Senior Art Director
Publicis Groupe ANZ
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Job summary
Publicis Groupe Africa seeks a Senior Art Director to lead distinctive, beautifully crafted ideas across client business with digital-first thinking and high standards of art direction.
Working in an integrated creative team, you translate strategy into concepts and visual systems that work across channels, collaborating closely with Strategy, Media, Accounts and Production while leveraging AI-enabled methods for efficient, innovative outcomes.
Qualifications
- Tertiary qualification in Art Direction / Graphic Design
- Must have a minimum of 5-6 years’ experience
- Conceptual and design skills
- Proficient in MS Office (i.e. Word / PowerPoint etc.)
- Knowledge of and experience in Adobe Creative Suite applications
- Good communication & presentation skills
- Good multi-tasking skills (ability to work on more than one brief at any given time)
- Great time management
- Ability to work under pressure & meet tight deadlines
- Adept problem-solving skills
- Strong communication skills with ability to provide rationales for creative choices made
- Working knowledge of existing and emerging technologies & platforms
- A strong understanding of best practice interaction and visual design principles
- Be comfortable with AI being a part of the everyday activities of the role.
Responsibilities
- Creative thinking & art direction: develop strong, platform-neutral concepts in response to briefs and strategy.
- Define or apply the visual language, aesthetic and art direction of campaigns and content.
- Lead the craft and design from concept through execution.
- Create mock-ups, references and presentation material that bring ideas to life.
- Stay current with South African culture, design, social platforms and trends.
- Integrated creative product: design across brand, retail, digital, social and emerging formats.
- Collaborate with Copywriters to ensure ideas and execution are cohesive.
- Produce creative elements against deliverables and deadlines.
- Participate in brainstorms, conceptualisation and campaign development.
- Contribute to pitches and proactive opportunities.
- Integration & collaboration: work with Strategy, Media, Accounts, Developers, Production and other disciplines.
- Be a team player who can also work independently and take ownership of projects.
- AI, technology & future-fit creativity: use AI tools to expand visual exploration and efficiency.
- Stay curious about emerging design and experience technologies.
- Production & executional excellence: attend shoots and production sessions, protect the idea through execution.
- Partner with Production to ensure quality, timing and specs.
- Maintain high attention to detail across final artwork and rollout.
- Personal leadership & development: manage your own creative process and deadlines.
- Be proactive, accountable, solution-driven and willing to go the extra mile.
- Share references and approaches to raise team standards.
- Support and guide junior creatives.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Publicis Groupe Africa is a leading marketing, communications, and business transformation network operating across 36 African countries, combining creativity, technology, and local insight to deliver integrated client solutions.
Publicis Groupe Africa is part of Publicis Groupe, the second-largest communications group globally, founded in 1926. The African network operates as a partnership of 44 communications agencies with offices spanning 36 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, and many others
Its headquarters are in Johannesburg and Cape Town, providing a central hub for continental operations.
Telecommunications is one of the most dynamic categories in the market that sits at the intersection of technology, culture, connectivity, customer experience and everyday life. This role offers the opportunity to work with a leading telecommunications client and help shape the next generation of its agency partnership.
We are building a connected, future-fit model that brings together creativity, intelligence, data, technology, AI and world-class execution around the customer. It is an opportunity for ambitious creative talent to influence the work, the ways of working and the capabilities we build — creating a partnership designed not only for today's challenges, but for what comes next.
The Senior Art Director is a senior hands-on creative responsible for developing distinctive, effective and beautifully crafted ideas across the client business.
The role translates strategy and creative direction into strong concepts, visual systems and executions that work across channels, platforms and experiences.
Working as part of an integrated creative team, the Senior Art Director combines high standards of art direction and design craft with digital-first thinking, culture, technology and emerging AI-enabled creative methods.
The role is accountable for conceptual quality, visual craft, proactive contribution, reliable delivery and strong collaboration.
- Develop strong, platform-neutral creative concepts in response to briefs and strategic direction.
- Define or apply the visual language, aesthetic and art direction of campaigns and content.
- Lead the craft and design of ideas from early concept through execution.
- Create convincing mock-ups, references and presentation material that bring ideas to life.
- Stay current with South African culture, design, social platforms, media behaviour and visual trends.
- Interrogate briefs and understand the client's business requirements, brand priorities and customer context.
- Provide clear rationale for creative choices and be prepared to present work to clients.
- Develop ideas that solve the business problem rather than simply answering the deliverables list.
- Design across multiple channels including brand, retail, digital, social, content, out-of-home and emerging formats.
- Work closely with Copywriters to ensure the idea and execution operate as one.
- Consistently produce creative elements against agreed deliverables and deadlines.
- Participate actively in brainstorms, conceptualisation and campaign development.
- Contribute to pitches and proactive creative opportunities.
- Work with Strategy, Media, Accounts, Developers, Production and other disciplines to ensure integrated and coherent solutions.
- Collaborate early rather than handing work between disciplines sequentially.
- Be a team player who can also work independently and take ownership of assigned projects.
- Use relevant AI and emerging creative tools to expand visual exploration, prototyping and production efficiency.
- Maintain working knowledge of major social and digital platforms and how creative needs to behave within them.
- Apply appropriate human judgement, brand safety and craft standards to AI-assisted work.
- Stay curious about emerging design, production and experience technologies.
- Attend shoots, recordings and production sessions where required and protect the visual idea through execution.
- Partner with Production to ensure work is delivered to the required quality, timing and specification.
- Maintain high attention to detail across final artwork, adaptations and rollout.
- Manage your own creative process and deadlines without needing to be chased.
- Be proactive, accountable, solution-driven and willing to go the extra mile.
- Share references, inspiration and new approaches that raise the standard of the wider creative team.
- Support and guide more junior creatives where appropriate.
- Tertiary qualification in Art Direction / Graphic Design
- Must have a minimum of 5-6 years’ experience
- Conceptual and design skills
- Proficient in MS Office ( i.e. Word / PowerPoint etc.)
- Knowledge of and experience in Adobe Creative Suite applications
- Good communication & presentation skills
- Good multi-tasking skills (ability to work on more than one brief at any given time)
- Great time management
- Ability to work under pressure & meet tight deadlines
- Adept problem-solving skills
- Strong communication skills with ability to provide rationales for creative choices made
- Working knowledge of existing and emerging technologies & platforms
- A strong understanding of best practice interaction and visual design principles
- Able to work with team members
- Be comfortable with AI being a part of the everyday activities of the role.
- Demonstrate innovative ideas to the team to improve how we communicate our proposition
- Must be able to work on one sizable and two small size projects at any one time with oversight
- Have the ability to attend every review on a project with 3 new ideas
- Team player with the ability to work independently
- Ability to work well in a highly pressurised, fast-paced environment
- Curious, imaginative creative mind with a passion for advertising and modern brand experiences
- Meticulous with attention to detail
- Proactive — a can-do attitude and willing to go the extra mile
- Accountable
- Solution and deadline driven
- Flexible to work beyond normal office hours if and when required
- Illustrator
- Photoshop
- InDesign
- After Effects
- Keynote / PowerPoint
- Figma
- ChatGPT, Claude AI, Midjourney and similar generative AI tools
- Google Web Designer & DV360 (Advantageous)
- Facebook Creative Hub
Publicis Groupe Africa is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits any forms of Discrimination or Harassment. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our employees in line with our Employment Equity Plan.
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