Lead Brand Designer (Freelance)
koodos labs
Design
Posted on Jun 2, 2025
Lead Brand Designer (Freelance)
Owner
Alex Crandall
1 more property
Why Join koodos labs?
You should join koodos labs for the people and our mission.
We aspire to build the best team of the 2020s. Just like PayPal in the 90s, Google in the 00s, and Stripe in the 10s, we want to be known as "a place where it's good to be from." If you join us, we promise to be the best place to grow your career — with the best people you've ever worked with. We’re also working on a very bold mission.
We are building a generation-defining cultural product, and are looking for someone to establish Shelf in the culture.
Read more about working at koodos labs here.
Shelf → What We’re Building
Shelf helps users passively track their consumption, connect with others through shared interests, and gain insights about themselves from their data. And, in return, users get a personal data store and the ability to provision access to their credentials and context at-will, gaining a passport to a more agentic internet. We've helped >700,000 users re-aggregate >9B data points so far (i.e. Jad watched S2E1 of Severance) - and we’re growing fast. Check us out on the iOS app store (Android coming soon!)
The future is personalized experiences powered by user-controlled data, this depends on dynamic and transportable user context. We’re building a future where apps and services come to you and your data—not the other way around. See our latest paper here.
The Opportunity
Shelf is rapidly growing and becoming an obsession among our expanding international community. While our product, team, and reach continue to evolve, our identity and brand need to catch up. We're excited to develop a brand identity that will guide Shelf's future and showcase the vibrant stories and incredible people that make up the Shelf universe.
We're seeking an experienced, thoughtful designer to build the foundational brand identity that Shelf needs—as an app, as a magazine, as a content creator, as a fashion label, and beyond—to take us to the next level. This is a freelance, contract role targeted for 3 months.
Responsibilities
lead the redesign of foundational brand identity for Shelf from strategy and concepting through execution
develop a comprehensive identity system to support our extension brand ecosystem → ShelfMag, Shelf Studios, ShelfAPI
elevate Shelf's "strategic coolness" through the execution of our brand identity
partner with creative, marketing, and product teams to ensure cohesive brand execution across all touch points
educate internal teams on brand standards and evangelize consistent brand application
present your design work and rationale to leadership and cross-functional stakeholders
The Ideal Candidate
You’re a Good Fit, If You …
have a portfolio demonstrating high-quality brand identity and brand system design — ideally bringing previous experience in consumer social, social networking, dating, shopping, or entertainment-focused digital experiences
demonstrate strong visual communication skills with a thoughtful approach to brand architecture
have excellent presentation abilities and experience articulating design decisions to diverse stakeholders, including leadership
are a self-directed learner with strong cultural awareness of current design trends, pop culture, and media landscape
have previous experience thriving in fast-paced startup environments with evolving brand strategy
bring deep understanding of current design trends and patterns
are comfortable with project-based collaboration and working autonomously
Nice to Have:
strong cultural awareness and understanding of current pop culture, media, and entertainment
additional proficiencies in image and asset making - skillsets of interest include editorial layout, motion, illustration, 3D, etc.
We recognize that the confidence gap and imposter syndrome might discourage amazing candidates from applying. Every job description is a wish list, so please reach out if this role really excites you.
The Shelf Team is based in NYC. We’re ideally looking for someone who can join us in-person in our West SoHo office, but always flexible to support remote working!
The Interview Process
We design our interview loops to focused on real-world experience, demonstrable impact and reference. Our aim is to move fast and not waste any candidates time. For this role, we expect a the interview loop to take around 3-4 hours spread over a few sessions. This is a freelance role, but it’s also a key to the next era of Shelf and we want you to meet with key stakeholders and collaborators you’ll be working with.
Intro and Screening : you’ll have a conversation with our Lead Designer to dig into your experience, goals, and share more about the design brief for this role.
Portfolio Review : you’ll spend an hour walking through some recent and relevant case studies with members of the creative and marketing team.
Marketing Team Chat : you’ll have a conversation with our Marketing Lead and our Editorial Lead, who are key stewards of how are brand shows up in the world
Founder + CEO Chat : you’ll have time to have a conversation with the CEO and Founder to learn more about their vision for Shelf and get answers to any of the questions you may have
Decision and Offer: we will move quickly on our end