Character Design Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

Location: On-site at partner schools; varies by assignment

Teaching Mode: In Person

Grade Levels: Elementary, Middle, and High School; varies by assignment

Schedule: Typically 1–4 instructional service hours per week after school

Program Length: Commonly approximately 10 weeks per assignment

Start Dates: Opportunities become available throughout the school year

Compensation: Typical compensation of $50+ per completed instructional service hour, depending on assignment scope, experience, location, schedule, and agreed compensation

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Concorde Education is seeking independent instructional contractors to provide comic book creation enrichment services for K–12 students.

This is a potential independent contractor assignment, not an employee position. Contractors may choose whether to apply for, accept, decline, or ignore available opportunities.

Assignments vary by school, grade level, schedule, curriculum, available materials, student experience levels, and program objectives.

Concorde may provide curriculum guidance, lesson-plan suggestions, instructional resources, project ideas, or program objectives. Contractors may use their professional judgment to adapt instruction within the assignment scope and applicable site requirements.

ASSIGNMENT SCOPE

Depending on the accepted assignment, contractors may:

• Plan and facilitate engaging, age-appropriate comic book creation sessions;

• Introduce students to storytelling, character design, illustration, and sequential art through project-based learning;

• Adapt instruction based on student experience levels, artistic ability, available materials, site requirements, and assignment objectives;

• Guide students in developing original characters, storylines, scripts, comic panels, and completed comic book projects, where applicable;

• Encourage creativity, collaboration, constructive feedback, and artistic confidence;

• Maintain a safe, respectful, inclusive, and age-appropriate learning environment;

• Exercise professional judgment when selecting instructional materials and ensuring that all content remains age-appropriate, educational, respectful, and consistent with school policies and assignment requirements;

• Communicate assignment-related needs or significant concerns with Concorde and school staff, as appropriate;

• Complete a brief session completion form after each scheduled session; and

• Follow applicable site safety, visitor, emergency, student-protection, and technology procedures.

EXAMPLE PROGRAM TOPICS

Assignments may include topics such as:

• Character creation and visual design;

• Story structure, plotting, and narrative development;

• Comic scripting, dialogue, captions, and pacing;

• Panel composition, page layout, and visual storytelling;

• Facial expressions, action poses, perspective, and drawing techniques;

• Inking, coloring, lettering, and finishing techniques, where appropriate;

• Revising, editing, and completing original comic book projects; and

• Creativity, communication, artistic expression, and constructive critique.

Specific curriculum, artistic mediums, software, and project expectations vary by assignment.

QUALIFICATIONS

Preferred qualifications include:

• At least 60 college credits, where required by the applicable assignment or site;

• Experience in illustration, comic creation, graphic storytelling, visual arts, animation, creative writing, graphic design, or related creative disciplines;

• Experience teaching, tutoring, coaching, mentoring, or leading activities with school-age students;

• Strong communication, organization, classroom facilitation, and project-management skills;

• Availability to provide services for the accepted assignment schedule and communicate schedule issues as soon as reasonably practicable; and

• Familiarity with traditional and/or digital art tools used for illustration and comic creation.

Preferred backgrounds may include artists, illustrators, comic creators, graphic novel authors, art educators, creative writing instructors, animators, designers, art students, and others with relevant instructional or creative experience.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Assignments may utilize school-provided art supplies, drawing materials, sketchbooks, markers, colored pencils, curriculum resources, lesson plans, project guides, digital illustration software, tablets, or other instructional resources where available.

Contractors may use their own instructional methods and materials when appropriate, safe, age-appropriate, lawful, and consistent with the assignment scope and site requirements.

Contractors are responsible for ensuring that instructional materials, examples, images, characters, stories, and other creative content used during instruction comply with applicable copyright laws, intellectual property rights, licensing requirements, and school policies. Student projects should emphasize original creative work unless otherwise authorized within the assignment.

Purchases requiring reimbursement must be approved in writing by Concorde before they are incurred.

COMPENSATION

Compensation varies by assignment and agreed contractor terms. Many opportunities pay $50+ per completed instructional service hour with students.

Contractors may propose their desired compensation rate when applying. When proposing a rate, contractors should consider the overall assignment scope, including anticipated preparation, planning, commute, materials, schedule, and other business considerations.

Concorde may accept the proposed rate, decline the application, or provide a counteroffer based on the budget for the specific assignment.

Unless otherwise approved in writing, compensation is based on completed instructional service hours with students.

Payment for completed services is generally made by direct deposit on the fifteenth day of the month following the month in which services were completed, unless otherwise stated in the accepted assignment terms or required by applicable law.

APPLICATION AND ONBOARDING

Applicants selected to move forward may be invited to create a contractor profile and complete any required onboarding steps.

Applying, interviewing, receiving an invitation to create a profile, creating a profile, or completing onboarding does not guarantee selection, placement, or future assignment opportunities.

Potential assignments are subject to assignment fit, agreed compensation, completion of required onboarding, applicable background-check review, Fair Chance or pre-adverse action procedures where required, site-specific clearance requirements, and final written confirmation from Concorde Education.

Some assignments may require background-check authorization, fingerprinting, agency clearance, site-specific documentation, identification badges, or other compliance steps before services may begin.

Applicants should not provide criminal-history information unless and until requested through the appropriate legally compliant process.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Concorde Education considers contractor applicants without regard to any status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law and is committed to respectful, inclusive, and student-centered programming.