Senior Experiential Designer

As the Senior Experiential Designer your role focuses on conceptualising, developing and designing major brand activations, experiential events and mailers for high-profile clients.

The role will use both your creative and production expertise to work up imaginative routes which are totally unique and captivating but also fully achievable within time and budget constraints.

We are looking for an experienced creative who enjoys agency life and thrives working to deadlines. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is looking to come up with wild creative for household names at a high tempo, whist shaping the company, making our work famous and the 'go-to' in the industry.

You’ll be hugely passionate about what you do and be excited to further push your skillset within an artistic and explorative role.

ABOUT US

We are a new-generation, multi-discipline, experience design studio… and if you were wondering what that actually means; well, we create brand experiences which dabble in food and drink, crafts, set design, aquatic plants, sandcastles, flower pressing, glass blowing (you get the idea) to build unique experiences, that matter.

We do not believe in “one size fits all” propositions and think that good design doesn’t always have to be serious to get serious results.

We work with commercial brands to produce experiences which crescendo their marketing calendars. We love what we do and that passion shows right through the design process and into all physical touch points. We join the dots between an array of talented people to create immersive experiences, whether that’s a mailer on your doorstep, a VIP retail workshop or an all singing all dancing event! Our clients include big names such as John Lewis, Estee Lauder, Longchamp and Selfridges.

We are SO proud to be B Corp certified. We are part of a growing group of companies championing conscious business practices by prioritising purpose as well as profit. B Corp (in a nutshell) envision a global economy that uses business as a force for good! Pushing for positive change has been a critical part of our company’s growth and success – if we can make it better, more robust and more green - we will. Now we are certified our aim is to be the very best creative partner for brands that want to achieve fabulous creative but not at the earths expense.

We are a young team based in Central London who put people first and promote a friendly atmosphere. We work hard, we’ve got each other’s backs, we like to have a laugh, and ultimately, we are looking for strong teammates who are looking to build upon the successes we have already had and takes us to new lofty heights!

Heaps + Stacks is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment, where all applicants will receive equal consideration regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disabilities.

WHO YOULL BE WORKING WITH:

• Internal: SED will lead on day to day management of their direct reporting Jr staff within the team, being accountable for their performance and providing them with learning and development opportunities. In this case the SED will be managing the Assistant Creative Designer

• External: Various client teams, including senior level clients and directors (SED may sometimes need to lead on meetings with support from wider team). Suppliers who need specialist and experienced knowledge and who are integral to activation success such as set build, lighting, tech, stylists etc

• Line manager: SED will report into the Creative Lead on the day to day and regularly with the Senior Project Director to feedback on day to day successes, developments as well as any challenges along the way.

• Working alongside: a selection of the production team (including Senior Producer/ Producers / Junior Producers/ Production Assistants etc) to aid them on end to end project creative on projects that require uplift.

WHATS EXPECTED:

• Fully developing creative projects from initial idea through to reality on site

• Produce creative treatments and decks that excites clients and position us highly within the industry

• Working alongside various Producers with advising on all creative elements and give advice on what schematically works and doesn’t and give inspiration to steer the wider team towards your vision (including set dressing lists and graphics registers !

• Working with wider team on new business tenders and to successfully deliver pitches

• Leading creative and styling on live projects and installs where needed

• To push concepts which are sustainable and recyclable and minimise waste

• Presenting finalised ideas and concepts to clients and/or the wider team

• Developing creative from moodboarding to actuals via prop sourcing and bespoke made items

• Copywriting in decks to lead clients through ideas and concepts in a way which is clear and enticing!

• Using innovation and trends to make projects relevant to the now

• Working with a range of media and suppliers and experimenting to get desired results or look and feel

• Creating scaled elevations and floorplans (when required)

• Working closely with contractors to accurately realise our concepts and ideas

• Supporting on finding appropriate (ideally small and local) suppliers to bring ideas to life (artists, stylists, makers, florists etc)

• Creating 2D and 3D design assets such as visuals and renders where required to support the wider team

• Leading and inspiring the Jr team, and giving support on basic project management, deck writing, advice on budgeting etc

• Managing freelance/specialist help where required

• Collating notes for team catch ups, progress reviews, probation meetings (for direct reporting team)

• Client relationships – building, maintaining and developing strong relationships and managing expectations with core client contacts so they always want to come back to us!

