Lead Narrative Designer

Reports to: Director of Narrative Design

Luci’s Narrative Designers are charged with championing a story-first approach to creating impactful visitor experiences for museums, visitor centers, brands, and more. As a Lead Narrative Designer, you will be a senior member of our team, responsible for implementing exhibit-related storytelling through scholarly research, interpretive planning, audience advocacy, and client communications. This role is client-facing and highly collaborative. Lead Narrative Designers advocate for project needs and are the go-to resource for content creation and visitor-centric strategies.

● Serve as a primary contact for the client on interpretive and exhibit development matters; lead workshops, pitch ideas, and respond to feedback in a clear, constructive manner.

● Conduct in-depth research into a variety of topics and distill complex information into easily communicated messaging for clients and the public at large.

● Develop and refine exhibit storylines, interpretive plans, and content outlines to align exhibit content with a project’s goals and audiences.

● Advocate for a wide range of audience needs and abilities, ensuring the experiences we design are accessible, inclusive, and impactful.

● Identify the need for freelancers, subject matter experts (SMEs), or unique processes, bringing these requests to project leadership for approval.

● Coordinate with the Project and Creative Leads to plan tasks, allocate resources, and ensure deadlines and financial targets are met.

● Facilitate public-facing and community engagement workshops and stakeholder sessions.

● Advocate for compelling storytelling-driven experiences over didactic knowledge transfer.

● Prepare and deliver regular status updates, creative briefs, and interpretive concepts to clients and stakeholders.

● Promote awareness and understanding of the project’s vision, scope, timeline, and deliverable needs.

● Champion the “voice of the visitor” to ensure that the final exhibit solutions are accessible, engaging, and meaningful not only for the client, but for the people they serve.

● Collaborate with 2D and 3D designers, developers, and media specialists to integrate storytelling and interpretive content seamlessly into the overall exhibit experience.

● Working alongside Creative Directors, Project Directors, and Project Managers, uphold creative excellence while meeting project budgets, timelines, and goals.

● Coordinate with external collaborators to ensure their contributions align with the project’s interpretive goals and budget.

● Contribute ideas for refining project-specific workflows and documentation to increase efficiency and quality outcomes, while deferring broader departmental process changes to higher-level leadership.

● Review fellow Narrative Design team members’ work, including interpretive plans, exhibit matrices, content outlines, and documentation.

● Offer a “second brain” to colleagues through ideation workshops and internal creative reviews.

● Provide constructive feedback and escalate significant quality concerns to the Project Managers or Directors as needed.

● Offer ongoing training and support by sharing best practices in storytelling, visitor engagement, and interpretive methodologies.

● Bachelor’s degree in Museum Studies, History, Education, Design, or related field; Master’s Degree or other advanced degree in a relevant field is preferred.

● Professional experience in exhibit development, museum content creation, and interpretive planning (8+ years ideal).

● Excellent public speaker with strong ability to articulate ideas to clients, stakeholders, and team members; comfortable presenting work in formal/informal settings.

● Experience leading or guiding junior team members, providing clear feedback, and maintaining positive team dynamics.

● Proven ability to lead public-facing workshops and community engagement sessions with a variety of individuals and communities.

●Passion for audience-centered design, storytelling, and alternative learning methods.

● Willingness to adapt to changing project needs; able to creatively solve issues related to content, timelines, and resources.

● Familiarity with best practices in Inclusive and Universal Design.

● This role requires in-studio presence a minimum of three days per week at one of our three office locations in Chicago, New York City, or Seattle.

● Travel will be required for client meetings, site visits, installations, and professional development (training, conferences, etc.).