Concept Designer- Essentials and Beauty

About us: 

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here. 

Team Overview: 

A team within our Essentials & Beauty business leading trend forecasting and driving bold strategies across categories and the enterprise. We seek diverse skill sets and experiences to create compelling and differentiated strategies that shape future business, brand, and product vision, connect to enterprise strategic initiatives, and uncover new opportunities for long-term growth. 

Position Overview: 

As a Concept Designer within Essentials & Beauty, you will bring strategy to life through exceptional visual thinking, concept development, and storytelling. You are a highly creative designer with an elevated aesthetic point of view who excels at translating ideas, research, and business opportunities into compelling visual narratives. 

You will partner closely with design strategist, trend designers, merchants, product developers, and cross-functional teams to develop future-facing concepts, brand expressions, frameworks, presentations, and strategic narratives that inspire action. Your work will span concept creation, visual identity development, trend storytelling, presentation design, and creative direction—helping transform ambiguity into clear, engaging, and actionable ideas. 

This role requires someone equally adept at developing a visual identity for a new concept, designing executive-level presentations, building strategic frameworks, and creating polished storytelling that influences leaders across the organization. This will be accomplished through: 

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND VISUAL STORYTELLING  

• Translate strategic thinking, consumer insights, trends, and research into compelling concepts, visual narratives, and inspiring design solutions. 

• Develop elevated visual identities, creative systems, and concept expressions that communicate a clear point of view and differentiate future opportunities. 

• Create compelling storytelling through thoughtfully designed layouts, graphics, infographics, frameworks, and presentation materials. 

• Design executive-ready pitch decks and presentations that communicate complex ideas with clarity, simplicity, and impact. 

• Bring abstract ideas to life through mood boards, visual concepting, creative direction, and high-quality design execution. 

• Apply a strong understanding of typography, color, composition, imagery, and visual hierarchy to create polished, engaging work 

• Experiment with new creative approaches, visual systems, and design methods that advance innovation and inspire new ways of thinking 

BRAND AND DESIGN EXCELLENCE  

• Help build and evolve visual identities for new concepts, initiatives, and strategic opportunities while maintaining alignment with Target's brand standards 

• Partner with strategists to ensure visual design strengthens the overall strategic narrative and business vision 

• Champion exceptional craft, aesthetics, and attention to detail across every deliverable. 

• Stay current on design trends, emerging creative tools, visual culture, and best practices across branding, editorial design, digital experiences, and presentation storytelling. 
   

PARTNERSHIP AND INFLUENCE 

• Collaborate closely with design strategists, researchers, merchants, product developers, owned brand teams, and creative partners to bring ideas to life. 

• Independently manage creative workstreams while balancing multiple priorities and timelines. 

• Present creative work with confidence, articulating design rationale and connecting visual decisions back to strategic objectives. 

• Build trusted relationships across cross-functional teams and contribute fresh perspectives through design thinking and creative problem solving. 

TEAM AND VALUES 

• Showcases strong ability to foster inclusion, engage in positive team culture and model collaboration. 

• Lead with curiosity—continuously exploring trends, culture, design, emerging technologies, and new ways of thinking to inspire fresh ideas, challenge assumptions, and elevate creative outcomes. 

• Consistently engages, inspires and builds trust with team and partners 

• Consistent champion of Target values of inclusivity, connection and drive 

• Seek feedback, continually refine your craft, and contribute to raising the creative standard across the team. 

• This team works on-site 4 days/week from our Downtown MN campus

About you:  

• 5+ years of experience in Concept Design, Brand Design, Creative Direction, Visual Communication, Experience Design, or related creative fields. 

• Exceptional aesthetic sensibility with a refined eye for composition, typography, color, imagery, and layout. 

• Strong portfolio demonstrating concept development, brand identity creation, presentation design, editorial layout, and visual storytelling. 

• Deep understanding of branding principles and experience helping build visual identities that communicate strategic ideas. 

• Passion for storytelling and translating complex information into engaging, memorable visual experiences. 

• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. 

• Experience with Adobe XD (or similar experience design tools) to communicate concepts and digital presentations. 

• Advanced PowerPoint design skills with the ability to create executive-level presentations, pitch decks, frameworks, and presentation systems. 

• Strong ability to create compelling visual frameworks, journey maps, diagrams, and information graphics that simplify complex ideas. 

• Excellent organizational and communication skills with the ability to clearly articulate design decisions and creative rationale. 

• Collaborative mindset with experience partnering across strategy, design, merchandising, product development, and marketing teams. 

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and transforming open-ended challenges into inspiring creative solutions. 

• Curious about consumer trends, culture, branding, and emerging design practices, with enthusiasm for helping shape future business opportunities through design. 

• Demonstrated ability to work independently while contributing positively within highly collaborative teams.