Design Director

big fish®; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading creative agency in Greater London seeks a Design Director who challenges conventions and believes in design as strategy. The role involves leading projects, mentoring, and engaging clients without jargon. Join a team that values creativity and collaboration.

Benefits

Proper holidays, including your birthday

A riverside studio in Chelsea

Work that’s commercially serious and creatively liberating

Qualifications

• Can art direct photography, illustration, and motion.
• Have a portfolio that’s more 'Oh my God' than 'meh'.
• Can talk to clients without corporate jargon.

Responsibilities

• Lead design projects from the front, hands-on.
• Mentor team members while sharing knowledge.
• Present work to clients and persuade them creatively.

Skills

Art Direction

Typography

Creativity

Digital Design

Tools

Photoshop

Illustrator

InDesign

Canva

Job description

Join to apply for the Design Director role at big fish.

Let’s be honest, most job ads are crap and this one’s probably not much better! But here goes…

Because we don’t want to attract just anyone. We’re looking for a rare breed. A Design Director who doesn’t just follow trends, but questions them. Who doesn’t just make beautiful things, but understands why they work. Someone who knows that a typeface can be more persuasive than a thousand PowerPoint slides. Someone who knows that good design isn’t decoration, it’s behavioural science with better shoes.

The inconvenient truth

We’ve found that brilliant designers often have messy desktops, strong opinions about paper stocks, and an irrational hatred of Palatino. They tend to get disproportionately excited by kerning, hate the word “utilise,” and believe that the words “Please make the logo bigger” are actually good advice! If this is you, we’d like to invite you to help us make the world a little bit better, weirder and more wonderful, one beautifully designed piece of persuasion at a time.

The job (if we must define it)…

• You’ll lead design projects from the front – sleeves up, hands-on, occasionally barefoot (optional)
• You’ll mentor, not manage, sharing what you know without sounding like a TED Talk
• You’ll present work to clients, persuading them to be braver, bolder and just a bit less beige.
• You’ll take the kinds of briefs that make normal people cry and turn them into work that makes people fall in love with brands again
• You’ll be a bit like a creative Swiss Army Knife (except more useful), with strategy, identity, packaging, art direction… all in your back pocket

What we’re looking for

We don’t care where you studied, whether you can pronounce ‘Bauhaus’ correctly, or if you own a standing desk.

But we do care that you…

• Have bloody great taste (and can explain why something works without using the words “sort of…” or “kinda”)
• Can art direct photography, illustration and motion like a bad ass boss (or an unpaid indie film director)
• Can spot bad typography from 1,000 paces, even in the dark!!
• Can talk to clients without corporate bollocks, industry jargon, psychobabble or death-by-Google slides!
• Have a portfolio that’s more “Oh my God” than “meh”
• Know how to craft, polish, and send out beautiful design
• Are obsessed with digital, but not afraid of getting inky fingers or “prompter’s paralysis” (ChatGPT)…
• Can name more than three typefaces without Googling them

Things that will help

• You’ve worked on startups, scale-ups and transformations in food, drink and lifestyle categories
• You’ve developed challenger brands that have disrupted and out-performed the market on minute budgets
• You’ve got leadership vibes, or at least people voluntarily ask your opinion because you know your shit
• You’ve got hands-on skills in Ai MidJourney, Sora, Canva, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Google Slides, crayons, whatever works!!
• You’re the kind of person who says, “Why not?” more than “Why?”
• You think design should change behaviour, not just decorate it

What’s in it for you (besides glory)

• No creative pitches. No spec work. No tossers.
• Proper holidays, including your birthday, Christmas, and a company-wide summer break.
• A riverside studio in Chelsea with actual daylight, actual dogs and actual humans.
• Work that’s commercially serious, creatively liberating, and ethically sound.
• A way of working that means “we’re all in this together”.
• Clients whose products we actually use. People we actually like. Work we’re actually proud of.

What we believe (and if you don’t, best you stop reading)

• That creativity thrives under constraints, not key performance indicators.
• That being kind is more important than being clever, but both is best.
• That design can save the world, but it helps if it’s also beautiful and doesn’t cost the Earth.
• That hierarchies are for penguins, not creative businesses.
• That laughing and swearing occasionally helps us do better work.

Apply now if…

You’ve spent your career challenging convention, and you’re ready to help brands do the same.

You believe in design as strategy, not just decoration.

You’re brilliant, humble, a bit weird, and know that all the best ideas begin with “this might sound mad, but…”

Seniority level

• Director

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Design, Art/Creative, and Information Technology

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