token Budget" is a unique perk, indicating the company's commitment to leveraging advanced technology and empowering its designers with ample resources.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Consumer Technology. Tolan is at the forefront of developing personal AI applications designed to enhance user cognition, reflection, and action.

Company Size: Growing startup, indicated by having reached over 130,000 paying users and a team that is likely expanding beyond initial founding members but still relatively lean. The fact that this is the first brand designer role suggests a team size that is functional but not yet heavily specialized in every area.

Founded: The company has been operating for at least one year, evidenced by its user growth metrics. The exact founding date is not specified but implies a relatively young, dynamic organization.

Team Structure:

• This role reports directly to the Head of Brand, Court Klein.

• Close collaboration with the founding team is expected.

• The design team is currently very small, with this role being the sole dedicated brand designer.

• Cross-functional collaboration will be essential with product, engineering, marketing, and growth teams. Methodology:

• Data-Driven Product Development: Tolan emphasizes "industry-leading metrics across engagement, retention, and customer NPS," indicating a strong reliance on data to inform product decisions and measure success.

• User-Centric Approach: The focus on "personal AI that helps people think, reflect, and take action in their real lives" highlights a deep commitment to understanding and serving user needs.

• AI Integration: The company actively embraces and invests in AI technologies, as demonstrated by the "unlimited token budget" for design tools.

• Brand as a Differentiator: The description of the brand as having "personality," being "playful, warm, a bit offbeat," and "people respond to it" signifies that brand is a key element of their strategy and customer connection.

Company Website: https://www.tolans.com/careers

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on AI and personal development, combined with a "playful, warm, offbeat" brand personality, suggests a culture that values innovation, creativity, and a human-centric approach. The early-stage nature means the brand designer will play a pivotal role in shaping its visual identity and could experience rapid growth alongside the company.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a "Senior" Brand Designer role, indicating a significant level of responsibility and expected autonomy. As the first dedicated brand designer, the individual will be instrumental in shaping the visual future of the company. This is a foundational role with immense potential for impact and influence.

Reporting Structure: Reports to the Head of Brand, Court Klein. This suggests a structure where senior design leadership is being established, with opportunities to influence broader brand strategy under their guidance. Close collaboration with founders is also a key aspect of the reporting dynamic.

Operations Impact: The brand designer's work will directly impact Tolan's market perception, user acquisition, customer engagement, and overall brand equity. By establishing strong brand identity and systems, this role will enable more effective marketing campaigns, clearer product communication, and a more cohesive user experience, all of which are critical for a growing consumer tech company. The emphasis on "raising the level of craft" and defining "what a more elevated version of Tolan looks like" highlights the strategic impact beyond just asset creation.

Growth Opportunities:

• Foundational Role: Opportunity to build and define the visual identity and design systems for a rapidly growing AI company from the ground up.

• Leadership Potential: As the brand matures and the team grows, there will be opportunities to move into lead designer or even design management roles.

• Skill Expansion: Exposure to cutting-edge AI design tools and the chance to explore new creative frontiers in AI-human interaction design.

• Strategic Influence: Direct impact on brand strategy and evolution, working closely with founders and senior leadership.

• Industry Exposure: Experience in the burgeoning AI and personal development tech sector, which is highly sought after.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Senior" title combined with being the "first" brand designer implies a unique opportunity for significant impact and potential for rapid career progression. The growth trajectory is likely tied to the company's success and the individual's ability to scale the brand function.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is designated as "On-site," indicating a physical office presence is required in San Francisco, California. This suggests a collaborative work environment where in-person interaction is valued for brainstorming, team cohesion, and operational efficiency.

Office Location(s): San Francisco, California, United States. This location places the employee within a major tech hub, offering access to a vibrant ecosystem of talent, innovation, and networking opportunities.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Atmosphere: Being on-site fosters direct collaboration with the Head of Brand, founders, and other team members, facilitating real-time feedback and ideation.

• Resource Availability: Access to necessary design tools, software, and potentially a dedicated workspace designed for creative output. The "unlimited AI token budget" is a significant resource for creative exploration.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities for spontaneous discussions, team meetings, and building strong working relationships within the Tolan team.

Work Schedule: A standard full-time work schedule (approximately 40 hours per week) is expected. While on-site, the company may offer a degree of flexibility in daily hours, as is common in many tech startups, provided that productivity, collaboration, and project deadlines are met.

