Graphic Designer

Company Overview

Sporting Kansas City aims to elevate Kansas City through soccer experiences and create memories through personalized touchpoints with the club. The organization strives to continually delight fans and set the benchmark for best practices across Major League Soccer.

Sporting Kansas City’s values are to be experience obsessed, high performance in all that we do, exemplify accountability, demonstrate integrity, and to always put the club first. The club is an equal opportunity employer committed to an empowering environment for a diverse and inclusive team.

Role Summary

The Designer is a key contributor to the Creative & Brand Team, responsible for developing and executing innovative design concepts that advance the club’s identity and storytelling. The role supports all business units by creating high-quality visual assets across digital, social, in-stadium, print, retail, and partnership channels. The position requires a candidate who thrives in a fast-paced sports and entertainment environment, maintains a strong eye for detail, and understands how to design with brand consistency and audience engagement in mind.

Key Responsibilities

• Concept, design, and execute graphic artwork across print, digital, OOH, brand identity, packaging, retail, app, web, and presentation decks.
• Develop and execute visual ideas that support the brand and objectives set by a marketing or creative brief.
• Ensure all assets consistently support brand guidelines and the creative brief.
• Design and execute gameday graphics across traditional marketing, digital and social, email, in-venue, and mobile channels, both leading up to and during gameday.
• Develop assets for the Corporate Partnerships team to sell, ensuring partner integration fits the Sporting Kansas City brand.
• Develop assets across all arms of the Sporting Club enterprise, including Sporting Kansas City, Sporting Kansas City II, Argyle Events, and Sporting Park.
• Work within Adobe Workfront to track work, manage deliverables, and respond to stakeholder feedback.
• Provide design elements and technical direction to internal and external partners as needed.
• Give and solicit feedback from other designers and stakeholders to continually raise the standard of the work.
• Act as a brand ambassador across the organization and build strong working relationships with departments throughout the club.
• Available for away game travel as needed.

Gameday & Event Responsibilities

• Communicate with external vendors to ensure they are aware of any special promotions or situations taking place.
• Concept, design, and execute graphics for matchday communication channels, including traditional marketing, digital/social, email, in-venue, mobile application, and others, both leading up to and during matchday.
• Work within the Sporting KC matchday social strategy to create compelling visual communication for owned social channels.
• Utilize a creative approach to design compelling visual projects to differentiate Sporting KC from other sports teams in the marketplace.
• Plan, create, and post engaging and effective content for SportingKC.com and the club's social channels within the overall marketing and matchday strategy.
• Assist in the execution of matchday digital strategy for both home and away matches.
• Develop methods to increase fan engagement and brand awareness.
• Package content and publish to web and social channels in a timely, relevant, and engaging manner.

Personal Attributes

• Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Creative problem-solver with a passion for storytelling through design.
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to work under tight deadlines.
• Thrives in a collaborative team environment while also capable of independent execution.
• Adaptable to shifting priorities and able to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Self-motivated, proactive, and eager to push Sporting Kansas City’s brand identity forward.

Skills and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s or Associate’s degree in Graphic Design, Art Direction, Visual Communication, or a related field preferred.
• Professional Experience: 2+ years of professional design experience, ideally in sports, entertainment, or a fast-paced creative environment.
• Software Proficiency:
  • Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign).
  • Working knowledge of After Effects and motion graphics preferred.
  • Familiarity with project management tools such as Adobe Workfront or similar.
• Technical Capabilities:
  • Experience designing for both digital and print applications, with a strong portfolio demonstrating brand identity and campaign execution.
  • Understanding of social-first creative best practices and how to design for maximum engagement across platforms.
• Bonus Qualifications:
  • Photography, illustration, or motion graphics experience.
  • Spanish fluency is a plus, but not required.

Physical Requirements

• Required to sit, stand, and walk.
• Use hands to operate tools, equipment, or controls.
• Ability to talk, hear, and see clearly.
• Ability to occasionally lift up to 25 pounds.
• Must be able to work non-traditional hours including evenings, weekends, holidays, and all Sporting Kansas City home games.