Freelance Senior Designer / Artworker & High-End Retoucher | Remote – South Africa | R80,000 Project Fee

This is a remote position.

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Designer / Artworker & High-End Retoucher to work on a major global brand across a premium integrated campaign.

This is a hands-on design, artwork and retouching role. You’ll take creative direction and supplied photography, build master key visuals, retouch and composite imagery to an exceptional standard, and roll the approved creative out across multiple formats and channels.

This is not a retouch-only role. Strong design, layout and artwork skills are equally important. We need someone who can build the key visuals themselves and then adapt them accurately and beautifully across the campaign.

The Role

You’ll work closely with the creative and production teams, taking approved creative direction and developing polished, production-ready campaign assets.

The work will span key visuals, OOH, DOOH, print, digital, social, POS, presentations and local-market adaptations.

You’ll also be responsible for sophisticated photographic retouching, compositing and finishing, ensuring that every asset looks premium and is technically ready for final production.

Responsibilities

• Design and build master key visuals from creative direction and supplied photography
  

• Retouch, composite and manipulate photography to a high professional standard
  

• Clean up imagery and refine lighting, colour, texture, backgrounds, shadows and reflections
  

• Adapt approved creative across multiple formats, sizes, channels and markets
  

• Produce accurate artwork for print, digital, social, OOH, DOOH and POS
  

• Create multiple layouts from approved master creative while maintaining visual consistency
  

• Maintain excellent typography, spacing, alignment, hierarchy and image quality
  

• Prepare final production-ready artwork to the required technical specifications
  

• Respond accurately and efficiently to creative and client amends
  

• Work closely with creatives to protect the integrity of the original concept throughout rollout
  

• Manage large volumes of assets, versions and file specifications in an organised way
  

• Rigorously quality-check your own work before final delivery
  

Requirements

We’re looking for someone who is equally strong across design, artwork and high-end photographic retouching.

You should have:

• Significant senior-level design and artwork experience within a creative agency, design studio, production company or similar environment
  

• Strong experience working on major brands and integrated campaigns
  

• Exceptional layout, typography and visual craft
  

• Proven ability to build master key visuals, rather than only adapt supplied finished artwork
  

• High-end photographic retouching and compositing skills
  

• Experience working across OOH, print, digital, social, POS and other campaign formats
  

• Excellent understanding of print and digital production requirements
  

• Experience handling large volumes of campaign adaptations
  

• The ability to work quickly without compromising quality
  

• Excellent attention to detail
  

• Strong organisational and file-management skills
  

• The ability to work independently and take ownership of projects through to final delivery
  

• The ability to work collaboratively with creatives, producers and account teams
  

Expert-level Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are essential.

Your portfolio must demonstrate both:

• Strong design, layout and artwork craft
  

• Sophisticated photographic retouching and compositing
  

A working portfolio link must be included on your CV.

Immediate Project Scope

The immediate engagement is a premium spirits campaign. Photography and film have already been shot and the campaign is now entering the design, artwork and production phase.

The selected freelancer will be responsible for retouching, compositing, key-visual construction, artwork and campaign adaptations.

Master Key Visuals
7 master executions, requiring portrait and landscape builds, plus adaptation guidance.

OOH & DOOH
7 campaign executions across portrait and landscape formats.

Social Carousels
2 multi-frame social sets, including 9:16 and 4:5 formats.

Activity Pack
1 toolkit for local-market and experiential rollout.

Total Scope
Approximately 17 master deliverables, with multiple format and size adaptations required within those deliverables.

Engagement & Package

This is a fixed-fee freelance contract covering the full agreed project scope above.

The successful candidate must be available during two project windows:

Window 1 — 7–18 September 2026
Key Visual test and development phase.

Window 2 — 6 October–20 November 2026
Main build, adaptation and final-delivery phase.

The project is expected to require approximately 36 working days across the two windows. You must be available as required during these periods to meet agreed deadlines, attend project check-ins and accommodate reasonable creative and client amends.

Fixed project fee: R80,000 for the full agreed scope
Location: Fully remote
Contract: Freelance / project-based

The R80,000 is a fixed project fee for the agreed deliverables and scope, rather than an hourly or daily rate.

Any additional deliverables or work requested outside the agreed scope will be quoted and approved separately before work begins.

To Apply

Please send your CV together with a working portfolio link on your CV demonstrating both campaign design/artwork and high-end photographic retouching.

We are specifically looking for someone with exceptional craft standards — someone who cares about the final 5%: spacing, typography, colour, crops, shadows, reflections, masking, image finishing and the small details that turn good artwork into exceptional work.