Hornet is seeking a Freelance Concept Artist to join our award-winning, interdisciplinary team, supporting upcoming pitches and early-stage creative development. 

This role is ideal for an artist-first creative who is passionate about storytelling and animation, and who thrives working across a wide range of design languages.

From broad visual exploration in pitch phases to the finer details of world-building, the Concept Artist will partner closely with Directors and Creative Directors to help shape projects across multiple mediums—spanning cel, CG, and stop motion. 

We’re especially interested in candidates who are excited about integrating generative AI into their existing workflow as a tool to enhance ideation, iteration, and visual exploration.

Responsibilities:

• Design under the direction of Hornet Directors and Creative Directors, in partnership with staff artists and freelancers to develop concepts and visual directions for pitches.
• Use generative AI tools to ideate, iterate, and expand on creative ideas
• Blend traditional design / illustration skills with AI assisted workflows
• Strong traditional design skills are essential, candidates must be able to create original concepts and visuals from scratch.
• Translate prompts and rough ideas into compelling visual outputs
• Explore new tools, nodes, and workflows to push creative boundaries
• Create and explore designs in a variety of styles according to the wide range of visual languages present in agency and director briefs.
• Create concept and production art based on creative briefs for 2D, CG, Stop Motion and Print projects, which may include style frames, character designs, layout and background designs.
• Participate in internal creative initiatives driven by Creative Directors, exploring and R&Ding new styles and workflows for later use in production.

Qualifications:

• Experience as a designer working in the animation industry.
• Portfolio of design work with a strong understanding of visual storytelling.
• Experience applying the foundations of shape language, color theory, light and composition to style frames.
• Experience with post-production effects and finishing as it applies to rendering style frames.
• Well-versed in executing various design styles based on Directors’ creative direction, and have the ability to quickly adapt to creative feedback.
• Experience incorporating generative AI into creative workflows (ideation, iteration, and visual development). 
• Familiarity with AI tools and node-based systems with an understanding of how to integrate them into existing pipelines. 
• Proficiency with generative AI models such as Nano Banana, Veo, Kling, and similar tools (e.g., Seedream, Seedance, Runway, ChatGPT), including advanced prompt crafting, annotation, and reference building to support iterative refinement.
• Overall positive attitude with proactive communication that intentionally contributes to a collaborative studio environment.
• Strong attention to detail, self-motivation, organization, and time management
• Ability to work effectively and efficiently in a fast-paced commercial environment while balancing individual design assignments
• Experience with 2D + CG pipelines and software packages a plus.
• Familiarity with print a plus.
• Experience with Cinema 4D or Blender a plus.