Brand Design Lead Arabic Branding

JOUD Coffee

The work should be able to move across digital, print, packaging, and physical brand applications.

We are especially interested in candidates who understand how to create visuals inspired by regional culture, vintage print, old stamps, hotel labels, packaging labels, Arabic poster art, heritage motifs, calligraphy, editorial layouts, and modern lifestyle branding without making the work feel clich , old-fashioned, or generic.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the visual direction of Joud across brand, campaign, packaging, menu, retail, social, signage, and in-store applications.

• Build Arabic-first and bilingual design systems across Arabic and English.

• Create strong typographic layouts where Arabic is treated as a main design language, not as a translation layer.

• Select and use Arabic fonts properly across headlines, body copy, menus, packaging, posters, and campaign assets.

• Create or direct original illustrations, icons, patterns, borders, labels, stamps, visual motifs, and custom graphic assets.

• Develop packaging concepts for coffee bags, bakery packaging, cups, stickers, boxes, retail products, merchandise, and limited-edition drops.

• Design campaign visuals for product launches, store openings, Ramadan, Eid, National Day, collaborations, breakfast campaigns, bakery campaigns, and seasonal moments.

• Translate UAE / GCC / Arabic cultural references into modern, premium, and commercially usable brand design.

• Create visual systems that can be applied across multiple touchpoints, not one-off designs only.

• Work closely with marketing, photography, videography, product, operations, suppliers, printers, and external agencies.

• Review and improve creative work across the brand to ensure consistency, quality, and strong taste level.

• Protect the brand visually across all customer-facing materials.

Requirements

• Strong portfolio in branding, visual identity, packaging, illustration, editorial design, campaign design, hospitality, lifestyle, retail, cultural, or F&B design.

• Strong Arabic design capability is required.

• Must be able to read, understand, and design professionally in Arabic.

• Strong understanding of Arabic typography, Arabic font pairing, Arabic hierarchy, calligraphy-inspired layouts, and bilingual composition.

• Strong illustration ability, either hand-drawn, digital, or stylus/tablet-based.

• Ability to create custom visual assets such as patterns, icons, borders, labels, stamps, editorial graphics, packaging artwork, and campaign illustrations.

• Strong taste level and ability to create work that feels premium, artistic, warm, modern, and culturally relevant.

• Strong understanding of print, packaging, layout, and how designs translate into physical collaterals.

• Confident using Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and relevant design tools.

• Experience with Procreate, iPad/stylus, Figma, motion direction, AI creative tools, or packaging mockups is a plus.

• Experience with cafes, restaurants, hospitality, coffee, bakery, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, cultural institutions, or retail brands is a strong advantage.

• Comfortable working in a fast-moving environment with multiple projects running at the same time.

• Based in Abu Dhabi or willing to work full-time from Abu Dhabi.