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Visual Design Intern

The Autoimmune Fund
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More than 100 autoimmune diseases affect tens of millions of Americans, yet the field is still difficult to see as a connected ecosystem. The Autoimmune Fund is building a new way to understand the autoimmune patient journey, and to invest across it. We use visual communication to make that complexity understandable.

We are looking for a design intern to help us build one of the foundations of that system: a reusable icon library and visual grammar for The Autoimmune Fund.

To Apply

Send the following to bonnie@autoimmune.fund.

  • Your resume. A short PDF or a link is fine.
  • A few sentences about why this project interests you.
  • One example of a visual system you designed yourself. A set of related marks or icons built according to shared rules, rather than a single icon or logo. Include a short explanation of the thinking or rules behind it.
  • A quick visual-thinking challenge. Choose one of these three ideas: Immune Precision, convergence, or investment conviction. Show us in a rough sketch, or in a few sentences, how you might represent it visually and why.

Section 1 · The Project

This is not an assignment to draw a collection of unrelated icons. It is a visual systems and information-design project.

You will work with our existing storyboards, presentations, one-pagers and reports to identify the concepts we communicate repeatedly, from patients, diagnostics and capital to more abstract ideas such as immune precision, convergence and investment conviction.

Some concepts have familiar visual shorthand. Others do not. For the hardest ones, we want you to explore the question:

What is the simplest, most intelligent visual expression of this idea?

Your goal will be to turn these concepts into a coherent visual vocabulary that can work across presentations, reports and digital materials, and that can be extended by other designers without losing its consistency.

Section 2 · What You Will Build

1. Visual Audit and Vocabulary

  • Identify recurring concepts, symbols and visual inconsistencies.
  • Build a master visual-vocabulary taxonomy.
  • Group concepts into families such as patient journey, science, technology, healthcare, markets and investing.
  • Determine which concepts need icons, proprietary symbols, visual metaphors, connectors or other reusable components.
  • Prioritize the concepts we use most frequently.

Deliverable: Master visual vocabulary and prioritized icon inventory.

2. Visual Metaphor Exploration

  • Explore multiple visual approaches for approximately 8 to 12 core concepts, including proprietary Autoimmune Fund frameworks.
  • Develop different metaphors and abstractions before moving to a finished icon.
  • Recommend the visual directions that make unfamiliar ideas easiest to understand.

Deliverable: Visual metaphor studies and recommended directions.

3. Visual Grammar

  • Help establish rules for line weight, geometry, scale and proportion, level of detail, spacing and optical alignment, containers and shapes, color usage, and filled versus outline treatments.
  • Develop arrows, pathways, gates, brackets, flows and other connectors that allow individual symbols to tell larger stories.

Deliverable: Icon and visual-grammar standards.

4. Core Icon Library

  • Create and refine approximately 30 to 40 high-priority icons covering the concepts we use most often.
  • Use or adapt familiar universal symbols where they work. Reserve original visual solutions for concepts that need them.

Deliverable: Core Autoimmune Fund icon library.

5. Proprietary Visual Language

  • Develop a smaller family of distinctive symbols for recurring Autoimmune Fund scientific frameworks and investment concepts.
  • Keep them simple enough to work alongside the broader icon library, but distinctive enough to become recognizable across our materials.

Deliverable: Approximately 8 to 10 proprietary symbols.

6. Working Figma Library

  • Build organized Figma components with naming conventions, categories and appropriate variants.
  • Incorporate connectors and visual-grammar elements.
  • Prepare SVG and presentation-ready assets, and test the system at real presentation and document sizes.
  • Document basic usage rules so the library can grow without losing consistency.

Deliverable: An organized, extensible visual communication library.

Section 3 · Who We Are Looking For

You may be studying graphic design, communication design, information design, visual communication or a closely related field. We are looking for someone who:

  • Thinks in systems rather than individual graphics.
  • Is excellent at reducing complicated ideas to simple visual forms.
  • Understands what makes an icon family feel consistent.
  • Has strong composition and information-design instincts.
  • Is fluent in Figma and comfortable creating clean vector artwork.
  • Can explore several visual solutions before becoming attached to one.
  • Notices details but understands that clarity matters more than decoration.
  • Can explain why a visual solution works.

You do not need a background in venture capital, investing or immunology. We will provide the science, strategy, source material and regular art direction.

You bring visual intelligence, curiosity and craft.

Section 4 · What This Is Not

This is not primarily character illustration, branding or logo design, UX/UI product design, or production work using downloaded icon packs. We are looking for someone interested in visual meaning, information design and systems thinking.

Section 5 · What You Will Leave With

Rather than a series of disconnected intern assignments, you will have the opportunity to build a complete visual system that can become a substantial portfolio case study.

Complex problem  →  research  →  visual exploration  →  design rules  →  icon system  →  working component library  →  real-world application

Section 6 · Project Structure

Commitment: Part-time, approximately 10 to 12 hours per week

Initial project: Approximately 20 hours

Estimated full project: Approximately 60 to 80 hours

Compensation: $20 per hour

Location: Los Angeles or UCLA-area availability is a plus. We will consider an exceptional remote candidate.

The initial project will focus on the visual audit, taxonomy and early metaphor exploration. The internship may then continue into development of the full library, based on mutual fit and the strength of the initial work.