• Creating ways of working for the project team to make sure timings and deadlines don’t get missed or truncated meaning ideas/details have to be reduced!

• Making sure all jobs are recorded on camera – making sure we arrange our own coverage if the client won’t do so! And giving creative direction as to how images should look, shot list, and styling ops

• Post event evaluation from creative POV – working out where we can do better next time and collating reports where needed

• Support the MD in the day to day running of the agency via feeding back on what would aid the teams success or anyways in which the company can ‘tighten up’ to make sure we continue to become more time and cost effective, whilst also maximising creative output

• General day to day office management from creative POV

• Making sure all tracking and receipts are filed and captured in the correct ways and on time

• On-site event delivery – UK and overseas. Sometimes working weekends and evening as required

WORKING WITH US:

To succeed here, you have to love working at pace. It’s relentless, but we love it. Change is a certainty – you need to adapt and be agile. We want you to challenge the status quo, innovate and be open to trying new things. We’re always pushing boundaries. We empower our people, giving them freedom and autonomy to learn and grow in their roles. We’re passionate, agile, creative and one team.

MORE ABOUT YOU:

• A collaborative approach to projects and experience working within a busy agency

• Must have an interest in sustainability, materiality and look at experience production with a future focused and environmental lens

• Excellent skills in In-Design, Photoshop and Illustrator

• Experience creating renders and visuals to sell ideas

• Passion and enthusiasm for design, with a creative flair

• Excellent communication skills to interpret and negotiate briefs with clients and the internal team

• Good presentation skills and the confidence to explain and sell ideas to clients and colleagues

• Time management skills and the ability to cope with several projects and deadlines at a time

• Accuracy and attention to detail when finalising work

• Any outside interests in illustration, arts and crafts would also be beneficial and could be used in the role

Salary between £35,000 - £50,000 depending on experience

Please note we review salary regularly to make sure the team move in line with the business as well as their individual efforts

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE DONE BEFORE:

To be considered for this position we are looking for candidates with 5 years min experience working within an event or experiential agency. We are looking for experience in delivering integrated campaigns involving events, knowledge of the whole creative process and the ability to interpret a brand and develop creative concepts.

WHY JOIN US?

• Flexi working times and working from home. The team can work their 7.5 hours with a start and finish that suits them, we are also flexible to work from home or wherever best to get the jobs done to the highest standard. This is completely up to the team member to decide on their own accord but of course altered working hours must not disrupt the wider team or the paying client.

• Collaboration - as pretty much all of our projects include site visits, physical items, office deliveries, face to face brainstorms etc we do recommend 2-3 days per week in the office per week to get the best results. This is recommendation only and will vary from time to time, week to week.

• We have meeting free Fridays to give the team time to wrap up their work as well as a good amount of time, uninterrupted to get stuck into deep work.

• Training. We are proud to offer training to all employees including group training days with varying themes and topics as well as offering employees further training to upskill for the maximum value of £500 per year.

• Duvet Days – Our team have 2 duvet days per year. A duvet day is a day that you can take off without notice in advance. They can be taken whenever you need a day off due to mental health and you haven’t already requested annual leave.

• Reading week – We’re big on learning and development at Heaps + Stacks so in August we host an annual ‘reading week’ where we have half the week off to get stuck into business books (bought by the company), or just any book really that will strengthen what you do and how you do it!

• Holiday - we offer 25 days annual leave per year and after an employee has completed two years working at Heaps + Stacks you are entitled to one day extra holiday per year for each additional year of service, capped at a maximum of 30 days holiday per year (excluding Bank Holiday and National Holidays).

• After three years of service with Heaps + Stacks, employees are entitled to a one off, £1000 bonus

• After five years of service with Heaps + Stacks offer employees the opportunity to take a one month fully paid sabbatical

• Maternity - We will pay enhanced maternity/adoption pay if you have been employed with us for 37 weeks at the 15th week before your Expected Week of Childbirth. The pay is broken down into:

- Twelve weeks full pay

- Followed by six weeks half pay

- Followed by fifteen weeks off Statutory Maternity Pay flat rate.

• Any employees returning back to work at Heaps + Stacks after maternity or adoption leave will receive a one off discretionary welcome back bonus

• Expensed Gallery Trips – We offer each team member £25.00 to expense for a visit a gallery or exhibition every month.

• Good Egg. At the end of the month the team vote who has gone above and beyond that month and whoever gets voted the most gets a voucher for Selfridges.