Creative Director – Communications

About the Berggruen Institute

The Berggruen Institute was established in 2010 to develop new ideas about how to reshape political and social institutions in the face of great transformations the world now faces. Our goal is to work across cultures, disciplines and political boundaries and engage great thinkers in developing and promoting long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century. No one person can accomplish this goal alone. It takes a team —people with different backgrounds, technical knowledge, and skills sets.

Our Values:

Pursue excellence.
Cultivate future-oriented solutions.
Inquire with an open mind.
Build a collaborative environment.
Invest in people and relationships.
Respect the human dignity of all.

The Berggruen Institute is looking to immediately fill a position for a multitalented Creative Director to work hand-in-hand with the Communications team. The Creative Director will conceptualize, design, manage, and implement creative campaigns and individualized graphic components in order to visually communicate the work and programs of the Institute as well as develop and refine brand systems and protocols across programmatic departments, campuses, and project areas. The Institute is home to a variety of transformative and far-reaching programs and the ideal candidate will be able to collaborate with content specific to the Institute’s locations in Los Angeles, Beijing, and Venice; as well as with its directors and project partners to produce dynamic content while respecting and elevating the brand.

This is a full-time position and the candidate must be based in Los Angeles. We are currently working remote due to COVID-19 and once we return to our downtown offices, we will be following a hybrid office model.

Responsibilities Include: 

  • Work hand-in-hand with the Communications team on visual communications strategy.
  • Design and create sophisticated print and digital concepts that demonstrate a thorough understanding of both the intended audience and the Institute’s mission.
  • Establish a strong creative presence with brand systems and protocols that are flexible and yet maintain the standards of the Berggruen Institute brand.
  • Develop, prioritize, and manage multiple projects within design specifications and budget restrictions.
  • Work with a wide range of media platforms and graphic design software.
  • Collaborate with the Institute’s multiple programs and partners to visually communicate and reflect the intent of the work within the larger brand. Projects may include social media campaigns, posts, electronic invitations, website transformation, microsites, and/or the look-feel of digital initiatives involving video and podcasts.
  • Manage vendors and staff teams involved with the design process; review and copyedit ongoing art and copy, clarifying and directing revisions.
  • Design and maintain brand and style guides to ensure consistency and cohesion among concepts and outputs across the Institute.
  • Source, collaborate with, and manage outside vendors. Manage budget and allocate spending for freelance, illustrations, and photography.

Qualifications

  • In-House, Media, or Creative Advertising agency environment experience preferred.
  • Minimum 8-10 years of experience in graphic design.
  • Minimum 8-10 years of design and brand experience.
  • Knowledge of layouts, graphic fundamentals, typography, print, and the web.
  • Knowledge of Adobe PhotoShop, Illustrator, Sketch, InDesign, and other graphic design software. Familiarity with HTML and CSS preferred.
  • Experience in building brand systems and a compelling portfolio of work over a wide range of creative projects.
  • Knowledge of digital and social best practices.
  • Have a strong network of industry connections with illustrators and designers.
  • Deep interest in governance, philosophy, art, and economics.
  • Enthusiasm and curiosity; love of design and ideas.
  • Strong time management and organizational skills that can walk the delicate balance between speed and attention to detail.
  • Flexibility; attacking both the big projects and smaller ones with equal enthusiasm.
  • Extremely efficient, organized, and detail oriented.

Perks & Benefits:

  • Competitive salary
  • Sick leave, holiday, vacation, and other paid time off
  • Medical, dental, vision, and outstanding 401k
  • Employee phone reimbursement
  • Employee Assistance Program that can help with wellness and daily living as well as parenting, financial and legal advice from specialized professionals

Please email cover letter and resume to careers@berggruen.org. No phone calls please.

Berggruen Institute is a proud equal opportunities workplace. We firmly believe employing a diverse workforce is important regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, political preference, age, marital statutes, disability, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. We make recruiting decisions based on your experience and skills. 


composed by Arswain
machine learning consultation by Anna Tskhovrebov
commissioned by the Berggruen Institute
premiered at the Bradbury Building
downtown Los Angeles
april 22, 2022

Human perception of what sounds “beautiful” is necessarily biased and exclusive. If we are to truly expand our hearing apparatus, and thus our notion of beauty, we must not only shed preconceived sonic associations but also invite creative participation from beings non-human and non-living. We must also begin to cede creative control away from ourselves and toward such beings by encouraging them to exercise their own standards of beauty and collaborate with each other.

Movement I: Alarm Call
‘Alarm Call’ is a long-form composition and sound collage that juxtaposes, combines, and manipulates alarm calls from various human, non-human, and non-living beings. Evolutionary biologists understand the alarm call to be an altruistic behavior between species, who, by warning others of danger, place themselves by instinct in a broader system of belonging. The piece poses the question: how might we hear better to broaden and enhance our sense of belonging in the universe? Might we behave more altruistically if we better heed the calls of – and call out to – non-human beings?

Using granular synthesis, biofeedback, and algorithmic modulation, I fold the human alarm call – the siren – into non-human alarm calls, generating novel “inter-being” sonic collaborations with increasing sophistication and complexity. 

Movement II: A.I.-Truism
A synthesizer piece co-written with an AI in the style of Vangelis’s Blade Runner score, to pay homage to the space of the Bradbury Building.

Movement III: Alarmism
A machine learning model “learns” A.I.Truism and recreates Alarm Call, generating an original fusion of the two.

Movement IV: A.I. Call
A machine learning model “learns” Alarm Call and recreates A.I.Truism, generating an original fusion of the two.


RAVE (IRCAM 2021) https://github.com/acids-ircam/RAVE