Character Designer / Illustrator
Character Designer / Illustrator: Original Flagship Character for Consumer App
Salary: $125,000-$165,000
Hi! We are Ray!
We're building an AI-powered, interactive, digital journaling app, and we're hiring the person who'll design its flagship character. This is a character authorship role: the rare chance to create an original character from scratch.
We want to build the next Sanrio: a character world people fall in love with, grow up with, grow old with, return to daily, and eventually want on stickers, plush, mugs, and everything in between. The characters you create will be the emotional center of the product and the brand.
About us
We are an early-stage consumer app company. We raised $4M to reimagine what daily journaling can be: interactive, intelligent, built for how people actually want to reflect. We're just getting started, and the person who takes this role will help define the visual heart of everything we make.
What you'll do
Design the flagship character: silhouette, shape language, face logic, personality, and behavior
Build out the character's personality and world: expressions, emotions, poses, sticker sets, seasonal variants
Extend the character system into companion characters and a broader cast
What we're looking for
Mid-to-senior experience preferred, but portfolio fit comes first
A portfolio that feels close to the world we want to build: warm, simple, iconic, kawaii. Think Sanrio, Studio Ghibli, KakaoTalk Friends, Gudetama, Labubu, Tom Nook (Animal Crossing).
Strong original character work with a clear personal point of view.
Evidence you can take one character and extend it across expressions, poses, and surfaces while keeping its identity intact.
Shape language, silhouette discipline, and an instinct for what makes a character feel collectible and brandable.
Nice to have, not required
Experience at a character-IP company, consumer app with a mascot, or character-driven studio or agency
Work that's lived as stickers, merch, plush, or licensed products
The role
Full-time. New York preferred, remote welcome.
How to apply
Email careers@ray.you with a portfolio link, your resume, and a short note about what drew you to this role. We're excited to see what you've been making.
