Freelance Graphic Designer

We're looking for a designer. Not just someone who executes a brief, a designer who makes the work better than the brief asked for. Who we are Daydream Communications is a woman-owned agency rooted in Connecticut and reaching across the nation. We specialize in marketing campaigns for nonprofits, public health, community engagement, and mental health, creating award-winning strategy and design for organizations working to improve community health and well-being. Health and educational information has a reputation for being dry, and we work to change that: we bring the creativity of a marketing agency to campaigns built for social good. What you'll design Our work raises awareness, reduces stigma, motivates behavior change, and connects people to care. It makes hard topics easier to talk about and turns public health goals into visuals people actually stop and pay attention to. Good health design is clear without being clinical, compassionate without being vague, and credible without being boring. That's the design we need. The mix changes all the time, and that's part of the job. Depending on the week, you might be designing: Social media: graphics, templates, and scroll-stopping visuals that earn attention and keep it. Bold, clear, human. Newsletters and email: layouts where the visual hierarchy does half the work of getting a piece read. Paid ads, billboards, and out-of-home: often just a passing glance to make an impression, and every asset has to earn it. Animated graphics: short motion graphics and animated call-outs for social, digital ads, and presentations, things that add movement without needing a full video production. Campaign collateral: one-pagers, decks, end cards, logos, and more, all of which need to stay clear and credible even when the content is dense. Web and digital layouts: page and section designs for websites and landing pages. You don't need to build the site yourself (though you can if you're able), but you'll often be the one figuring out how a page should look and flow. Some assignments call for traditional, carefully vetted, on-brand educational materials. Others give you more room to surprise. Great design stands out either way — you'll need the range to do both well, and the judgment to know which is which. Designing brilliantly inside constraints is part of the craft, not an exception to it. Who you are You care about the issues. Mental health, substance use prevention, crisis services, public health: this work is about people's lives, and we want someone who finds that motivating. Design that's creative and responsible is the whole job. A designer with taste. You can tell good design from bad, and you can explain why. We value the end result more than your years of experience. We know great design when we see it, and we know what we're looking for, so whatever your years of experience, we welcome you applying. You're comfortable working within brand guidelines while still pushing a concept further, and you know how to translate someone else's copy or content into something visually alive. You know Adobe Creative Suite and Canva, and can deliver clean, organized files. You're flexible about where the work starts. Sometimes you'll get finished copy and design around it; other times you'll get a concept or a rough idea and build the visual first, which then shapes what the writer creates. Either direction is normal here, and you're comfortable working both ways. You're responsive. We don't expect you online at all hours, but we do generally expect to hear back the same day, even if it's just to say when you'll have something for us. You find this fun. You like trying out new ideas, you stay on top of design trends, and you're not afraid to set a few of your own. You welcome feedback and can also explain the thinking behind your choices. How to apply Send us: A portfolio or at least three work samples. We'd love to see work from the categories above, social graphics, ads, campaign collateral, or similar, but we're happy to look at other samples too, as long as the design had to earn attention and keep it. Show us range if you have it: something bold and something that had to play it straight. Published work, spec work, personal projects, and class projects all count if they're good. 2–3 designs that inspire you (not your own work), each with a 2–3 sentence note on why you think it's good design. We want to see how you think about design, not just what you've been asked to make. A short note (not a formal cover letter) telling us which of your samples you're proudest of and what draws you to Daydream. Your resume. Rate: $30–$50/hour, depending on experience · Hours: 5–20 hours per week, varying with project load. We cannot guarantee a certain number of hours per week.