The Kitchen

POSITION DESCRIPTION

ROLE: SR. ART DIRECTOR

TEAM: THE KITCHEN NORTH AMERICA

ABOUT THE KITCHEN NORTH AMERICA

The Kitchen brings together a range of disciplines and capabilities. It’s an agile team of creatives, producers, data analysts and social experts working together to deliver remarkable ideas that live in a variety of mediums, with a focus on social media.

This team moves at the speed of culture. It is built to respond to trends and events as they happen, coming up with the ideas that transcend social media to capture the spirit of the moment, earn media impressions, and get the country talking.

OVERVIEW

As the team’s Sr. Art Director, you’re a key contributor of ideas, and the visual leader of a creative team dedicated to producing high quality content. Your work will stand out on social platforms and in the real world, driving conversation and headlines. You’ll be a leader to a team of social creatives, and a partner to a Writer who (like you) wants to make clever, disruptive work for iconic brands.

You’ll partner with your team’s Creative Director, your writing partner and a team of designers and creators to innovate, and visually concept design ideas that break the norms and disrupt social media. When the Kitchen isn’t reacting to cultural moments, it’s making its own moments: planning 365 days of culture: acts, content, thumb-stopping design, and interactions that breathe personality and life into amazing brands all year long.

You’ll need a strong understanding of the best-practice design principles for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, but you’ll also need to be comfortable breaking them with innovation that captures attention in new ways. Your experience in traditional mediums will help you raise the quality of work that we do and ensure we tell compelling stories. You’ll work at a pace that fits the dynamic needs of an agile agency, working quickly when needed to capture the moment, and taking the time to perfect ideas when the opportunity allows it. You’ll use your unique skillset and design eye to inspire others around you.

Your work will make a meaningful impact with a multi-talented team in North America (Toronto & Chicago) that blurs the lines of what marketing can be in today’s always-on, socially connected marketing industry.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

• CREATIVE IDEATION: Work in collaboration with your creative partner to create and develop world-class ideas that earn attention and gets talked about online and in the media. You understand how to spot a consumer or cultural tension point, and to find an idea that leans into it.
• ART DIRECTION: You are an experienced art director who manages others to a level of visual quality that meets your own high standards. You have experience elevating others’ work and a care for your craft.
• TEAM LEADERSHIP: Leads by example to help inspire the creative team around them. Motivates and works with a team of designers, producers, social media/community managers and strategists to ensure that The Kitchen is a collaborative place for producing great ideas. Pushes the creative team around them to be more agile – generating ideas quickly, reactively, and constantly.
• INNOVATIVE & TRADITIONAL DESIGN: You work in a wide range of mediums ranging from traditional video and photo content, real world design (experiential) and social media content.
• BRAND DESIGN: You steward the look and feel of iconic brands, ensuring they have a consistent look and feel online. You are the final voice in ensuring these brands have a consistent high-quality look and feel across all mediums.
• PRESENTATION: Create compelling visual stories that bring ideas to life and gets hands-on as required to design those presentation decks that sell through big ideas. Develops storyboards and presentation decks that help preview the creative ideas we want to make.
• COLLABORATION: Acts with optimism and a love for the next big challenge, working as one integrated team with your creative partner, as well as the broader team. Participates in and occasionally leads brainstorms with positive energy and big-idea thinking – ability to think about how we can bring ideas to life visually, but also able to think broadly about big ideas and how they come to life.

EXPERIENCE & SKILLS

• 5+ years of experience at the art director level, or experience with a as an art director with a proven track record of leading and stewarding brands visually
• A broad portfolio that includes examples of work you have created yourself. Your portfolio includes examples of ground- breaking, innovative work, including examples of social media work that elevates the medium
• College or University diploma in Advertising, Graphic or Communication Design is preferred
• The ability to execute concepts at a level that is among the top-tier in the industry
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills – both written and verbal
• Exposure to Art Direction, Photo Shoots, and UI/UX are an advantage
• Proficient using Mac OS, Adobe Creative Cloud (Expert knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign), SharePoint, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (or Keynote)

The Kitchen

ROLE: CREATIVE DIRECTOR

TEAM: THE KITCHEN NA

LOCATION: TORONTO (HYBRID)

ABOUT THE KITCHEN NA

About The Kitchen

The Kitchen is a team of creatives, strategists, producers, designers, content creators and social media managers working directly with brands to deliver breakthrough ideas. What makes us different is the way we work. We leverage our unique position inside Kraft Heinz to drive creativity and agility that’s only possible with trust and collaboration with our brand partners. Sometimes we’re focused on our brands’ biggest briefs and campaigns, and sometimes we’re creating our own briefs inspired by opportunities that arise from culture and current events. Together, we’re breaking down barriers and empowering more –more ideas, from more places, and more opportunities to earn our consumers’ attention, and learn more about them.

