Creative Director

rapt; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

22 days holiday

Birthday off

Private healthcare (including dentist)

Job summary

rapt is a multimedia studio delivering immersive experiences for global brands, artists and cultural institutions. The studio is growing, and this role will shape what it becomes next.

As Creative Director you’ll lead creative across pitches and live projects, translating ideas into deliverable concepts while managing budgets, timelines and a roster of freelancers. Expect multi-project leadership, travel and occasional on-site evenings.

Qualifications

• Minimum track record of leading large-format projects for arena/festivals or architectural installations.
• Hands-on background in design, 3D, motion, or real-time; progressed to creative direction.
• Ability to cost and scope content production with clear teams, days and budgets.
• Strong client-facing communication and presentation skills at senior stakeholder level.
• Experience building and managing freelance content teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead creative direction on pitches and live projects from concept to delivery.
• Build and manage freelance teams (2D/3D/real-time, interactive, sound).
• Plan production: schedule, resource, and budget to keep projects on track.
• Review and sign-off content before client delivery or media server handoff.
• Present work clearly to clients and collaborators.

Skills

Creative Direction

Pitching

Team Leadership

Budgets

Storytelling

Multi-project management

Tools

Unreal

Notch

TouchDesigner

Gen AI workflows

Job description

Live visuals across brand, music and culture

Location: Central London studio, 5-day week, 2-3 days WFH

Type: Permanent, Full-time

About rapt

rapt is a multimedia studio making immersive and interactive experiences. A Projection show on a landmark building, LED at stage scale, real-time visuals. One month a campaign launch in London, the next live visuals for an arena tour, the next an installation in a disused power station or the Nevada desert.

We work with global brands, artists and cultural institutions. Previous names include BOSS, Nike, Valentino, McLaren, New Balance, TAG Heuer, Audemars Piguet, Netflix and Diageo. And the work doesn't stop with brands. We have an artistic practice of our own, and the self-initiated work feeds back into everything else. The last thing we want an audience to feel is nothing.

We're a small team working on big projects all over the world, and the studio is growing. This role plays a real part in shaping what it becomes next.

Role Overview

We're looking for a Creative Director to lead creative across pitches and live projects. Sharp conceptual thinking, a strong visual sensibility, and the ability to take an idea from first response through to what the audience actually experiences. Projects range from arena tours and festival main stages to building-scale projection and gallery installations.

This is a creative director with a producer's hat on. You need to know what it takes to make the idea real. Which people, how many days, what budget, what pipeline, and whether it lands on time. Not just the creative, but how realistic the creative is to deliver. You'll lead teams made up of internal people and external specialists, built per project from our freelance roster. You brief them, run them and sign off their work.

You'll be running several pitches and several projects at the same time. Being highly organised isn't a nice-to-have here.

You'll need to be fluent in immersive formats and creative technology, confident communicating ideas to clients and internal teams, and hands-on enough to sketch, write or visualise ideas yourself when needed.

Key Responsibilities

Pitches

• Lead creative direction on pitch responses. Approach every brief strategically: what the objective is, who the audience is, and what the angle is that wins it.
• Translate briefs into clear creative strategy and strong, original ideas.
• Shape visual concepts, narratives and deck content.
• Scope the content side: team, days and cost, working with the project manager. If the idea can't be built for the number, say so early.

Projects

• Own creative quality from concept through production to delivery on site.
• Build, brief and manage freelance content teams from our roster: 2D, 3D, real-time, interactive, sound.
• Plan the content production: schedule it, resource it, track it, keep it on budget with the help of our internal team.
• Review and sign off content before it goes to the client or hits the media server.
• Present work to clients and collaborators with clarity and confidence.

Studio

• Uphold creative standards across everything that leaves the studio.
• Motivate and guide creative teams across disciplines, from concept to delivery.
• Feed into internal R&D and help shape the future creative direction of rapt.

Key Skills & Experience

• Proven experience making work for big spaces and big crowds, arena screens, building facades, one-off sites, not just standard agency-format content.
• A hands-on tools background. You've come up through making, whether design, 3D, motion or real-time, and grown into creative direction. You know roughly how a thing gets built and can navigate a project through it. Time spent agency side and a track record of winning pitches are both a plus.
• Strong creative strategy skills and an ability to frame ideas clearly for clients.
• Producer's instincts. You've scoped and costed content production before and know what a team of artists actually takes, in people, days and money.
• A clear eye for design, narrative and spatial storytelling.
• You can illustrate your own ideas. Sketch, storyboard, style frame, mock up. When you show an idea, people see it.
• Working knowledge of 2D, 3D, real-time (Unreal, Notch, TouchDesigner) and Gen AI workflows.
• Experience working across immersive, spatial, digital or experiential formats.
• Experience building and managing freelance teams.
• Comfort collaborating with technical and production teams across disciplines.
• Highly organised. Able to lead multiple pitches and projects at once through ambiguity and deadlines without the quality slipping.
• Strong communication skills and confidence presenting to senior stakeholders.
• Live work sometimes means evenings and weekends on site.
• 22 days holiday (plus public holidays), increasing with tenure
• Birthday off
• Private healthcare (including dentist and optician)