Senior Art Director - Children's Publishing

Book Depot Inc.; St. Catharines; On-site; CAD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A children's publishing company is seeking a Senior Art Director to lead visual strategy for engaging educational products. With 15+ years of experience, the ideal candidate will inspire teams while ensuring the development of high-quality content. This position offers the opportunity to influence the creative direction of children's publishing across various sales channels in a collaborative environment.

Benefits

Supportive work culture

Creativity-oriented team

Leadership opportunity

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years of experience in creative direction or senior graphic design.
• Expertise in children’s publishing and educational media.
• Strong familiarity with international print workflows.
• Proven experience developing branded series across multiple sales channels.

Responsibilities

• Lead the visual strategy across product lines.
• Mentor junior designers and freelance contributors.
• Collaborate with various teams to ensure cohesive content.
• Design novel product types with creative flair.
• Manage creative development for exclusive product lines.

Skills

Creative direction

Graphic design

Adobe Creative Suite

Leadership

Collaboration

Tools

Adobe InDesign

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Job description

Senior Art Director - Children's Publishing

We are seeking an accomplished and imaginative Senior Art Director with over 15 years of experience in children’s publishing and educational content. This is a pivotal leadership role for a visionary design expert who can inspire, mentor, and lead a creative team while driving the development of engaging, age-appropriate, and highly marketable products.

You will work across a wide array of formats—sound books, art kits, educational workbooks, novelty products, and activity formats—collaborating closely with the Senior Art Director and Managing Director to shape high-quality product lines that span age groups, subjects, and sales channels.

We value quality over quantity, long-term thinking, and a calm, collaborative creative environment where curiosity, clarity, and innovation are foundational to success.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the visual strategy, layout, and design across product lines including children’s books, educational kits, and novelty formats.
• Provide vision, inspiration, clarity, and mentorship to junior designers, illustrators, and freelance contributors.
• Establish and uphold high design standards while fostering a calm, goal-oriented, and collaborative work culture.
• Develop innovative, scalable product series and formats in collaboration with the senior leadership, requiring only final review and editing.
• Design with a strong grasp of core visual principles including continuity, contrast, clarity, negative space, spacing, color spectrum, and Pantone application.
• Build an art library of reusable, adaptable styles that scale across sales channels and co-edition requirements.

Branding & Art Development

• Create compelling visual branding and consistent series design for age-specific product lines.
• Collaborate with Senior Art Director to find, recruit, and cultivate new artists and illustrators capable of producing art that is beautiful, flexible across formats, and commercially viable.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with editorial, product development, marketing, and sales teams to ensure cohesive and educationally sound content.
• Provide templates, specifications, and production-ready design direction for novel product types including sound books, silicone / touch-and-feel, flaps, pop-ups, and books with finishes such as spot UV, glitter, foil, embossing, and lenticular.

High-Impact Retail Partnerships

• Lead creative development for exclusive product lines distributed through Costco, Walmart, Target, and Amazon
• Design scalable series reaching millions of customers across North America
• Collaborate directly with retail buyers and category managers
• Develop format innovations specific to mass retail requirements
• Working with different price points and value propositions
• Format innovations for mass market appeal
• Global market adaptation experience

Qualifications

• Minimum 15 years of experience in creative direction or senior graphic design, preferably in children’s publishing, educational media, or related fields.
• Deep understanding of the full range of publishing sales channels: value, mass, club, specialty, e-commerce.
• Passion for understanding early childhood learning needs and staying current with educational and entertainment market trends.
• Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator); knowledge of Figma or similar tools is a plus.
• Proven experience developing and launching branded series and novelty formats across multiple sales channels into international markets.
• Strong familiarity with international print workflows, component design, and global production partners.

Preferred Attributes

• Experience with co-edition publishing, multilingual product adaptation, and international printing standards.
• Passion for inclusive, accessible design and representing diverse customer base: children, parents, teachers, caregivers.
• Ability to balance creative excellence with commercial viability and production constraints.
• Demonstrated ability to manage creative personalities and workflows across time zones and cultures.

Why Join Us?

• Play a leadership role in shaping beautiful, meaningful, and high-quality entertainment and educational content for children.
• Be a trusted creative partner to the company’s executive leadership with broad influence and ownership over visual direction.
• Work with a passionate, mission-driven team that values creativity, quality, and continuous growth.
• Enjoy a supportive, thoughtful work culture built on collaboration, innovation, and long-term impact.