Art Director

Who are we?

The Soze Agency is a social impact creative agency. Guided by three core values — compassion, authenticity, and equity — we launch campaigns, build brands, create content, produce immersive experiences, and support movements, all through storytelling that’s grounded in culture and cultivates the conditions for a better world.

About this role

The Creative Design Team at Soze integrates social impact strategy to communicate stories through creative visuals and design that can come to life through an array of mediums and experiences. We are hiring a well-rounded Art Director to join our team of storytellers, entrepreneurs, strategists, optimists and creatives. Our ideal candidate is an interdisciplinary designer who has training and experience as a graphic designer yet can share meaningful art direction and creative feedback for our team on various storytelling outputs from digital content to IRL  experiences.

We’re looking for candidates who are:

• Design thinking. You use design to make sense of the world, and understand how it is an effective means to communicate and envision it as a place where we all can belong and thrive.
• Interdisciplinary in practice. You have experience creating graphics for different mediums, including experiential; presentation design, environmental graphics, signage, and branding for the digital and physical worlds. You might also love photography or have wet your feet in UX/UI design or motion graphics. 
• Inherently curious. You love thinking as much as making. You have a strong appetite for learning and discovery. You have a diverse set of references that you draw to find inspiration whether it is post-war Sainsbury’s Design Studio to Wangechi Mutu — that supports the team in ideation to develop grounded design concepts.
• Proactive & solutions-oriented. You push to understand and identify the real problem hiding behind the perceived one. You see the challenges you encounter as opportunities to provide innovative solutions that create positive change. 
• Skillful collaborators. From building relationships across multiple teams to navigating varied personalities, you’re eager to work with others to solve problems, brainstorm together, support each other, and push for great ideas. 

Responsibilities

Art Directors are expected to be designers while also being conceptual thinkers, problem solvers, and storytellers who work across integrated teams and multiple projects—internal and external. 

• Provide end to end art direction and execution for branding, events, experiential and exhibit design, 360 campaigns, social, editorial, video and photo shoots
• Collaborate with a team to develop strategy and design for internal and external projects
• Production and execution of a broad array of visual communication, content and experiential pieces
• Collaborate with a team of creative designers & strategists, architects and production artists and working in close collaboration with other CSM teams (business development, accounts, partnerships, PR/communications and digital) as appropriate

Experience 

• 3-5 years of design experience ideally in a creative agency, design studio or similar environment. 
• Strong and rapid visual design skills, whether hand sketching, mock-ups, 2D or 3D renders
• Advanced knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, with emphasis on InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator
• Advanced knowledge of presentation software including Keynote, PowerPoint, Google Slides
• Strong graphic/typography skills and a keen eye for exceptional aesthetic executions
• Strong comfort level researching mediums in which you may never have worked (video, interactive technology, social media, emerging technologies, etc) so as to grant flawless execution 
• Experience in conceptual content development and video editing; at a minimum, strong skills storyboarding and collaborating with photographers, videographers, directors and/or content teams. 
• Strong understanding of how to translate the client’s objectives into creative solutions.
• Oversee installations on site as needed, ability to travel for projects
• Strong organizational abilities, including time management and attention to detail. 
• Proven and tested ability to juggle multiple projects, navigate various working styles, and maintain an optimistic, solutions-oriented attitude through it all.
• Proficiency in utilizing Google Workplace, Asana and other project management systems, and understanding how they integrate with creative workflows
• Oversee installations on site as needed, ability to travel for projects
• Plusses: Experience with FIGMA, AdobeXD or other product prototyping software; comfort with collaborating with and directing digital teams
• Knowledge of After Effects and motion graphics big plus

Salary + Benefits

• Salary band for this role is $86,000 to $99,000. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications.
• 100% paid medical, dental + vision benefits
• 401k plan with 50% employer matching 
• Unlimited vacation after one year of tenure, allowances for gym membership, cell phone, and personal development stipend
• The Soze Agency is a worker-owned cooperative. Full-time employees are eligible to become co-owners after two years of consecutive full-time employment. Benefits to co-ownership will be discussed during the hiring process.

The Soze Agency