Strategic Designer & Researcher - Special Projects (London, UK)
Special Projects is an independent design and innovation studio based in London. We blend magic, humanity, and technology to craft strategic design visions for the future and reinvent user interactions. Visionary people come to us for solutions which are delightfully simple yet exceptionally functional, transforming ordinary interactions into extraordinary experiences.
To view this job and apply, click here.
What we're looking for
We are looking for a talented and passionate strategic designer and researcher.
This role is perfect for an exceptionally rounded and versatile designer, researcher, or strategist, wanting to turn frustrations into delightful opportunities.
If you are comfortable both performing ethnographic qualitative research, deciphering insights and turning them into strategic directions, creating digital and physical products based on the research and presenting clearly with a strategic mindset to client stakeholders; then this position is right for you.
You will be involved all the way through a project, from brief to completion. You will be able to make a difference by working on projects that identify and solve problems across a variety of industries with organisations large and small, established and new. Together, we will create world-class human-centred products, services, experiences, and more.
Key skills are the ability to research and impact the design across the physical and digital realm, self manage your workload, lead a small team of designers, liaise and present to clients. The ideal candidate will need to be very comfortable multitasking and dealing with the unpredictable nature of a small creative studio.
This is a full time hybrid role with a 6 months rolling contract. You can work at home 1 or 2 days a week if you wish. We are open to discussing a 4 days a week arrangement, paid pro rata.
The gross salary for this role is £30,000 - £40,000 pa for 40 hours per week, depending on your experience.
We encourage applications from women and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, as these groups are underrepresented throughout the design and technology industry.
Please note that we are not able to consider candidates without the right to work in the UK.
Responsibilities
🔍 Research: We are looking for someone curious and inspired by people, someone who can articulate a human-centred approach to design and is eager to go out into the world for inspiration. In this role, you will need to craft and conduct research plans but also experiment and explore new ways of doing research. You will need to feel comfortable conducting a wide variety of research, including one-on-one interviews and ethnographic-style fieldwork.
📍Strategic Mindset: We need you to discover, synthesise, and communicate the diverse stories and insights to inform both creative design solutions and strategic decision making. You'll blend design thinking with business strategy to solve complex problems and drive innovation, and make sure the research findings are being translated into strategic and future-proof opportunities.
✏️ Concept generation, design, development, prototyping, strategy, UX + UI: You will work with designers of different backgrounds across all parts of the design process to turn bold new ideas into tangible products and services that improve people’s lives. You will design, prototype, and execute delightful human experiences across our clients’ products, services, and brand. This might include narrative storytelling, producing front-end user interfaces, systems thinking, and creating low and high fidelity prototypes.
🐝 Team skills: Ability to work in a participatory, team-based environment, to support and inspire teams through collaboration as well as direction, vision, and planning of deliverables. As part of a small studio that is still growing, you must demonstrate a collaborative working style, great communication skills, and the ability to thrive in a non-rules based environment of creative innovation.
🤹♀️ Resourcefulness: If you don’t know how to do something we want you to be able to quickly learn how. Our work is extremely varied and constantly challenges you to learn new skills.
⭐️ Communication: We need someone with a strong verbal and visual presentation skills who understands the value of design within a business context. Someone able to articulate a point of view about design and create stunning reports and presentations showing the design process and sharing the design stories with our clients in an engaging way.
🎈Openness: the ideal candidate needs to be flexible and open-minded, optimistic, generative, and open to new ideas and ways of working.
Qualifications
1+ years of design experience in a design studio or creative consultancy.
Bachelor’s and/or Master degree in Design, Social Sciences (ie Anthropology), or other relevant degree.
Proficiency in written and spoken English knowledge to craft convincing narratives
Strong portfolio or case studies, elevated sense of design and strategic thinking
Extensive experience with a variety of visual and interactive prototyping and/or research tools (e.g. Figma, Adobe Creative Suite (incl. Premiere and After Effects) Apple iWork suite, Google Workspace, etc.
Permanent right to work in the UK
About Us
Special Projects is an award-winning design and innovation agency based in London. We help brave companies to discover new opportunities by revealing user needs and transforming them into tomorrow’s most loved customer experiences and products.
Our mission is to enhance the unquantifiable aspects of life: empathy, wellbeing, delight, with meaningful design and invention.
Some previous projects to check out:
This is a project for Samsung aimed at making technology more accessible to older adults
This is an experiment we did with Google on digital wellbeing
This is an experimental interface which tries to bring spatial gestures into the digital world
If you want to discover more about us, check out our website and our Instagram page.
👉 How to Apply
We have a 4 steps hiring procedure for this role.
🎥 Step 1: 3**-5 min Video**
Please send us a 3-5 min video answering the following questions:
Can you give us a short introduction about yourself? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What three words best describe you?
Where would you like to be in three years time career wise? What are your goals and aspirations?
What makes you stand out for the role and what excited you about being part of Special Projects?
Could you tell us about your most exciting ethnographic research project you did and share the insights you discovered?
**Upload your video using this link https://tinyurl.com/s3g5a**
Please be sure your file is saved with your name and the position title. You can shoot and upload the video from your phone or computer, just please remember to say your name at the beginning. Please note that this is an essential part of the application process and must be done for your application to be complete.
💼 Step 2: CV, Portfolio or Case studies and Cover Letter
Please upload your CV, portfolio or case studies and cover letter on Workable using this link: https://apply.workable.com/special-projects/j/A215772E26/
In your cover letter, please be sure to address the following:
Share details about your strategic design and research experience and explain how you would leverage it in this position.
<aside> ⌛ All submissions must be received by August 28th.
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Step 3: Interview
If you are successful, you will then be invited to a first-stage interview with one or more of our founders.
Step 4: Test Day
For further shortlisted candidates, this is followed by a panel interview or a paid test day.
Benefits
🏖 22 days holiday (plus bank holidays)
⏱ Flexible start and end to your day. We trust you to be productive and own your work.
🖥 Hybrid work. Monday to Wednesday in the studio, Thursday and Friday from home.
🥗 We provide a constant supply of fruit, snacks and drinks in the office and make lunch together every day
😄 £250 annual wellness budget - to support both physical and mental health. Use this for anything from gym memberships to meditation apps.*
💰 £500 annual learning and development budget.*
📈 Pension scheme and pension matching: we match 100% of the first 5% of pre-tax contributions you make.
🚲 Cycle to work scheme.
🥳 £100 to claim for your birthday as a donation, a gift, or both. Just donate, and/or buy something for yourself, and then register the expenses.
🙋 Volunteering opportunities: You will be able to volunteer for one of our partner charities.
