Assistant Head of Art

9 Story Media Group; Toronto; On-site; CAD 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

Paid vacation

Health & wellness days

Job summary

9 Story Media Group, Toronto, seeks an Assistant Head of Art to lead and mentor the Art Department, guiding productions with diverse visual styles and a strong design language. The role partners with Creative Directors and Heads of Art to maintain artistic standards while balancing production realities.

You will champion visual development, oversee reviews, and contribute to the studio’s artistic vision across multiple formats, from preschool to feature productions.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in artistic leadership for animation productions.
• Proven ability to guide diverse visual styles and maintain design excellence.
• Strong skills in visual development, color scripting, and storytelling through design.

Responsibilities

• Lead Art Directors to achieve the creative vision and maintain standards.
• Collaborate with Show Directors to translate vision into achievable artistic solutions.
• Mentor and develop talent within the Art Department and establish workflows.

Skills

Art leadership

Creative direction

Visual development

Color scripting

Communication

Tools

Photoshop

Digital painting

Collaboration tools

Job description

Job Description 9 Story Media / Brown Bag Films is a leading creator, producer and distributor of award-winning animated and live action content for audiences around the world. From development right through to consumer products, 9 Story Media Group is one of the world's leading kids and family content companies. We are looking for an Assistant Head of Art to join our creative team at Toronto studio.

Role Title

Assistant Head of Art

Reporting to

Head of Art

Purpose

Why you're here at Brown Bag Films

To support and collaborate the Creative Directors and Head of Art in developing the studio's artistic vision, design excellence, and visual innovation across all productions, ensuring the creation and delivery of world-class artwork while balancing creative ambition with production realities.

The Assistant Head of Art Department champions a diverse range of artistic styles, develops talent, and provides strategic artistic leadership to productions requiring artistic guidance, intervention, or support.

Delivery

What you produce

• Exceptional artistic output across all studio productions.
• A sustainable, high-performing Art Department.
• Strong visual development pipelines, workflows, and creative standards.
• Effective artistic support systems for productions across varying stages of development and delivery.
• A culture of creative growth, mentorship, and continuous improvement.

Measurements

How we measure it

• Creative outputs meeting artistic requirements within agreed scope, budget, and schedule.
• Consistency of quality across productions with varying visual styles.
• Team performance, engagement, and development.
• Success of productions supported through artistic intervention and guidance.
• Delivery against quarterly operational and strategic goals.
• Efficiency and effectiveness of departmental workflows and creative reviews.

Key Responsibilities

Creative Leadership

• Managing the team of Art Directors and ensuring they achieve the creative vision within the scope and required standard for their productions.
• Guiding productions across a broad range of visual styles, genres, and audience demographics, ensuring artistic authenticity and excellence in each project's unique design language.
• Partnering with Show Directors and Episodic Directors to translate creative vision into achievable artistic solutions.
• Resolving creative conflicts related to production design, visual development, and artistic execution.
• Maintaining studio-wide standards for design quality and visual storytelling.

Production Support & Intervention

• Providing hands-on artistic support to productions experiencing creative, design, or workflow challenges.
• Identifying productions that may benefit from additional artistic guidance and proactively partnering with leadership to develop solutions.
• Conducting creative reviews and assessments to identify risks, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
• Supporting productions through visual problem-solving, draw-overs, paint-overs, notes, and targeted creative direction.
• Art directing pilots, tests, proof-of-concepts, and special initiatives as required.

Department Leadership

• Overseeing the Art department's leads ensuring design teams meet artistic, technical, and workflow requirements.
• Overseeing the development and implementation of departmental workflows, methodologies, and best practices including:
  • Visual development
  • Concept design and exploration
  • Style guides
  • Breakouts and call-outs
  • Production design documentation
  • Design reviews and feedback processes

• Collaborating closely with CG management to ensure effective delivery to upstream and downstream departments.

Talent & Development

• Leading recruitment, artistic casting, and resource planning for Art Directors and design teams across productions.
• Identifying emerging talent and fostering career growth within the department.
• Establishing mentorship, training, and professional development programs.
• Promoting artistic versatility and encouraging the development of skills across multiple visual styles and design approaches.

Quality & Review

• Establishing clear review structures and feedback methodologies across the department.
• Providing high-quality visual notes, draw-overs, paint-overs, and design feedback to ensure clarity of creative direction.
• Monitoring artistic complexity and scope to ensure creative ambitions remain aligned with production realities.
• Championing continuous improvement in visual quality, storytelling, and creative execution.

Key Requirements

Key Requirements Knowledge

• Expert understanding of a wide range of artistic styles and their application across animation productions, including preschool, comedy, action-adventure, feature, stylized, and hybrid aesthetics.
• Strong understanding of 2DD and CG animation workflows and cross-departmental production pipelines.
• Strong knowledge of production design, visual development, colour scripting, shape language, and visual storytelling.
• Understanding of colour management, colour profiles, and their application in animation production.
• Knowledge of current industry trends, emerging technologies, and evolving artistic practices.

Experience

• Extensive experience as an Art Director, Production Designer, or equivalent creative leadership role on feature films and/or episodic productions.
• Demonstrated success leading projects with distinctly different visual styles and creative requirements.
• Experience providing visual feedback through draw-overs, paint-overs, reviews, and hands-on creative problem-solving.
• Experience identifying and resolving production challenges through artistic leadership and intervention.
• Experience recruiting, developing, and managing design teams within a production environment.
• Experience mentoring senior creative talent and department leadership.

Technical Skill

• Expert proficiency in Photoshop, digital painting, and visual development techniques.
• Expert application of artistic hardware and software within animation production pipelines.
• Strong working knowledge of contemporary concept design, review, annotation, and collaboration tools.
• Ability to communicate creative feedback clearly through both verbal direction and visual notes/draw-overs.

Behaviours (Competencies)

• Strategic Creative Leadership
• Collaboration & Influence
• Talent Development
• Problem Solving
• Adaptability & Creative Agility
• Production Awareness
• Accountability & Delivery Excellence

Salary

The salary range for this role is $90,000 to $110,000 per year.

Salary Considerations

We consider several factors in determining salary offers including experience, skills, qualifications, and education. Our employees receive competitive perks including comprehensive benefits, paid vacation, and health & wellness days.

Eligibility & Residency

Applicants need to be legally eligible to work in Canada and have Ontario residency.

Diversity & Inclusion

9 Story Media takes diversity and inclusion seriously and we are committed to ensuring equity in the recruitment process. Candidates from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to, Indigenous peoples, Racialized and LGBT2SQ+ communities, candidates from a range of ages and religious beliefs and people with disabilities, are encouraged to apply.

Diverse Workforce

As a company, we deliver high-quality kids' content, and we seek to have diverse characters so that all our audience feels represented. We also want the same for our own workforce, and 9 Story Media is committed to looking for all kinds of talent to build a diverse workforce in which all identities are represented and respected.

Accommodation

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application and interview process to be successful in performing essential job functions. We’d love to know how we can support your requirements for accommodation.