Art Director / Sn. Designer

We have an exciting opening for an Art Director to join our team full-time in London. You will lead conception and visual direction on projects across branding and communications. We are seeking a talented creative with a beautiful imagination who can conceive bold aesthetics, has a passion for experimentation and can bring people on a creative journey through presentation and storytelling.

If you love imagining entirely new futures for brands, your portfolio has an eclectic mix of work, and you love working closely in a collaborative environment, we would love to hear from you!

We are a Tokyo-born independent creative agency and have set up our London office in March 2019. As a design-driven creative agency, we are passionate about unlocking the true personality of brands. Help them be more expressive. Help them own their quirks. Be that through Branding, Web design, Communications or anything in between. In our quest to express a brand’s true character, we push the boundaries of channels, styles and techniques and look for curious, self-driven creatives that embrace a variety of perspectives.

This position is for a full-time, in-house role at our London office, with a start date ideally in September-October 2023. Most of your time will be spent on London projects but we frequently work in collaboration with our Tokyo office as well and are excited to launch a sister office in Paris later this year!

You will:

• Conceive fresh visual universes for brands across branding and communications, pushing beyond traditional formats or prevailing trends.
• Defining the design direction for those visual universes, applying a high level of design craft in every aspect and detail of the execution.
• Bring both internal teams and clients along with you on your journey by presenting your direction in a clear and convincing way.
• Work closely with the team of designers and producers to create magic together. monopo works through a philosophy of collective creativity and we are looking for an art director that is excited about the opportunities that true collaboration brings.
• Get creatively involved in projects beyond your core skills, based on your own interests.

You’re the perfect fit if you:

• Can confidently translate brand strategy into imaginative creative and visual concepts, be that in branding or communications.
• Are excellent at formulating and communicating the core creative thinking behind your work.
• Are excited about (and ideally experienced in) leading and inspiring junior designers.
• Have firm skills in design craft and are excited to work closely with more junior team members to guide their work towards excellence.
• Have a wide spectrum of influences and inspiration and know how to integrate a richness of typography, illustration, photography and external collaborators into your process.
• Have a portfolio that shows a habit of experimentation and curiosity.
• Are self-driven to take initiative and pursue or create new creative opportunities.
• Draw inspiration from unexpected places, beyond the design industry.
• Know the ins-and-outs of Photoshop but also feel comfortable in Illustrator, InDesign and Figma.
• Work through kindness. Love to work collaboratively and positively with other creatives.
• Have a keen eye for detail and respect for deadlines.
• Have a minimum of 4 years of design experience in a creative agency.
• Love in-person collaboration. We work 4 days a week at the studio + 1 day a week flexibly. We sadly can’t accept remote applications for this role.

We will offer you:

• A diverse and stimulating environment. We’re a growing team of 10 in London, 35 in Tokyo, 3 in New York and a new Paris office opening this fall. You will join an experienced team hungry to make work we can be proud of together.
• A rich variety of international brands and projects. From fashion to sports, entertainment to tech, Japan to London, digital to branding, our projects cover a wide variety of categories, challenges and markets.
• Benefits to support the well-being of you and the team. Weekly catered Wednesday team lunch, monthly tickets to Nicer Tuesdays, quarterly office party with our creative community, private health insurance, cycle-to-work-scheme.
• The opportunity and support to grow based on your own interests and ambitions. If there’s something you want to try or learn, we will find a way to help you do that. We also offer a fixed yearly budget for personal creative development and professional training.