Sr. Art Director

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