Design Director – Creative Leads

Job Description

SketchDeck is building the model for the next generation of creative agencies. Through a combination of technology, partnership, and a global talent community, SketchDeck gives marketers access to quality creative. SketchDeck teams are strategic partners and brand guardians, working through an agile and transparent process. We work with clients from startups to well-known enterprise brands such as Dropbox, Remy Cointreau, and Asana.

Your main focus is on high-level creative and strategic projects and mentoring your team to support projects of all sizes and scopes. You will also be able to contribute to the SketchDeck team development, fostering a culture of creativity and collaboration. This can include mentoring designers and brand managers and developing internal trainings.

This role will work closely with the Project Managers to oversee the team’s work and success. You’ll report directly to the Director of Design.

You’ll succeed in this role if you have strong and efficient design processes, prioritization and project management skills, an entrepreneurial instinct, and enjoy working directly with clients to elevate their creativity.

SketchDeck is an entrepreneurial environment. You’ll be expected to jump into new work and help other teams. Priorities can shift quickly with clients’ condensed timelines

As the Design Director, you’ll have three (3) areas of responsibilities:

Client projects: (65%)

• Partner with Project Managers on project scoping and estimates on higher creative projects
• Lead kick-off calls (internal/external), creative presentations and problem-solving meetings with clients, Project Managers and Designers
• Identify which projects could benefit from high-level strategic input vs. more production-focused projects that could be led by a Brand Manager
• Communication/coordination of project needs, timelines, team skills and creative staff availability with Project Managers
• Set up briefs, provide creative direction and inspiration to the design team on projects
• Work with the Project Manager defining workflow and scope of work for the team
• Lead communication from brainstorm to final production
• Provide creative reviews and feedback to designers
• Decide who should work on each project, building collaborative and strategy-led teams for creative projects
• Driving design excellence, knowing when to push creative boundaries, and not settling for the status quo

Accounts, brand strategy and new business: (25%)

• New client/account set up
• Build collaborative, creative partner relationship with our clients
• Learn and understand our clients goals and how to best support them creatively
• Mastering clients’ brand guidelines and preferences
• Maintaining and improving account-level design quality
• Mentoring designers on keeping brand pages, templates, Adobe CC libraries and brand assets in general updated
• Pushing existing brands’ creative boundaries and finding new opportunities to elevate brands
• Training and mentoring Designers and Brand Managers on brands
• Being the authority on brand and design — setting a high standard for the rest of the design team to meet
• Providing creative design and management input on new accounts, setting them up for success

• Look for opportunities beyond the current workload within accounts to grow or expand the services. Suggest how our clients can benefit from SketchDeck, not just pushing during an existing project but on an account level, thinking big picture
• Developing and presenting proposals and pitches to prospective clients that showcase SD’s breadth of capabilities
• Support Business Development teams with creative strategies and concepts for new accounts and work

SketchDeck team development: (10%)

• Elevate design by making tools accessible to our designers, training them on skills, providing them with design inspiration
• Shared responsibility for managing team talent and assist with recruiting as needed
• Escalating issues and important opportunities to the Director of Design
• Keeping designers inspired and excited about our client’s brands
• Providing input and ideas to improve the design team structure, processes, and development
• Leading SketchDeck internal projects (eg: new portfolio work, designer assessments/levels, internal trainings, new designer interviews, etc)
• Maintain effective communication across all teams and set clear goals to achieve

Requirements

• 7+ years of agency experience in art direction and design
• Innovative and strategic thinking related to all forms of communication and marketing
• Ability to clearly articulate a compelling vision and strategy
• Experienced leader and people manager of creative teams to drive innovation and brand differentiation while executing creative work within scope, time and budget parameters
• Expertise in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Figma. Google Slides and PowerPoint are a plus
• Enjoy teamwork, interacting closely with your design team, project managers, developers, and QA specialists to execute projects promptly
• Bachelor’s degree in art, design, marketing, or related field

Benefits

We pride ourselves on being a great place to work. By joining the team, you will get:

• Competitive startup salary with bonus
• Health insurance (medical, dental, and vision)
• Stock options
• 401(k) with company match
• Fully remote working (that started pre-covid and will continue after!)
• Paid time off that grows with tenure
• Annual company retreat (once we can travel again)
• Computer hardware of your choice (up to $1,500)
• $500 towards your office setup expenses
• To work with a talented team of designers, business people and engineers!