Graphic Designer (retainer contract)

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Communications is a key component of UN Women Ukraine Country Office’s work and constitutes a vehicle for ensuring visibility for successful UN Women Ukraine initiatives, results and programmes as well as for raising awareness about key issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Effective communications involve high quality and creative visual materials intended for social media use and printing.  

Within this scope, UN Women Ukraine Country Office intends to hire a Graphic Designer who will create graphic images and GIFs, layout different types of knowledge products and provide support to align UN Women Ukraine and its implementing partners visual products with the UN Women Branding and visibility rules which will therefore be used in both online and offline communication and visibility activities. 

The consultant will be reporting to Communications Analyst, and will be supported by Communications team, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues. The retainer contract will not be engaged on full-time basis but only when required by UN Women Ukraine Country Office.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The consultant will work in close cooperation with the UN Women Communications team, which will be responsible for the briefings, technical tasks, quality assurance of the deliverables.  

The Graphic Designer will design all kinds of the communication materials, including but not limited to: branding assets, reports, leaflets, presentations, social media assets, eg. key visuals, GIFs, graphics and infographics, publications layouts to disseminate key communication and knowledge products of UN Women and support communication campaigns for the social media, website and print. 

The Graphic Designer will work closely with UN Women Ukraine Communication team to perform the following tasks: 

• Conceptualize, design, layout and preprint the external visibility products to communicate key achievements of UN Women, partner and donors’ activities and illustrate communication and advocacy campaigns and materials; 
• Advise/Consult UN Women communication team and partners on the latest graphic design trends, review partner designs to provide expert recommendations as appropriate; 
• The high-quality innovative, creative and attention-grabbing materials should be created for specific use on web, social media and print as required and in line with UN Women branding requirements/partner requirements.  
• The scope of external visibility products includes, but not limited to: website and social media assets: key visuals, GIFs, graphics and infographics, illustrations; designs to visualize key findings of UN Women and partners’ surveys and researches; advocacy materials, promotion materials, branding any other external visibility products and communications materials that require creative graphic design. 
• Select and purchase images from external photo stocks if needed, support the selection of images from UN Women stock;  
• Liaise with the printing/ production facilities and provide them with all relevant production-related information; 
• Conduct quality control to ensure accurate and high-quality work; 
• Modify, revise and edit materials as required, in consultation with UN Women Ukraine Communication team/program team;  
• Prepare final files for online distribution/print/production;  
• Carry out ad-hoc graphic design requests related work as instructed by the supervisor; 
• Production, editing, subtitling, etc., of the video content as required.  

The consultant should: 

• Be equipped with all the necessary devices and software to perform the work; 
• Follow UN Women Branding Guidelines and Identity Standards  
• Explore the latest design trends and use them in UN Women designs considering with UN Women Branding Guidelines and Identity Standards;  
• Explore and propose ways to convey information through animation elements.  

PRINCIPLES 

• Visual messages should be positive and empowering and reflect UN Women values, the programme’s principle of partnership with women’s organizations, gender sensitive, diverse and reflective of the UN Women activities and operational context;   
• Materials should be designed in such a way that they can be updated and adjusted for future use (all colours, pantones, fonts, inserted bitmaps or any other used resource should be included in the design package; fonts should not be converted to outlines in order to follow further edits and adaptations in the future); 
• The designs of the materials should be consistent with UN Women Communications guidelines/partner communication and branding guidlines;  
• UN Women will hold non-exclusive world rights in perpetuity of all designed submissions and products. 

Performance evaluation: 

• Contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. The evaluation will be carried out and cleared by the hiring manager which will also be the basis for payment. 

Financial arrangements:   

• Payment will be disbursed on deliverables basis upon its receipt and their certification by UN Women Advocacy and Communications Analyst/ UN Women communication manager, responsible for the particular assignment,  that the services have been delivered. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Strong interpersonal, teamwork and communication skills; 
• Ability to work independently and proactively solve problem; 
• Capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time; 
• Capacity to engage with national and international staff, provide clear feedback and maintain effective rapport with different kinds of people; 

Actively work towards continuing learning and sharing with others to support local capacity development. 

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree in graphic design, animation, communications, visual arts, or a related field. A Bachelor’s degree, combined with two additional years of relevant professional experience, may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of professional experience in animation, graphic design and layout work; 
• Experience on development of communications materials on gender is an asset; 
• Solid creative skills in graphic design, visual and digital storytelling; 
• Solid creative skills and advanced command over a full range of graphic design software, including Adobe Suite/CC such as Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, After Effects etc.; 
• Solid understanding of printing and production matters and knowledge of different formats for printing; 
• Ability to research, analyse and present complex information. 
• Attention to details 

Languages:

• Fluency in Ukrainian; 
• Working knowledge of English. 

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.