Digital Designer

Location: Cape Town

Working Practices: Hybrid, two office-based days and three remote working days per week. 

Contract Type: Fixed-Term

Reports to: Lead Digital Learning Specialist

Working hours: 07H00am to 15H30pm SAST

Role Summary 

The Digital Designer is responsible for the design, development, and production of visual and media assets in the learning materials created by the Learning Design team. This includes the development of multimedia assets including audio, video, graphics, artworks, images, and interactive media objects (IMO). All assets are aligned to the style and templates used by Learning Design team members and university partners. They will promote the visual consistency required throughout OES- created learning materials. 

The Digital Designer will work with members of the internal OES learning design team, and also external academic partners, and external suppliers to ensure that graphic design at OES represents a standard of quality and innovation that reflects current industry standards and trends and contributes meaningfully to OES initiatives intended to reimagine online learning. 

Key Responsibilities

The key contribution of the Digital Designer is to produce creative media content in collaboration with the Learning Design team and to strengthen the OES brand.

This is achieved through: 

• Design a range of templates for media, graphics, artworks, learning materials, and interactive packages that will enhance, extend, or augment OES learning products through a combination of multimedia, digital pedagogy, multiliteracies, and digital constructivism. 

• Work with the OES Learning Design team to locate, identify, and exploit opportunities for the development of rich media experiences. 

• Develop and distribute content-agnostic graphic templates for use by OES Learning Design team with a view to promoting rapid deployment of reusable graphic assets. 

• Develop and strengthen guidelines in the creation of images, interactives and rich-media experiences that engage OES partners and students in the online environment. 

• Creating customised visual experiences using a range of industry recognised pedagogy models. 

• Working with the Lead Digital Learning Specialist to develop guidelines for the use of multimedia objects, including video, and images, to provide a consistent approach for standardised quality, storage, file sizes, dimensions, and application. 

• Working with Lead Digital Learning Specialist to ensure consistency and security regarding the storage, registration and access of graphic and multimedia resources, including internal OES media content and graphic templates. 

• Work with Applications Developers and Front-end developers to design content pages and student experiences that support Learning Designers deliver pedagogy design purposefully to achieve the intended learning outcomes. 

• Work with Learning Designers to define and develop content layout and patterns that can be configured and reused for purposeful design of learning experiences to industry standards. 

• Working with the Quality and Editorial team to audit and assess all internally built OES graphic content with a view to ensuring that course materials are on brand, on style, and reflect the design standards established for the Learning Design team. 

• Pursuing creative and reactive approach to learning design images which is aware of current trends, standards, and expectations in the broader eLearning industry, in the industrial, commercial, and academic sectors, and engaging with all internal and external stakeholders in order to develop approaches which empower the company to exceed them.  

• Working with all internal OES staff and critical partners to develop an ongoing enthusiasm for multimedia experiences and eLearning design work. 

• Support Junior Digital Designers in industry standards and best practice in a media production environment. 

What does success look like?

• Supporting and improving processes for the internal development of industry-standard multimedia objects, which pursue current best practice, while engaging meaningfully with research communities and thought leaders in eLearning spaces.
• Empowering the learning design team through ongoing development of the team’s capacity to engage in a purposeful way with strategies, approaches, and processes for transforming static online learning courses through the judicious and evidence-based development of rich graphic solutions.
• Integration of graphic design with interactive development to ensure a consistent visual and design approach which maintains industry standards of design, while pursuing an OES agenda of reimagining online learning.
• Producing a successful balance of visual and interactive objects which enshrine the fundamental design values of the OES approach with rich media experiences intended to challenge, disrupt, or explore new approaches to multimedia learning design which consolidate our market position as leading thinkers, while continuing to value consistency, purpose, and rigor.
• Conceptualising and crafting designs based on your intelligent, strategy-led and concept-driven big ideas. A strong commitment to design consistency and judgement with a keen eye for light, colour, value, form, typography and composition that will lift OES learning materials visual experiences.
• Be enthusiastic and unwavering in both your attention to detail and your dedication to getting projects finished on time, without sacrificing the highest standards of quality and creativity.