Integrated Designer (Critique & Art Direction)

About Us

TasteMakers is a curated network of designers, creative technologists, frontend engineers, and AI-native makers working on projects with leading AI labs, tech companies, and brands. Our work sits at the intersection of design, human judgment, and AI research. We’re building TasteMakers for the long term—a curated community of designers, creative technologists, engineers, researchers, and AI-native makers helping frontier AI systems better understand taste, aesthetics, usability, and creative quality.

About You

We are seeking experienced Mid-Senior Level Integrated Designers (Print & Digital / Web) professionally trained with a degree in Graphic Design, Advertising Services, BFA, or similar. You understand not just how to execute, but why certain creative choices resonate. Designers who thrive in this role have hands-on experience not just in design execution, but in providing direction—art and creative direction, as well as verbal and written direction like sharing design feedback to fellow creatives or briefing clients and guiding creative decisions. You consider yourself an analytical storyteller—both in your creative output and in your briefs, creative direction, and instruction.

• 5+ years of professional design experience
• Strong eye across traditional design disciplines: graphic design, editorial, brand, digital (social/web). You don't need to specialize in one—you need to evaluate all of them credibly and have an impeccable eye for creative.
• Comfortable with professional design vocabulary: leading, tracking, kerning, cap height, color relationships, grid systems, visual hierarchy. You should write the way you would speak to another senior designer.
• Experience giving design feedback in a professional setting—creative direction, design reviews. You need to know how to structure feedback that is specific, grounded in design principles, and actionable.
• Extensive experience conducting structured high-level design critique (e.g., leading critiques evaluating work against clear standards or contributing to research systems or design quality frameworks).
• Experience providing design feedback and direction (e.g., mentoring designers, contributing to team critiques, or guiding creative decisions).

Responsibilities

• Critique & evaluate assets—structured reviews, QA, and clear reasoning that teaches models how to judge quality
• Vote & rank for preference data—compare outputs, pick what's better, and help train models on what "great" looks like
• Design & build frontend—from UI and prototypes to polished, production-ready frontend apps

Specializations

• Brand & Identity — logos, typography systems, visual identities, and scalable brand expression
• Design Evaluation & QA — design critique, accessibility review, structured evaluations, pixel-level UI analysis, and quality assurance

Benefits

• Remote-first — work from anywhere
• Creative Community — Access to TasteMakers, a global online community of fellow creative technologists, with opportunities to collaborate and network with like-minded creatives worldwide
• Flexible engagement — True consultant/freelance role with 15–40 hrs/week for project workload. Async work with deliverables set on your own schedule. All opportunities are paid via independent contractor (1099).
• Highly competitive rates — Rates are marked to market, considering project execution, deliverables, level of subject-matter expertise, experience, and location. Mid to Senior level designers typically earn $45–80/hr in the United States.
• Interesting, cutting-edge work — design systems, creative tooling, AI evaluation, frontend applications, visual generation, and interaction design