The Carbon Design System is IBM’s open-source design system for products and experiences. With the IBM Design Language primitives at its core, Carbon consists of working code, design tools and resources, and guidelines—all serving, and served by, a vibrant community of contributors.
A design system is a collection of pre-built, reusable assets—components, patterns, guidance, and code—that allows its users to build consistent digital experiences faster. By using the pre-built and universal assets of Carbon, the time teams spend designing and building is minimized. Instead of building and re-building basic elements, they can spend that time customizing their products to address specific client use cases.
The design system is named Carbon Design System because in nature the element carbon builds complex structures from simpler compounds. This motif mimics how our individual styles and components can combine to make beautifully complex, natural, and intuitive designs.
We need a passionate, proactive, and experienced Visual Designer and Illustrator to help evolve and deliver Carbon. We’re looking for a creative thinker with a strong sense of craft and storytelling—someone who can translate abstract concepts into clear, compelling visuals and scalable design assets. Our ideal candidate will bring a deep understanding of visual systems and illustration principles, and feel comfortable advocating for design excellence across IBM.
This role will focus on creating and maintaining the visual language of Carbon, including iconography, illustrations, motion guidelines, and other expressive elements that complement our core components. You’ll collaborate closely with UX designers, engineers, and product managers to ensure visual consistency and accessibility across IBM’s software ecosystem.
Candidates should be detail-oriented, curious, and comfortable working in an open-source environment where sharing work in progress and giving and receiving critique is part of the culture. They should have experience creating visual systems that scale, and a portfolio that demonstrates mastery of typography, color, layout, and illustration in digital contexts.
Responsibilities- Create scalable visual assets and patterns that align with IBM Design Language and Carbon guidelines.
- Collaborate with UX designers and engineers to ensure visual consistency across components and experiences.
- Develop and maintain documentation for visual standards and best practices.
- Advocate for accessibility and inclusivity in all visual design work.
- Contribute to open-source design practices by sharing work, providing feedback, and engaging with the Carbon community.
- Present and communicate design decisions clearly to stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
- Extensive experience in visual design and illustration for digital products or design systems.
- Strong portfolio showcasing expertise in:
- Typography, color theory, layout, and composition.
- Iconography and illustration for digital interfaces.
- Motion design principles and their application in UI.
- Proficiency with design tools such as Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud.
- Experience creating scalable visual systems and maintaining consistency across large product ecosystems.
- Understanding of accessibility standards and inclusive design practices.
- Excellent communication, storytelling, and documentation skills.
- Comfortable working in a dynamic, collaborative environment.
- Experience contributing to or managing design systems.
- Familiarity with front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, React) and their impact on visual design.
- Experience working in open-source communities.
- Motion design and animation skills using tools like After Effects or Lottie.