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Creative Director (Senior)

XXIX k

New York, NY | Onsite or Remote Possible

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Apr 8
Job Description

We’re looking for a senior-level Creative Director with experience creative directing large projects and leading multi-disciplinary teams. We’re big on clear expectations, so the ideal candidate has:

- Skills commensurate with our Lead Designers (see Designer > Lead in our Skill Tree: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WQVRsQU6Xoq1Mr9Ci_8S9nL5e5BpAk4p-ULc0dbZ34o/edit#gid=1212733814)
- Around a decade of experience at medium/large creative studio or design team and 5+ years as a creative director directly managing small/medium design teams.

Must have:

- Skills commensurate with our Lead Designers (see Designer > Lead in our Skill Tree:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WQVRsQU6Xoq1Mr9Ci_8S9nL5e5BpAk4p-ULc0dbZ34o/edit#gid=1212733814).
- Note that all previous band skills are applicable to Leads (Junior-Senior)
- 10+ years of experience in the creative industry
- 5+ years of experience in a Creative Direction-type role managing projects and directly interacting with clients
- 5+ years of experience leading creative teams, coaching others, and actively seeking guidance from peers
- A desire to participate in the high-level activities of building and growing a design studio
- Experience planning and leading large projects with multiple workstreams and diverse deliverables through the entire project lifecycle
- Network of both collaborators and past clients that you’ve worked with and would like to work with again
- A portfolio of work exhibiting experience in a range of disciplines and media with an emphasis in branding, strategy, interactive, UI, and art direction
- Mastery of Figma, Adobe CS, and other industry-standard tools; technical competency should not be a barrier to productivity
- Conversant in a range of adjacent skills and disciplines (e.g. type design, animation, illustration, photography, coding, copywriting)

Nice-to-have:

- Previous experience running a small-mid size design studio
- Experience fostering collaboration across design and development processes
- Production-level coaching in an adjacent skill or discipline (e.g. type design, animation, illustration, photography, coding, copywriting)
- Direct involvement in creating & implementing design processes with a development team, printers, etc.
- Participation in extra-curricular activities like teaching, and community or professional organizations
- Experience with audience research and testing

The person we’re looking for is happy, relaxed and easy to get along with. They’re flexible on anything except conceits that lower outstanding work quality. We’ve built a studio culture where designers run the show, so they should be willing to roll up their sleeves, take initiative, and bring critical-thinking skills. We believe in empowering designers, and we think that projects go better when actual craftspeople organize and manage them (you can read more about that here: https://garden3d.substack.com/p/managing-is-a-makers-skill).

Read our full job description here: https://garden3d.notion.site/Creative-Director-Senior-Feb-24-e2073f553a3f43bfb7108734e6de811e

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XXIX

When we started XXIX (https://www.xxix.co) in 2013, we set out to create a different kind of design studio and we’ve thrived because we continually ask what a creative practice can be. We’re building a radically different kind of organization that values autonomy, growth, transparency, and shared responsibility.

Our structure is less hierarchical than traditional studios: we don’t have professional managers, instead empowering each team member to share in a culture of quality and mutual accountability where craftspeople can do their best work. We are a team of ~30 working across design and engineering roles, with clients like Stripe, Figma, Brooklyn Museum, Etsy, Mailchimp, Google, Dropbox, The Nobel Prize, Herman Miller, Adobe and many others. Our studio’s work and ideas are recognized across the creative industry.

We think of our studio as a refuge for creative people, prioritizing a happy, talented, and diverse studio culture. We offer competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and progressive policies, work on projects that bring value to our world, and balance deep care for the work we do with a genuine curiosity about life outside of our jobs. (And, yes, we can back all of that up!)