📝 Enhancement Note: The on-site requirement suggests a company that values in-person collaboration and a cohesive team culture, which can be beneficial for early-stage companies building momentum. Being in San Francisco provides access to a rich tech talent pool and ecosystem.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess qualifications and alignment with the role's requirements.

• Portfolio Presentation: You will likely be asked to present your portfolio, walking through key projects, your design process, strategic thinking, and the impact of your work. Be prepared to discuss your approach to brand systems, editorial design, and campaign development.

• Skills Assessment: Potential for a design challenge or exercise, possibly related to brand identity, campaign concepting, or scaling design systems, to evaluate your practical skills and problem-solving abilities.

• Team/Founder Interviews: Meetings with the Head of Brand, founders, and potentially other team members to assess cultural fit, communication skills, and strategic alignment.

• Reference Checks: Standard background and reference checks.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate for Impact: Select 3-5 of your strongest projects that best demonstrate your experience in brand systems, editorial design, campaign conceptualization, and strategic thinking.

• Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process, the strategic rationale behind your design decisions, and the measurable outcomes or impact.

• Showcase Systems Thinking: Explicitly highlight projects where you built or evolved brand systems, design systems, or scalable templates. Explain how these systems empowered others.

• Demonstrate Range: Include examples that show your ability to handle both high-craft, long-form editorial work and fast-turnaround campaign assets.

• Address AI Integration: Be prepared to discuss how you've incorporated AI tools into your workflow, focusing on how you maintain human creativity and brand integrity.

• Consider Tolan's Brand: Show examples that resonate with Tolan's "playful, warm, offbeat" personality, demonstrating your ability to adapt to and evolve such a brand.

Challenge Preparation:

• Brand System Exercise: Practice developing a mini-brand system or guidelines for a hypothetical product or campaign. Focus on clear rules and practical application.

• Campaign Concepting: Be ready to brainstorm campaign ideas for a new feature or product launch, articulating the strategic thinking behind your concepts.

• Editorial Layout: Prepare to discuss or demonstrate your approach to creating clear, engaging layouts for long-form content.

• Ambiguity Handling: Think about how you would approach a vague design brief, outlining your steps to clarify objectives and deliver results.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "building scalable systems" and "creating guidelines for non-designers" means the portfolio review will likely scrutinize your ability to operationalize design. Be ready to discuss the "why" behind your design choices and how your work scales and empowers others.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design Software: Proficiency in industry-standard design tools such as Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Figma, or Sketch is essential for creating visual assets, brand guidelines, and marketing collateral.

• Prototyping Tools: Experience with tools like Figma, Adobe XD, or InVision for creating interactive prototypes and mockups, particularly for marketing site design.

• AI Design Tools: Given the "unlimited token budget," familiarity with and willingness to experiment with emerging AI-powered design tools (e.g., Midjourney, Stable Diffusion for image generation; AI-assisted layout or concept tools) is expected.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Web Analytics: Understanding of tools like Google Analytics to track marketing site performance, user behavior, and campaign effectiveness.

• Design Performance Metrics: Ability to interpret data related to brand perception, campaign engagement, and user feedback to inform design iterations.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how design assets are used in marketing automation platforms (e.g., HubSpot, Mailchimp) and CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce) for campaign deployment and tracking can be beneficial.

• Project Management Tools: Familiarity with tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, or Monday.com for managing design projects and workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The explicit mention of an "unlimited token budget to leverage the latest tools" strongly suggests a need for the candidate to be proactive in exploring and integrating AI tools into their design workflow. This is a key differentiator for this role.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Craft & Quality: A commitment to high standards of design excellence, attention to detail, and a continuous drive to elevate the level of craft across all visual outputs.

• Playfulness & Warmth: Embodying and extending the brand's personality through design – being approachable, creative, and a bit offbeat in execution.

• Autonomy & Ownership: Taking initiative, operating independently, and owning projects from conception to completion with a strong sense of responsibility.

• Scalability & Efficiency: Designing with the future in mind, building systems and processes that allow for efficient growth and consistent brand application.

• Humanity in AI: Ensuring that even with the use of advanced AI tools, the final output remains distinctly human, empathetic, and connected to user needs.

Collaboration Style:

• Partnership: Working closely with founders and the Head of Brand to shape strategic direction and brand evolution.

• Empowerment: Creating systems and guidelines that empower non-designers to contribute to brand consistency.

• Cross-Functional Integration: Seamlessly collaborating with marketing, product, and growth teams to ensure design supports broader business objectives.

