Branded Environments - Graphic Designer I

Branded Environments Designer I

Location: Chicago, IL
Work Arrangement: Hybrid

About the Role

At Perkins&Will, we believe design has the power to connect people, communicate ideas, and create meaningful experiences. We're looking for a curious, creative, and detail-oriented Branded Environments Graphic Designer I to join our Branded Environments team in Chicago. In this hybrid role, you'll collaborate with designers and other creative professionals to bring brands and stories to life through environmental graphics, signage, wayfinding, and engaging experiences within the built environment.

This is a dedicated position within our Branded Environments practice. We welcome candidates from a variety of creative and design backgrounds; however, this is not an architectural or interior design position, nor is it intended as a pathway into those disciplines. Professional growth and career development for this role will take place within our Branded Environments practice. You'll have opportunities to strengthen your creative and technical skills while contributing to projects from early concepts through design development and production.

What You'll Do

• Collaborate with project teams to develop creative branded environment solutions that connect people, places, and stories.
• Support the development of environmental graphics, signage, wayfinding, and other branded elements that integrate with the built environment.
• Contribute to design concepts, visual storytelling, color palettes, design strategies, and graphic layouts that communicate a cohesive vision.
• Create and refine design drawings, diagrams, presentation materials, models, and other visual assets that communicate ideas to internal teams and clients.
• Assist with research, material exploration, design documentation, detailing, and production files to help translate creative concepts into built experiences.
• Participate in site visits, existing-condition assessments, field measurements, design reviews, and team discussions to inform design decisions.
• Coordinate with designers and project partners to support project documentation, specifications, production requirements, and implementation.
• Review your work for accuracy, clarity, consistency, and alignment with project goals, quality standards, and established documentation practices.
• Bring curiosity, creativity, and a collaborative mindset to your work, proactively asking questions, sharing ideas, and developing your design expertise.

What You'll Bring

Required Qualifications

• A degree in graphic design, interior design, architecture, or a related design discipline.
• Foundational knowledge of graphic design principles, including typography, color, composition, scale, proportion, and visual storytelling.
• Familiarity with environmental graphic design concepts, including branding, signage, wayfinding, and the relationship between graphics and physical spaces.
• Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop, and the ability to use digital tools to communicate design ideas.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to collaborate, communicate effectively, and contribute to multiple project activities.
• A willingness to learn new tools, explore creative approaches, and develop technical knowledge related to branded environments and design production.

Preferred Qualifications

• Approximately 1–3 years of relevant experience in environmental graphic design, experiential design, graphic design, branded environments, or a related creative discipline. Relevant project work and transferable experience are welcome.

• Experience with or exposure to production artwork, material research, fabrication processes, design documentation, and tools such as Revit, Rhino, Grasshopper, Enscape, V-Ray, Vectorworks, or other visualization and modeling software. Relevant professional accreditations are a plus.

Why Perkins&Will?

At Perkins&Will, we bring together creative thinkers, designers, and collaborators who believe thoughtful design can make a positive difference. Our Branded Environments practice explores how storytelling, identity, graphics, and the built environment come together to create memorable experiences. You'll contribute to meaningful design work alongside a collaborative team that values curiosity, diverse perspectives, creativity, and thoughtful execution.

Salary Range Information

We foster a culture that is diverse and inclusive and strive for pay practices that are fair, and competitive and reflect our commitment to pay equity. Our compensation decisions include but are not limited to a candidate’s qualifications including skill sets, education, experience and training, licensure and certifications credentials if applicable, and business-related factors. This practice extends to all employees, including performance considerations for merit increases, job promotions, and transfer opportunities. We additionally review our pay practices, conduct pay equity audits, and ensure our managers are trained in our pay practices on an annual basis. At the time of posting this job advertisement, commensurate with qualifications, the annual pay salary range for this position in Chicago, IL is between $55,000 and $65,000.

Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

At Perkins&Will we believe that inclusion spurs creativity and that innovation is born from an engaged culture of diverse people + ideas. By moving beyond barriers and stereotypes of gender, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, medical condition, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status; we are committed to building an organization that reflects the diversity of the communities and clients we serve.

"Design has the power to inspire joy, uplift lives, and strengthen the spirit of community."

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Perkins&Will has established and adopted an Equal Employment Opportunity Employment policy (“EEO”), which is part of the Company’s Human Resources Policy. The purpose of this EEO policy is to ensure that all employment decisions are made on a non-discriminatory basis, and without regard to sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, disability, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, gender reassignment, citizenship, pregnancy or maternity, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state, or local law. In some cases, local laws and regulations may provide greater protections than those outlined here and employees will be covered by the laws of their local jurisdiction.

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision

Perkins&Will will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.