Senior Designer

We are DS.Emotion.

We make places successful.

We make successful places.

DS.Emotion is a highly innovative, industry leading independent agency who specialise in place making, branding & marketing.

We have over 30 years experience in helping to make the amazing places we work with commercially and socially successful. For us, this means developing authentic place brands that attract and engage with wide and diverse audiences, creating places that make long-term positive changes to people’s lives.

We have branded and marketed some of the UK’s most exciting and inspirational residential and commercial destinations. We’re proud to have won national awards over the years in recognition of our team’s hard but rewarding work.

Who we work for

We work for some of the UK’s most ambitious developers, landowners, asset managers and property companies, helping them shape places that people genuinely want to be a part of.

Our work spans everything from iconic destinations such as Carnaby Street to smaller, characterful places like Dukes Lane, Brighton. We might be helping to reposition an established retail destination, launch a major new development or define the future direction of an entire neighbourhood, town or city centre.

Whatever the scale, we create places that put people at their heart. Places that challenge traditional ideas, bring together culture, community, experience and commerce, and respond to the way people want to live, shop, work and socialise today.

The Team

Our innovative, creative and strategic teams across the country bring experience and enthusiasm to all projects. We pride ourselves on our industry expertise and the breadth of services we provide for our clients across all channels. Our skills range from brand consultancy, strategy development, campaign creative and digital and physical delivery – including social media, events and activations.

The London team consists of expert account handlers, designers, strategists plus social media, web and events experts. We are a small but effective team of marketers who really enjoy our work but who also socialise outside of office hours, taking full advantage of all that London has to offer!

The Role

This is your chance to help change how people perceive and use the environment around them. You will need to keep on top of new ideas and emerging trends, get out and experience great places for yourself, and bring the best of what you discover back to the team. You will work collaboratively with other designers, strategists, account handlers, digital marketers and activation specialists to explore new possibilities and create the way forward for our clients.

The work is varied, visible and rarely boring. You could be helping to deliver a high-profile destination rebrand, creating a major Pride campaign, launching a new development, designing a place magazine or bringing a weird and wonderful campaign, installation or live event to life.

You will do it as part of a close-knit, multidisciplinary team with a wide mix of skills, experience and perspectives and, importantly, a team that genuinely enjoys working together.

As a Senior Designer, you will help define what good looks like across the studio. You will take ownership of projects from initial brief through to final delivery, drive creative direction, challenge briefs constructively and bring new ideas to the table across brand, campaigns, placemaking and activations.

You will translate strategy and objectives into clear, compelling creative work, explaining the thinking behind your decisions and understanding how design supports wider audience, place and commercial goals.

You will work closely with colleagues and clients, lead projects and presentations, manage feedback, keep work moving and support more junior designers through thoughtful feedback and mentoring.

We are looking for someone organised, dependable and ambitious, with strong creative judgement, excellent attention to detail and the confidence to make decisions. You should be willing to keep learning, push your own work forward and take an increasingly active role in leading both projects and people.

Key Tasks

• Brand identity work
• Brand guidelines & brand books design
• Campaign design & development
• Magazine design & development
• Social media content design
• Window vinyl & POS design & artworking
• Presentation, pitch & creds docs design
• Emailers, newsletters and basic web design
• Artworking for print, signage and wayfinding
• Sourcing, briefing and editing photography
• Seeing creative through to artwork stage
• Leading creative routes from brief to delivery
• Contributing to and leading team brainstorms
• Presenting creative concepts internally and to clients
• Interrogating briefs and identifying gaps, risks or opportunities
• Working closely with account handlers, strategists and activation teams
• Helping define visual direction, campaign systems and creative rationale
• Maintaining brand consistency across multiple channels and touchpoints
• Supporting and mentoring junior and midweight designers
• Giving constructive feedback and helping raise creative standards
• Liaising with external suppliers including printers, photographers and developers

Skills & Experience

• 5+ years experience in a relevant design role
• Agency experience
• Place, property, retail or destination experience preferable
• Degree educated preferable
• Highly proficient in Adobe Creative Suite
• Knowledge of Google Slides highly preferable
• Knowledge of motion design preferable
• Experience designing for digital is essential
• Experience designing for social media is preferable
• Brilliant with typography, layout and visual systems
• Strong conceptual and creative thinking skills
• Excellent accuracy, craft and attention to detail
• Strong presentation and communication skills
• Ability to explain design decisions with clear rationale
• Ability to lead small to mid-size projects with confidence
• Comfortable working directly with clients and internal teams
• Strong organisation, administration and time-management skills
• Ability to multitask and work in a fast-paced environment
• Able to prioritise effectively when time, budget or resource is limited
• Excellent problem-solving skills and diplomacy
• Strong teamwork, collaboration and negotiation skills
• Able to give and take feedback professionally
• A flexible and adaptable approach
• Able to work independently while supporting the wider team
• Calm, confident and reliable under pressure

What we can offer you

• Work in a creative environment as part of growing and ambitious team of specialists.
• DS.Emotion is moving into being an Employee Ownership Trust. Details of this will be shared separately.
• 28 days including bank holidays. In addition to this we close between Christmas and New Year, therefore these are “free” holiday days. After two years of continuous employment you will gain an additional day holiday each year, up to 33 days (inc BH).
• Bonus scheme
• Private Health Care
• Ongoing training and career development
• Hybrid working policy
• Regular, varied and fun staff socials