Head of Design / Design Director

The Head of Design (HD) maintains and grows our client's brand with The agency on an ongoing and project basis. They direct and coordinate the day-to-day agency creative efforts on behalf of the client’s product and/or service on assigned accounts. In this role, the HD insures that the agency provides:

Sound and responsible marketing counseling and planning.
Conceptual visual creation of ideas spanning all areas of integrated communication, branding and interactive programs.
Proper and innovative execution of work in all areas on schedule.
Deliver a consistently superior creative product.
Innovative solutions and experiences.

The Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree of Fine Arts, Media Arts, Interaction Design or equivalent education and experience.
The ideal candidate will have 10-15 or more years of broad visual and interactive design and creative management experience, including experience in both consumer and digital.
She / he must have experience leading cross-discipline teams.
Interest in and aptitude for creative business and marketing solutions
Knowledge of web application design and build
Experience in Integrated marketing, branding and visual design.
Will make fun of my design skills and user experience background.
Well versed in building visual campaigns across multiple platforms
Great client-facing experience.
Great creative management abilities
Self motivated and willing to expand knowledge
Ability to self-manage while managing assigned teams and projects.

The Director position requires ongoing and in-depth interactions with the following:

Internal: The HD reports to the ECD. As assigned, the HD has overall responsibility for leading the client’s creative design effort. Within the agency, the HD is a thought leader for the client and works closely with all agency personnel in developing and executing deliverables.
External: The HD will have direct client contact with assigned agency clients. Must be an excellent pitch person, with great written and oral communication skills.

Responsibilities and Duties

The HD has four areas of responsibility (specific duties of each are explained below)

Planning, Analyzing, Evaluating

Develop workable budgets, work plans and realistic timetables.
Collaborates with the ECD, Head of Account Services, President, Head of Strategy and Head of Digital, on preparation of marketing recommendations, strategies and actions for the client.
Reviews, analyzes and evaluates the following, relative to the client’s needs and objectives: media output, creative output, research reports and client data.
Provide client platform / business updates on a regular basis to demonstrate upcoming opportunities and threats to their business
Defining creative design scope, works with peers in the creation of project specifications and time plans.

Team Leading, Coordinating, Managing

Provides creative design leadership within the agency on behalf of the client.
Monitors all budget, research and design related activity.
Maintains communications with appropriate agency and client personnel to ensure positive workflow.
Educating clients and a track record of creating awesome work.
Champion internal systems for higher productivity working

Project & Product Management

Co-manages design projects from concept to finish, ensuring successful project completion against deadlines.
Provide and maintain projects status - liaising with development teams, designers and commercial staff to provide accurate updates of project statuses
Project quality assurance - testing and review of output, reviewing outputted deliverables against scope
Understands: visual design, Ux, UI, branding, positioning development, marketing plans, manufacturing or development needs, timeline and roadmap planning, stats analysis and reporting.

Creative Development

Strong visual approach for interactive, brand, video, interactive and user journey experience with proven skills in interaction design, brand and campaign concepting and execution.
Management and leadership skills
Able to decipher complex communication briefs and objectives into intelligent design and media / technology solutions. - Master storyteller with the ability to command a room and build strong client relationships.
Previous cross discipline experience that covers interactive / experiential design, creative media arts, immersive and reactive environments and narrative storytelling for multi-sensory physical experiences.
Management and mentoring of design team. Able to concept and translate a complex technology driven idea to action and drive team to successful execution.