Position Summary

This role is an opportunity to lead a team of creatives within a team we call The Kitchen: a new approach to creating ideas and content inspired by culture, trends, and the world around us for some of Canada’s most iconic food brands at Kraft Heinz.

As the Creative Director in the Kitchen, you will lead a creative team in creating the ideas and content that earn a place in the online (and media) conversation. As an experienced creative leader, you know how to have an impact on your team, and an ability to ensure every project they’re working on reaches its potential – from agile responses, to online moments, to bigger concepts born from cultural trends.

You’re more than a creative manager; You’re a teacher to other creative managers and talent. You know how to help a senior creative-pair get the most out of their team. You’re able to show the junior creatives ‘the ropes’ and get them to a great idea that they feel passionate about. You are hands-on in contributing to ideas and producing great work.

You’ll supervise a team of creatives including a senior creative pair who are constantly thinking through ideas that evolve our brands; an agile social team; and a team of supporting designers and resources tasked with making clever, reactive and planned content that cuts through the noise on social.

You’re always thinking about your team and its capabilities – addressing skill gaps, training talent, and making sure you’re holding them to a high standard.

You’re an enthusiastic pitcher and want to be the creative face of the agency to your brand partners.

Primary Responsibilities

• You lead. You Inspire and direct a team of writers, designers, producers, social media/community managers and strategists to ensure a culture conducive to great work. You are responsible for growing, retaining, and motivating this team to succeed.
• You’re adaptable: You demonstrate resiliency in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment where ideas and opportunities happen fast and require flexibility.
• You hold your team to high standards. You ensure the highest level of creative quality from your team and for the brands you work with. You understand how to give clear feedback that your teams can use to improve their work.
• You manage and supervise multiple creative projects and workflows, sometimes bringing your creatives together, sometimes focusing them on separate asks.
• You direct the design and development of creative materials.
• You ensure brand identity and message consistency across channels.
• You care about being a good partner: meeting business objectives, values, budgets, and deadlines with work that makes you proud. You present work and develop relationships of value and respect with the team.
• You will lead and participate in brainstorming sessions and bring interesting opportunities and trends to the team’s newsroom process.
• You’re a hands-on creative, writing copy or designing against guidelines and brand tone of voice for film, print, digital and social as needed to support your team.
• You lead teams and ensure strong and non-traditional creative output, collaborating with and working under the direction of the Kitchen’s Executive Creative Director.
• You help the agency develop a strong and positive relationship with the advertising community to help recruit top talent.

Qualifications

• A proven track record of success in digital/social or traditional advertising.
• An established leader with a track record of developing talent.
• 8+ years experience in Advertising, social, or medium agnostic creative…. or a track-record that shows why you’re ahead of your peers.
• Strong Portfolio: You demonstrate originality, innovation, and a multi-disciplinary thinking through your work.
• International Recognition: You have created a world-class campaign that achieved international fame or won multiple international awards.
• Leadership Skills: You demonstrate strong leadership skills and can organize, motivate, and improve the creative output of those around you.
• Big Unconventional Idea Thinker: You go beyond the executional or tactical tasks and come up with innovative approaches that earn attention.
• Versatile: You are a strong art director with design pedigree that can work in film, print, web and social.
• Team Player: You are positive, collaborative and a contagious spirit, who works well with others.
• Entrepreneurial: You take initiative and proactively come to the table with new ideas to push forward the creative work and develop relationships with the team
• Production Savvy: You know how to work within budgetary constraints and have experience working with photographers, directors, and vendors.
• Time Management: You can manage your time, hit deadlines and be on time for meetings, while juggling multiple projects.

