Location: Reading - office-based
Working pattern: 4 days per week
Salary: Up to £25,000 depending on experience
Level: Junior / Early Career
Reports to: Creative Lead / Managing Director
About Red Balloon
Red Balloon is a boutique digital agency creating standout digital experiences for brands worldwide.
We work across sport, food and drink, startups and local businesses—delivering marketing campaigns, digital products and high-performing websites.
Combining strategy, technology and creativity, we build attractive, reliable and user-focused digital experiences. We’re growing and looking for ambitious people who want to develop their skills, take ownership and grow with us.
The Role
We are looking for a Junior Digital Designer who is hungry to learn, create and contribute from day one.
You’ll support our design and UX work across a variety of web and digital projects. This is a hands-on role for someone with a good grounding in Figma, component-based design, Auto Layout and responsive design who wants to develop quickly in a collaborative agency environment.
You’ll work across the complete design lifecycle—from initial research, concepts and wireframes through to high-fidelity UI, developer handover and design QA—with support and mentorship from senior team members and our Creative Lead.
The successful candidate will combine strong visual foundations with a product mindset, considering user needs, client objectives and business outcomes rather than simply how something looks.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Support design projects: Contribute to websites, digital products, design systems, branding, marketing campaigns and social media content.
- Create with structure: Build clean, scalable designs in Figma using components, variants, grids and Auto Layout.
- Wireframe and prototype: Translate requirements into user flows, wireframes and low-to-high-fidelity prototypes.
- Design responsively: Create interfaces that work effectively across desktop, tablet and mobile.
- Apply UX principles: Use core UX and accessibility principles to produce clear, intuitive and inclusive experiences.
- Develop visual craft: Use typography, spacing, layout, imagery and colour to create consistent and engaging work.
- Work with design systems: Follow and help maintain reusable component libraries, styles and brand guidelines.
- Prepare developer handover: Keep design files, specifications and assets organised for efficient implementation.
- Carry out design QA: Review developed work against approved designs and provide clear, practical feedback.
- Support content updates: Assist with updating and maintaining content in platforms such as WordPress and Webflow.
- Think beyond visuals: Understand the user problem and business objective behind each brief.
- Spot improvements: Identify inconsistencies, usability issues and opportunities to improve our work and processes.
- Explore AI workflows: Contribute to AI-related experiments across research, ideation, content and design.
- Use AI responsibly: Use approved AI tools thoughtfully while checking accuracy, quality, originality and brand suitability.
- Collaborate across disciplines: Work with developers, project managers, marketers and strategists to bring ideas to life.
- Learn through real work: Take part in design reviews, client feedback and live projects that develop your skills quickly.
- Manage priorities: Work across multiple client projects while balancing planned work with shorter-turnaround requests.
About You
- Strong foundations: You have a good eye for detail and a developing visual style.
- Confident in Figma: You understand components, variants, Auto Layout and structured design files.
- UX aware: You understand the foundations of user experience and responsive design.
- Product minded: You’re interested in user needs, client objectives and measurable outcomes.
- Proactive: You’re comfortable asking questions, sharing ideas and suggesting improvements.
- Eager to develop: You learn quickly and apply feedback constructively.
- Organised: You can manage priorities across several projects and communicate when something needs clarification.
- Clear communicator: You can explain your thinking and discuss your work with colleagues and clients.
- System conscious: You can follow established design systems while still bringing fresh ideas.
- Interested in AI: You’re curious about how AI can be applied responsibly within design and creative work.
- Agency comfortable: You’re happy working in an environment where projects, clients and priorities can vary.
Nice-to-Haves
- Adobe skills: Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Photoshop and Illustrator.
- Front-end awareness: A basic understanding of HTML and CSS.
- Design-system experience: Experience creating or contributing to a component library or design system.
- CMS experience: Experience designing for or working with WordPress or Webflow websites.
- Collaboration tools: Exposure to FigJam, Jira, Asana, Miro or similar tools.
- Motion skills: Basic animation, motion design or video-editing experience.
- AI experience: Experience using AI tools to support research, ideation or visual exploration.
- Portfolio: An online portfolio or PDF containing university, personal, freelance or commercial projects.
Why Join Red Balloon?
- Exciting clients: Work with organisations ranging from ambitious startups to global brands.
- Creative culture: Join a small, passionate team that values quality, curiosity and collaboration.
- Mentorship and growth: Develop quickly through close collaboration and clear feedback from experienced designers.
- Real ownership: Contribute ideas and take responsibility for meaningful client work from the beginning.
- Full project exposure: Experience the complete journey from initial brief to development and launch.
- AI innovation: Help explore how emerging technologies can improve our creative work and processes.
- Career development: Build a clear path towards a mid-level designer role and explore the areas of design that interest you.
- Competitive salary and benefits: Including performance bonuses and learning opportunities.
Sound Like You?
Send us your CV and a portfolio containing examples of your best work. This can include university projects, self-initiated work, freelance projects or live client work.
Successful candidates will be invited to an initial 30-minute interview to discuss their experience, interests and career goals.
Pay: £24,000.00-£25,000.00 per year
Work Location: In person
