Ascential plc: Art Director / Head of Creative and Production 12 month FTC

Art Director is needed in New York, United States.

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Client: Ascential plc

Location: New York United States

Contract: Full Time, 12 Month Contract

The Art Director helps develop and implement the Brand’s creative strategy, while maintaining a keen eye on the competitive landscape and key market trends. They will help achieve improvement initiatives to enable and generate innovative, best-in-class and forward-thinking creativity that inspires and drives customer engagement. The successful candidate will help ensure WGSN is ahead of the competition and consistently delivering creativity that meets and exceeds the expectations, demonstrated by quantitative (growth, retention, engagement) and qualitative (design reviews, and internal/external feedback) insight. The Art Director displays leadership and confidence working within an international organisation, managing design resource both internally and externally and at a local and regional level. They will ensure creative output is adapted and flexed for local market needs, rising to the challenge of a truly global business. The Art Director will also be an active champion of the Ascential Virtual Design Forum and work closely with the Forum lead to share best practices and learnings and to showcase the great marketing creative work from WGSN.

Key accountabilities

• Overseeing WGSN’s creative and production strategy and directing Senior and mid-level Designers as they respond to the needs of the briefs within their area, reflecting the Brand’s objectives.
• Reviewing and approving quality of creative production to ensure it meets Brand and Marketing objectives and is reflective of Ascential standards (tone, style, mood, audience, actions etc).
• Leading the development, updates, and governance of WGSN’s visual identity both at master brand and project level. Maintaining consistency across the board through development of clear brand & style guides.
• With support from the VP of Marketing & the Design Director, assigning projects to the design team (based on skillset) and ensure balanced workflow within the design team and that the work is being delivered on time and on spec.
• Partnering with the Marketing Director/VP to lead Creative planning sessions both at Brand and BU level.
• Leading the collection of insights and learning from ongoing/past work and tracking successes and areas of improvement - to foster a culture of best practice.
• Leading the cascade of communications for changes in processes, policies, practices, or procedures in a clear, concise manner to their team.
• Keeping up to date with developments and good practice in the industry to help drive a culture of design innovation for the business.

Skills, experience & qualifications required

• Solid experience in a Senior Designer role with experience managing designers and setting/leading strategic creative art direction for an organization.
• Experience working in the creative industry at a Senior level.
• Experienced at brand design creation and execution.
• Great communication skills, ability to provide constructive feedback as well as present ideas to stakeholders. Able to listen and explain concepts to designers and non-designers alike.
• Proven ability to lead and provide clear work direction to direct reports and effectively manage their performance.
• Proficient in all required creative programs and a strong understanding of web and print design capabilities. Knowledgeable of the latest technologies and movements within the field.
• Able to lead and art direct design and production for an array of marketing and branding materials for digital, print and event collateral and campaigns.
• Proven career path within area of expertise, demonstrating a deep understanding of area of expertise – seen to be and or known as an industry leader within their area of expertise.
• Significant experience within the creative design industries.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to lead and work within an international matrix team to ensure that design and production of marketing and branding content outputs are of a consistently high standard.
• Skilled at brand design, typography, colour, logo design, web layout design, print production and image selection.
• Understanding of photography, illustration, web design.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Graphic Design or related area.
• Strong Adobe creative suite skills are a must.