The Kitchen, Kraft Heinz, and Salt are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting and retaining the most qualified employees regardless of race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age or disability.

The Kitchen

ROLE: ART DIRECTOR

TEAM: THE KITCHEN NORTH AMERICA

About The Kitchen

The Kitchen is a team of creatives, strategists, producers, designers, content creators and social media managers working directly with brands to deliver breakthrough ideas. What makes us different is the way we work. We leverage our unique position inside Kraft Heinz to drive creativity and agility that’s only possible with trust and collaboration with our brand partners. Sometimes we’re focused on our brands’ biggest briefs and campaigns, and sometimes we’re creating our own briefs inspired by opportunities that arise from culture and current events. Together, we’re breaking down barriers and empowering more –more ideas, from more places, and more opportunities to earn our consumers’ attention, and learn more about them.

Position Summary

In the Art Director role, you and your writing partner will create a wide range of ideas and creative concepts that stand out and earn attention. Your work will range from brand acts that create conversations, to advertising across a range of mediums, to compelling visual stories that stand out on social platforms. You’ll be a key part of a creative process that makes ideas, acts, and experiences that get shared and talked about on social and in the press.

You’ll use your strong concepting and ideation skills to produce great creative ideas and use your strength as a visual storyteller to bring them to life. You’ll translate your ideas (and the team’s concepts) into visuals for social media, digital advertising, and traditional content. You’ll partner with producers to make sure that a wide variety of content is captured and edited in a way that fits the iconic brands you represent. You’ll need a strong understanding of the best-practice design principles for Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, but you’ll also need to be comfortable breaking them with innovation that captures attention in new ways. Your experience in traditional mediums will help you raise the quality of work for social, but also work at a pace that fits the dynamic needs of the digital environment. You’ll use your unique skillset and trained eye to inspire the design team around you. Together, you and your team are building a design culture that moves food marketing forward.

Your work will make a meaningful impact with a multi-talented team in North America (Toronto & Chicago) that blurs the lines of what advertising can be in today’s always-on, socially connected industry.

Primary Responsibilities

• ART DIRECTION: Experienced visual expert who elevates the work and level of visual quality that meets high standards.
• INNOVATIVE & TRADITIONAL DESIGN: Work in a wide range of mediums ranging from traditional video and photo content, real world design (experiential) and social media content.
• BRAND DESIGN: Steward the design identity of iconic brands, ensuring they have a consistent look and feel online. You will translate brand strategy into powerful and purposeful creative concepts and are the final voice in ensuring these brands have consistently high-quality execution across all mediums.
• IDEATION: Actively participate in brainstorms with positive energy and dimensional thinking that leverages research and brand insights. Ability to articulate how we can bring ideas to life visually and able to think broadly about big ideas. Proactively seeks out current and upcoming new digital and design trends and best practices.
• PRESENTATION DESIGN: Manage a team to create compelling visual stories and get hands-on as required to design those presentation decks that sell through big ideas. Develops storyboards and presentation decks that help preview the creative ideas we want to make.
• COLLABORATION: Work as a part of a cross-functional design team, and as part of a larger creative team. Comfortable in an iterative environment.
• WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT: Can manage multiple priorities and assignments in a fast-paced, active environment to deliver high quality work, on time and with accuracy. Knows how to delegate work and manage a team’s capacity.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in advertising, with a focus on ideation and concepting for brand acts, stunts, and storytelling. You have experience as an Art Director with a proven track record of leading other Designers and stewarding brands.
• A diverse portfolio showcasing examples of work you have created yourself, as well as work created by a team you managed. Your portfolio includes examples of strategic/conceptual thinking, visual design, and storytelling, and innovative social work that elevates the medium.
• College or University diploma in Art, Visual Communication Design, Advertising and/or Art Direction
• The ability to execute concepts at a level that is among the top tier in the industry.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills – both written and verbal.
• Exposure to Art Direction, Photo Shoots, and UI/UX are an advantage.
• Proficient using Mac OS, Adobe Creative Cloud (Expert knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign), SharePoint, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (or Keynote).
• Passion for food and food design with an insatiable curiosity to learn more about it
• A desire to do award-winning, internationally recognized work

The Kitchen, Kraft Heinz, and Salt are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting and retaining the most qualified employees regardless of race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, age or disability

The Kitchen