Assistant Teaching Professor of Visual Communication Design

The Traffic & Marketing Coordinator keeps work moving at Bish. Their primary job is traffic: making sure every project is complete before it reaches the Design team and production, planning the time it needs, and tracking it through to handoff so Account Managers and clients never get surprised. Their second job is marketing administration: running the day-to-day publishing, email, website, asset library, and trade show logistics that keep Bish’s own marketing on schedule.

Both halves call for the same strengths: organization, follow-through, clear communication, and the judgment to spot a problem before it becomes one. This is not a design role. It exists so designers spend their time designing.

TRAFFIC COORDINATION (primary — approx. 60%)
• Own the handoff between Account Management and Design: review every new project request against a standard brief and checklist — scope, specs, dimensions, quantities, materials, copy, brand assets, approvals, and due dates — before it enters the design queue.
• Return incomplete requests to the Account Manager with a clear list of what is missing. A project does not move into design or production until its brief is complete.
• With the Design lead, estimate and allocate the hours each project needs; build and maintain the team schedule so capacity, conflicts, and rush requests are visible to everyone.
• Track every active project from brief through production handoff — status, next step, owner, and due date — and update Account Managers before they have to ask, especially when something is at risk.
• Confirm files, proofs, and client approvals are final before work is released to production.
• Run a short weekly work-in-progress review with Design and Account Management, and publish a schedule everyone can see.
• Manage rush requests through a defined process: assess the impact on committed work and escalate trade-offs to the COO rather than quietly reshuffling the schedule.
• Keep project records — briefs, versions, approvals, and final files — organized and archived so past work can be found and reused.
• Report monthly on turnaround times and the recurring causes of delay (for example, incomplete briefs or late approvals) so the process keeps improving.

MARKETING ADMINISTRATION (secondary — approx. 40%)
Working with the Director of Brand & Marketing, who sets direction and approves all content:
• Schedule and publish social and LinkedIn content from approved designs and copy; maintain the content calendar and pull monthly analytics.
• Handle day-to-day community monitoring and responses per guidelines, and keep an eye on competitors’ social media and websites.
• Build, test, and deploy Mailchimp campaigns from approved designs and copy; manage lists and report on opens, clicks, and basic performance.
• Make routine website updates through the CMS — copy, imagery, and new case studies — from approved content.
• Own the asset library: tag every photo and file by client, project, status (prototype / in production / in-market), and shareability (internal only / client-approved / approved after a date), with consistent naming and folders so anyone can find an asset in seconds.
• Because traffic sees every project, flag work worth photographing at each stage, schedule the photography, and confirm with Account Managers what has shipped and what is cleared to show.
• Maintain the template and deck library so ready-made materials can be pulled quickly, and route marketing requests through the same intake process used for client work.
• Coordinate logistics for SHOP! Marketplace and other trade shows: show calendar, exhibitor deadlines and service orders, shipping featured displays and booth materials to and from the show, booth inventory between events, and on-site setup and teardown support.

Priorities: traffic comes first day to day, because production deadlines are client commitments; marketing tasks are scheduled around it. Ahead of each trade show, the COO and the Director of Brand & Marketing agree in advance which tasks shift.
Not in scope: original design work (marketing graphics, decks, layouts) sits with the Design team and the Director of Brand & Marketing. Company swag, apparel, and client gifts sit with the Brand Merchandise Specialist.

QUALIFICATIONS
• 2–4 years in traffic, project, production, or marketing coordination — ideally in an agency, display, print, or packaging environment. Ambition, ownership, and judgment matter more to us than years.
• Highly organized and calm running many projects with different deadlines at once.
• Understands how creative and production work gets made: briefs, specs, proofs, file prep, and approvals. Familiarity with print or display production is a strong plus.
• Experience with a project management or work-tracking tool (such as Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet, or Workamajig) and strong Excel / Google Sheets skills.
• Hands-on experience with Mailchimp (or similar), a social scheduling tool, and a website CMS.
• A clear, direct communicator who can hold Account Managers to a complete brief while keeping the relationship positive.
• Thinks ahead: spots problems before they happen, makes sound calls without waiting to be told, and raises a flag early when a deadline or show is at risk.
• Able to support trade shows: occasional travel, some evenings and weekends around show dates, standing for extended periods, and lifting up to 50 lbs during setup and teardown.
• Comfort opening and checking files in Adobe Creative Cloud or Canva is a plus, not a requirement.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.

This role gives the handoff between Account Management, Design, and production one accountable owner, so briefs arrive complete, design time is planned rather than absorbed, and problems surface early instead of at delivery. It also moves routine marketing administration — social posting, email sends, website updates, the asset library, and trade show logistics — off senior staff and outside agencies, so the Director of Brand & Marketing can stay focused on strategy and creative direction.

Salary Range: $65,000-$80,000 plus bonus potential
Travel: Occasional; trade show support, some evenings/weekends around show dates
Location: On-site Lake Zurich, IL preferred. Potential Hybrid (2 days working from home; 3 days in office per week) after training program.