Design Director

About the role...

We’re looking for a Design Director to join our team on a full-time basis. Your role will be crucial in shaping our conceptual and visual output, combining highly crafted graphic design with rigorous, strategic thinking. As a senior member of the team, you will be tasked with driving various branding projects in the studio, as well as guiding and nurturing others in the team. You will have a meticulous eye for detail and finely crafted execution across both real-world and digital communications. We actively avoid a signature style, so you will need to be comfortable adapting to different creative and aesthetic territories, hold strong communication skills and be ready to dive straight into a variety of briefs across a variety of deliverables.

Our ambition to deliver work that is as striking as it is effective is underpinned by our commitment to doing it with grace, humility and optimism. The way we see our place in the world is that we exist to open eyes, minds and hearts; and we do this with open eyes, minds and hearts, ourselves.

This ethos extends to our internal culture too; we’ve a strong commitment towards providing an inclusive, welcoming and socially responsible working environment.

What the role entails...

— Crafting inventive and distinct brand worlds that are grounded in strategic thinking

— Creating imaginative, thoughtful and progressive work across a range of sectors, with a particular focus on hospitality and property

— Leading the creative direction and actively designing on projects, supported by the Creative Directors

— Connecting the dots between the strategic foundations of our work, and the creative opportunity that follows it

— Working across several projects at any one time

— Working with and guiding less experienced members of the design team

— Delivering effective, easy-to-use, creative eco-systems for brands

— Understanding of real-world and digital production processes

— Preparing and leading persuasive, compelling, narrative-driven presentations to clients

What we are looking for...

— Passionate about graphic design, branding, typography and art direction in a commercial context

— Examples of thoughtful and imaginative brand work across various sectors, in particular hospitality and luxury territories

— Aptitude for creating bespoke typography, alongside arresting art direction

— Able to combine big picture thinking and attention to detail into beautifully crafted, high quality creative concepts

— Detailed understanding of production across print, packaging, environmental and digital

— Curiosity; naturally inclined to question and challenge assumptions

— Pragmatism; an innate understanding of when to challenge assumptions and equally when not to

— Willing to take themselves outside of their comfort zone

— Able to engage the studio team in driving creative output, nurturing and guiding less experienced members of the team

— Excellent organisational and time-management skills; able to work to tight deadlines and balance several projects at once

— Flexible, motivated and driven; a team player able to collaborate and build positive and productive working relationships

— Ability to clearly, confidently and passionately communicate and present ideas from concept stages through to design to various levels of stakeholder

— Pre-emptive problem solver; ability to ask the right questions at the right time

— Active interest in contemporary culture and trends

— Exceptional understanding of core Adobe Creative Suite programmes and Figma

— Knowledge of Pitch, Glyphs, Adobe After Effects, 3D visualisation software, HTML and CSS is advantageous

What we offer...

— Salary of £70,000+

— 9-day fortnight working pattern

— Hybrid working between our Shoreditch studio (3 days min.) & WFH (2 days max.)

— Flexi-time available (standard hours 9.30am—6pm)

— 20 days of holiday + UK bank holidays + Birthday off

— Additional time off between Christmas and New Year (typically circa 2 weeks)

— £500 learning and development allowance per year

— 1 subsidised ‘workation’ (remote working opportunity) per year

— Transparent salary bands & a clear progression framework

— Vitality private healthcare

— End of week team lunches

— Summer and Winter team away days