• Open Communication: Fostering an environment where feedback is readily given and received, and design decisions are transparently communicated.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's brand personality ("playful, warm, a bit offbeat") should inform the candidate's approach to design and collaboration. Values like "Humanity in AI" and "Scalability & Efficiency" are critical for navigating the unique challenges and opportunities of an AI startup.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Establishing Brand Foundation: As the first dedicated brand designer, a key challenge will be building the foundational elements of the brand identity and systems from scratch or near-scratch.

• Balancing Brand Personality with Maturity: Evolving the "playful, warm, offbeat" brand to a more "elevated version" while retaining its core essence requires strategic nuance and creative problem-solving.

• Scaling Design for a Growing Company: Ensuring design systems and processes can keep pace with rapid user and business growth presents an ongoing scaling challenge.

• Integrating AI Tools Effectively: Leveraging AI tools without compromising human creativity or brand authenticity requires experimentation and thoughtful integration.

• Navigating Ambiguity: Operating in an early-stage startup environment often means dealing with evolving priorities and less defined processes.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Pioneering AI Design: Gaining hands-on experience with cutting-edge AI design tools and contributing to the conversation around their creative application.

• Strategic Brand Building: Developing deep expertise in shaping a brand identity for a high-growth AI consumer tech company.

• System Design Expertise: Mastering the creation and implementation of scalable design systems and brand frameworks.

• Leadership Development: Opportunities to grow into a leadership role as the design function expands.

• Industry Immersion: Deepening understanding of the AI and personal development technology sectors.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are directly linked to the opportunities. The difficulty in establishing a brand foundation and scaling design also represents a significant chance to build something impactful and develop expertise in areas crucial for future growth in the tech industry.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach evolving an existing brand identity to a more 'elevated' version while retaining its core personality? Walk us through your process." (Focus on strategic thinking, brand analysis, and phased implementation.)

• "Describe a time you had to create brand guidelines or a design system for a company with non-designers using it. What were the key elements, and how did you ensure adoption and consistency?" (Highlight process, documentation, and enablement.)

• "Given our brand is 'playful, warm, and a bit offbeat,' how would you approach designing a campaign for a new, potentially more serious, feature launch? What would be your creative strategy?" (Assess adaptability, strategic communication, and understanding of brand nuance.)

• "We're emphasizing AI tools. How do you see AI integrating into your brand design process, and what are your strategies for ensuring the output remains distinctly human and on-brand?" (Focus on AI literacy, creative application, and ethical considerations.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on your understanding of Tolan, what do you believe are the biggest opportunities and challenges for our brand identity moving forward?" (Demonstrate research and strategic insight.)

• "How do you approach collaboration with founders and non-design teams? Can you give an example of a successful cross-functional partnership?" (Assess communication, teamwork, and stakeholder management.)

• "What does 'raising the level of craft' mean to you in the context of a growing AI company, and how would you champion that within Tolan?" (Understand their definition of quality and advocacy skills.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Arc: Structure your presentation with a clear narrative for each project: Problem/Objective -> Your Role & Process -> Strategic Decisions -> Design Solutions -> Impact & Outcomes.

• Highlight Systems: Explicitly call out projects where you built or significantly contributed to brand systems, design systems, or scalable templates. Explain the "rules" and how they were applied.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your work (e.g., increased engagement, improved brand recall, faster asset creation).

• Showcase AI Use: Be ready to discuss specific examples of how you've used AI tools, what the benefits were, and how you ensured quality and originality.

• Tailor to Tolan: Connect your experience and examples to Tolan's specific needs, brand personality, and the "AI-Forward" mandate.

📝 Enhancement Note: Be prepared to discuss not just your design aesthetic, but your ability to build and scale design processes. The interview will likely assess your strategic thinking, problem-solving skills, and how you operate with autonomy in an ambiguous, fast-paced environment.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Brand Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to highlight projects demonstrating expertise in brand systems, editorial design, campaign development, and scalability. Emphasize examples that showcase your ability to work with a "playful, warm, offbeat" brand and your approach to integrating AI tools.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your 4-6 years of experience, focusing on achievements related to brand strategy, system building, and campaign execution. Use keywords like "brand identity," "design systems," "editorial design," and "AI design tools."

• Interview Preparation: Practice presenting your portfolio, focusing on storytelling, strategic rationale, and quantifiable impact. Prepare answers to potential strategy and culture questions, particularly those related to scaling design and AI integration.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Tolan's product, mission, current brand presence, and investor base. Understand their "playful, warm, offbeat" brand personality and their commitment to AI innovation.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.