Senior Graphic & Digital Designer – Restaurant & Hospitality
Company: CCS Creative
Location: North York, ON (M3J 2R8) | In-office with occasional on-site shoot days (GTA)
Position Type: Full-Time, Permanent | In-Person (Monday – Friday)
Compensation: Competitive senior-level salary commensurate with experience, plus comprehensive benefits and professional growth pathways
About CCS Creative
CCS Creative is a specialized creative agency dedicated exclusively to the restaurant, food service, and hospitality industry. As an agile, focused team, we partner directly with restaurant owners, multi-unit operators, hospitality groups, catering companies, and culinary brands to craft bespoke visual identities and complete marketing ecosystems.
Because we are a dedicated, specialized creative agency, our work touches every single facet of the dining and guest experience: from tabletop branding, tactile packaging, and high-impact physical menus to digital menu boards (DMB), website merchandising, social video content, and omni-channel promotional campaigns. We don’t operate with bureaucratic red tape or cookie-cutter templates; we collaborate closely with our clients to build visual appetites and orchestrate the culinary stories that define where people choose to dine, celebrate, and connect.
The Opportunity
We are looking for an exceptionally creative, fully self-sufficient Senior Graphic & Digital Designer to join our North York team. In our specialized agency setting, every team member has a direct, massive impact. We need an experienced creative partner who thrives on autonomy, takes complete end-to-end ownership of deliverables from initial concept through final production, communicates effectively with clients, and holds an exacting standard for visual craft.
The ideal candidate combines an authentic obsession with food and dining culture with advanced mastery of the Adobe Creative Suite, rigorous organizational habits, an eye for the finer details, and a flawless command of English. Moving effortlessly between complex tactile print production, digital merchandising, dynamic motion assets, and occasional hands-on restaurant shoots, you will serve as a primary visual engine across a diverse portfolio of culinary concepts.
What You’ll Do
End-to-End Brand & Concept Design
- Lead the concept development and visual execution for restaurant openings, brand refreshes, catering concepts, and hospitality groups.
- Own holistic brand identity systems across all touchpoints, ensuring seamless visual continuity from primary logos and typography to custom packaging, tabletop collateral, and venue signage.
- Interpret briefs independently, translating culinary concepts and business goals into compelling, boundary-pushing design solutions that keep our clients ahead of dining and hospitality trends.
Digital Merchandising, Storytelling & Motion
- Drive digital storytelling by creating sophisticated visuals for website and digital merchandising, taking full ownership of layout formatting, asset preparation, and light copywriting/editing polish.
- Architect high-converting digital marketing collateral: responsive web graphics, digital promotional campaigns, interactive newsletters, and display creative.
- Conceptualize and animate dynamic, motion-first social media content rather than relying on static graphics, tapping into current online and video formats that capture guest attention.
- Bridge the gap between design and digital execution with a solid grasp of HTML/CSS principles, ensuring web assets translate cleanly across online platforms.
High-Precision Print & Production Ownership
- Oversee and execute complete, flawless print production: seasonal dining menus, feature inserts, custom takeout packaging, and large-format exterior and interior signage.
- Take autonomous responsibility for pre-press quality assurance - managing structured production files, vendor specifications, colour profiles, and pre-flight handoffs for zero-defect execution.
Agency Agility, Direct Client Communication & On-Site Shoots
- Communicate directly with restaurant and hospitality clients to clarify briefs, present creative concepts, gather feedback, and guide projects through revisions to final delivery.
- Participate in on-site photo and video shoot days at client venues and restaurants, assisting with art direction, visual styling, shot lists, and capturing dynamic content as needed.
- Operate with high self-sufficiency in an agile agency environment, proactively managing multiple concurrent brand deadlines and prioritizing deliverables without needing day-to-day oversight.
- Collaborate closely with our core team across marketing, content, and web development, serving as a trusted visual authority.
- Stay intimately tapped into modern food culture, dining trends, culinary packaging innovation, and digital content aesthetics, bringing fresh relevance to every client project.
What You Bring to the Table
We are taking our time to find a seasoned designer who combines high-level creative vision with hands-on agency agility and complete operational independence:
- Experience: 5+ years of professional graphic and digital design experience in a specialized agency or dedicated in-house creative setting, with a proven track record focused on restaurants, food & beverage, or hospitality.
- Autonomous & Self-Sufficient Mindset: Proven ability to run projects end-to-end with minimal supervision - you problem-solve independently, prioritize effectively, and take personal pride in delivering launch-ready, flawless work.
- Client-Facing Communication: Exceptional verbal and written English communication skills; confident speaking directly with clients, presenting ideas, articulating design rationale, and contributing to copy formatting and editorial refinement.
- Expert Adobe Creative Suite Mastery: Advanced, fluent proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. You understand complex production setups, vector illustration, photo retouching, typography, and prepress standards inside and out.
- Extreme Creativity: An exceptional aesthetic vision with a portfolio demonstrating original, culturally relevant, and visually stunning creative work that cuts through the noise.
- Meticulous Attention to Detail: Fastidious standards in kerning, typographic hierarchy, layout balance, colour fidelity, and production prep.
- Disciplined Organization & File Hygiene: Impeccable digital habits - structured layer conventions, organized asset libraries, clear version control, and dependable time management across multiple client accounts.
- Digital & Web Literacy: Working knowledge of modern digital design tools (Figma, Adobe XD, or Canva) and a clear understanding of HTML/CSS fundamentals for web asset handoff.
- Culinary Passion: A genuine enthusiasm for dining culture, hospitality trends, and the culinary arts.
High-Value Extras (Assets)
- Motion Graphics & Animation: Demonstrated ability to animate promotional pieces, specifically Digital Menu Board (DMB) promos, and create engaging short-form social video content.
- Social Video Editing: Familiarity with video-editing tools for social media content, such as CapCut, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, or similar platforms.
- Shoot & Art Direction Experience: Comfort attending on-site client shoots, assisting with food styling, photo/video composition, and capturing quick social footage.
- Trend Awareness: Up to date on the latest online, social media, dining, and digital content trends, with an instinct for translating them into relevant, on-brand creative.
- Familiarity with email marketing platforms and conversion-focused digital merchandising specs.
- Experience integrating generative AI creative workflows and prompting to accelerate ideation and asset exploration.
- Proficiency in Google Workspace productivity tools.
Why Join Our Team?
- High Creative Autonomy: No corporate bureaucracy or cookie-cutter templates. Your creative voice directly shapes the brands we build, and your decisions carry real weight.
- Full-Spectrum Hospitality Work: Because we cover every facet of the restaurant world, your work will be diverse and exciting - one day you are working on bespoke physical menus, the next on digital merchandising, packaging, animated signage, or on-site at a shoot.
- Focused, Collaborative Environment: Work alongside a passionate, dedicated team in our North York office where everyone is invested in the culinary and design space.
- Tangible Real-World Impact: See your work in the wild - on restaurant tables, retail shelves, digital menu boards, and online feeds across the hospitality landscape.
Application Requirements & Hiring Process
- Work Location & Mobility: Primarily based on-site at our office in North York, ON (M3J 2R8) (Monday to Friday), with the ability to travel locally across the GTA for scheduled on-site client shoot days. Candidates must have reliable transportation.
- Portfolio Required: A direct link to your digital portfolio or website must be included with your application. Submissions without an active portfolio link showcasing relevant digital, print, and branding work will not be evaluated.
- Skills Assessment: Shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a brief practical test to showcase their real-world senior skills, including animating a Digital Menu Board (DMB) promotional piece and developing a motion/video-first social media graphic.
