Art Director

Birg Holdings builds and scales new ventures on an ongoing basis, and each one needs its own visual language, built from the ground up. This role is the shared art direction resource across that portfolio: for every new venture's website, you'll start from a point of view, a set of references, and an inspiration video, and end with a finished visual system. There's no standing brand book to lean on, that's exactly the gap this role closes, venture after venture.

For each engagement, you'll start by unpacking the references and the stakeholder's vision directly, then translate that conversation into a mood board covering color, typography, composition, texture, and the character of motion. Once the direction is locked, you'll take it into the actual site: key screens, a coherent visual system, and the states that hold it together. Motion, transitions, micro-animations, graphic sequences, comes in wherever it genuinely fits the agreed language, not as a default add-on.

This is a taste-driven, iterative engagement rather than a spec-and-deliver one, repeated across multiple ventures with different stakeholders and briefs. You'll move through rounds of feedback calmly, hold each visual system together as its brief evolves, and carry forward a repeatable process, without letting any one venture's visual language bleed into another's.

Key Responsibilities

Discovery & Vision Alignment

• Unpack references and inspiration materials directly with each venture's stakeholder.
• Draw out the underlying vision behind the mood board and inspiration video.
• Ask the questions that turn a vague direction into something decidable.
• Reset cleanly from one venture to the next, each brief gets its own point of view, not a reused template.

Mood board & Visual Direction

• Build a mood board covering color, typography, composition, texture, and the character of motion.
• Present the mood board in a form that can actually be decided on, not just admired.
• Align the stakeholder on a single direction before screen design begins.

Web Design & Visual System

• Design key screens, translating the agreed direction into a concrete visual system.
• Define composition, typography, rhythm, hierarchy, and use of space for the web.
• Design and document component states (hover, active, empty, loading, and similar).

Motion & Animation (as applicable)

• Scope and design transitions, micro-animations, and graphic sequences where they reinforce the visual language.
• Define the character of motion clearly enough for it to be implemented consistently.
• Judge where motion adds to the experience versus where it should be left out.

Iteration & Revision

• Take taste-driven feedback and revise without losing the thread of the agreed direction.
• Work in short, iterative cycles rather than long unsupervised builds.
• Flag tension between new requests and the internal consistency of the system.

Success Metrics

• A moodboard the stakeholder can actually sign off on, not endlessly revisit.
• Key screens and visual system that hold together as one coherent language.
• Motion decisions - used or not - are deliberate, not default.
• Revision rounds converge over time rather than spiral as direction locks in.
• Handoff-ready screens and system documentation for engineering to implement.
• A repeatable process that scales cleanly from one venture launch to the next, without visual identities blurring together

Requirements Must-Have Experience

• Portfolio showing end-to-end visual design for web, from moodboard/direction through to shipped screens.
• Strong grounding in typography, composition, layout rhythm, and use of space.
• Experience translating abstract references and inspiration into a concrete, decidable visual system.
• Comfortable presenting and defending design decisions directly to a stakeholder or founder.
• Some experience directing or designing motion graphics for the web, even if execution is handed off.
• Comfortable holding multiple concurrent projects, each with its own stakeholder, brief, and visual identity.

Highly Preferred

• Experience building a visual identity from scratch, without an existing brand book.
• Familiarity with modern web motion - micro-interactions, scroll-based animation, transitions.
• Experience working fractionally or part-time with a single primary stakeholder.
• Comfortable working in tools like Figma alongside developer handoff workflows.

Core Competencies

Visual Craft

• Strong eye for color, type, composition, and hierarchy.
• Ability to translate mood and reference into concrete design rules.

Motion Sensibility

• Treats motion as part of the design language, not an afterthought.
• Can judge where animation helps versus where it distracts.

Collaboration & Iteration

• Calm and constructive under taste-driven revision.
• Clear communicator who can align a stakeholder on ambiguous direction.

What Great Looks Like

• Turns a vague inspiration video into a mood board people can actually agree on.
• Designs screens that feel like one system, not a collection of pages.
• Treats motion as a design decision, not decoration.
• Takes “make it feel more X” feedback and knows exactly what to change.
• Comfortable working async and iteratively with a single stakeholder.
• Ships handoff-ready work without needing a brand book to lean on.

Candidate Snapshot

• Engaged part-time / fractional as a shared art direction resource across Birg Holdings' portfolio ventures.
• Works across multiple concurrent venture builds, each with its own stakeholder, brief, and visual identity.
• Remote, with core discussion and review sessions overlapping 9am-12pm PST.
• Portfolio-led hiring - process centers on past web design and motion work.
• Comfortable moving from moodboard to shipped screens within a defined project arc, repeated venture after venture.

Benefits

• Fully remote. No office, no commute, just you, the operating system, and wherever you do your best work.
• This isn't about inheriting an established company. It's about building and continuously evolving the operating system that future ventures will run on.
• Core collaboration hours: 9:00 AM-12:00 PM PST, ensuring consistent overlap with the founding team.
• Contractor engagement, paid in USD through upwork.
• Full compensation details will be shared directly with shortlisted candidates.