Associate Creative Director, Design

Job Description

We are DS – A small but mighty team of makers, marketers & entrepreneurs, hell-bent on growing our partners’ businesses through brand experience transformation. Although we work with teams and businesses all over the world, we’re headquartered at District, our very own technology & innovation campus in New Haven, Connecticut.


We’re currently seeking a hands-on Associate Creative Director with a strong design background to help us lead project engagements and create powerful, branded content for a variety of clients. Are you a creative generalist and multi-disciplinary designer who loves to run the gamut of the craft, from conceptual ideation to large-scale campaign execution? Awesome you might have just found your match. The right person for the role enjoys a mix of hands-on art direction and design balanced with mentoring and shaping junior creatives in the process.

At DS we believe what gets measured gets managed and we’re very transparent about what we measure. Success in this role is measured by our 4 green lights framework, starting with team satisfaction because we're passionate about maintaining a healthy and collaborative place, followed by client satisfaction, high-impact creative work, and then lastly profitability, which we believe is a result, not a goal.

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What You’ll Do

• Collaborate with clients and the team to translate creative briefs into impactful designed solutions (Great form, great function) for websites, social media, OOH, and more
• Lead creative development, ensuring both hands-on execution and guidance.
• Establish art direction for brands and campaigns across various platforms.
• Engage in conceptual brainstorming, offering innovative and culturally relevant ideas.
• Present creative directions with clarity and conviction to stakeholders.
• Design compelling presentations, pitch decks, and agency marketing materials.
• Coordinate with the production team for content shoots; To ensure your creative vision comes to fruition
• Mentor junior creatives, cultivating their growth in alignment with agency's vision.
• Champion a collaborative atmosphere, promoting open dialogue and constructive feedback.
• Advocate design best practices, leading with action.
• Stay updated on design trends and share inspiration and learning resources with the team.
• Partner with various departments for a unified blend of creativity and strategy.
• Engage in hiring interviews and training, maintaining and elevating our design team's capability.
• Oversee team meetings and brainstorming sessions, enhancing team cohesion.
• Develop branding templates and guidelines for cross-departmental use.
• Coordinate with vendors and freelancers to ensure top-notch creative outcomes.
• Identify opportunities for client upselling and workflow optimizations, refining team workflow.

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Qualifications

• 8-12 years of integrated marketing/agency experience efficiently executing high-quality creative work across multiple content mediums
• Proficiency spanning all aspects of creative work, art direction, content capture, digital design, and copywriting.
• Experience creating branded deliverables for use in a variety of applications and channels, including social media, OOH, advertising media, email, websites & landing pages, print, and retail.
• Proficiency with Figma, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, InDesign), and Presentation Design Software (Keynote, PowerPoint)
• Experience leading projects; working both independently and collaboratively.
• Passion for the craft – design and marketing
• Experience working with external vendors and partners; you know how to make budgets of all types work efficiently to get amazing creative output.

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Benefits & Other Perks

• Medical, Dental, Vision Benefits with 401k matching
• Annual Wellness & Professional Development Stipend
• Flexible Work Hours
• Free Snacks if you’re on site
• Access to District Campus Gym and other Amenities