Design Jobs Board

We’re looking for a fantastic Design Director to lead and inspire our incredible creative team at out London studio

About

Accountable for creative excellence across a wide range of projects and responsible for leading, directing and inspiring the teams that produce incredible work.

You will drive projects forward to innovative and unexpected outcomes and nurture and motivate the design team to create work that is intelligent, innovative and inspirational. Your lateral thinking and ability to look at a problem from all sides means that you can always suggest another way forward and you approach issues with a relentless desire to try something new. You are a wonderful mentor — diplomatic and energetic — and will be driven to shape and empower your team through regular reviews and professional development. You seek out new talent, with an eye for potential always open.

As Design Director you will lead the design team and work in close partnership with the Creative, Strategy, Digital and Client Directors. Your design ability is second to none, but you can see beyond the visual outcome to help create work that is nuanced, appropriate and perfectly in tune with our clients’ and their customers’ needs. Your bigger-picture thinking means you understand the commercial landscape and can deliver work with real value. Your ability to tell articulate stories is as strong as your confidence with client teams and your enjoyment of these interactions ensures lasting, positive relationships. You are a champion of the studio and central in the creation and maintenance of its culture.

Responsibilities

Lead and inspire the creative team from brief and strategy through to concept and implementation to deliver outstanding visual outcomes, ensuring relevant skills and resources are deployed effectively across projects

Manage the development of the creative team with care and efficiency; run briefings and regular progress reviews with practical and actionable feedback, empowering the team and ensuring they are supported, have ownership of and responsibility for projects

Build and maintain a positive studio culture always looking to make DNCO a great place to work. Whether through trips and talks, fostering an openness to sharing, challenge and debate you should help make the studio a place that everyone loves

Develop and maintain strong connections with our clients and be their advocate within the studio, building lasting relationships with them and maintaining absolute clarity on their brief and requirements while always on the lookout for new opportunities with them

Think beyond the client’s needs and think about what will resonate with their clients and customers to generate creative ideas that are targeted, appropriate and inspirational

Understand the bigger picture and consider the strategic and commercial imperatives of the business to ensure both the studio’s and our clients’ vision is successfully delivered

Contribute to a project at all stages, from initial research through to the final delivery ensuring that the studio is creating innovative, original work and that momentum is maintained throughout while paying excellent attention to detail

Create and deliver compelling presentations for both internal and external requirements from pitch to project deliverable which are logical, confident and elegant

Take responsibility for project delivery, sourcing and working with, and sourcing the best suppliers to ensure that outputs are produced with the utmost quality, on time and to budget

Ensure seamless communication within the studio to align expectations, liaising with the Creative, Strategy and Client Directors as appropriate on all matters whether creative, resourcing or staff needs

Keep an eye on the future to ensure that the studio stays well resourced and the studio is recruiting the best talent

Promote the studio in the best way possible, whether directing case studies or marketing our client work in other areas

Skills

With industry experience of at least 8 years, your design ability is clear — powerful and beautifully crafted. Your portfolio is varied in range and scope, but consistent in exciting and effective output

Superbly detailed across projects of all types, you are calm, curious and careful; at the same time you also think big picture and you understand when to prioritise

An encyclopaedic knowledge of craft, process and design and a thirst for more, you are lightning fast at analysing a brief and comfortable proposing and refining a wide variety of possible solutions quickly

A natural storyteller, you will have a flair for building and delivering confident presentations from initial strategic concepts to full creative application

A great communicator, you can debate, promote and defend design decisions within the studio as well as with our clients, winning work from pitch to final delivery

Positive and comfortable both giving and receiving feedback, you are confident, able to assess how to respond and adaptable to change. At the same time you can guide the team with precision and kindness

Endlessly flexible, you can delegate as well as prioritise and you are able to manage your time and that of your team with ultimate efficiency, understanding the wider implications of studio deadlines and the commercial imperative

Skilled in a broad toolkit: Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, After Effects) and Figma, with an eye and opinion on which software or processes we should be using in the future to ensure the team stays as productive as possible. Other software we use on a daily basis: SketchUp, Slack, Miro, Keynote, G Suite, Dropbox, Notion

What we offer

Optional WFH days

Salary based on experience

Opportunities to work on a diverse range of client projects

Team lunches on a Friday

Become part of a 100% employee-owned company

A warm and passionate team

Pension scheme

Private healthcare

Cycle purchase scheme

Company initiatives: yoga, development training, presentation training etc.