Art Director

Sports Careers; Charlotte (NC); On-site; USD 80,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Hornets Sports & Entertainment (HSE) Creative is a brand-focused, concept-driven team responsible for building and evolving the HSE brand across touchpoints. The Art Director leads creative development, directs a team of designers, and ensures brand standards are applied across campaigns, digital content, and live experiences.

The role blends hands-on design with leadership, translating strategy into strong visual ideas, presenting them clearly, and owning projects from brief through delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience leading multidisciplinary design teams.
• Strong visual judgment with brand systems.
• Experience in sports/entertainment brands preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of creative concepts and visual systems across channels.
• Direct and mentor a team of designers, setting priorities and quality standards.
• Provide actionable feedback to elevate work and team performance.
• Translate briefs into compelling visual ideas supporting multiple stakeholders.
• Own initiatives from concept to delivery, ensuring brand alignment and timely delivery.
• Clarify objectives, audiences, messaging, deliverables and success criteria with stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Video, Animation, Digital and other partners for integrated campaigns.
• Present concepts clearly and defend the strategic and creative rationale.

Skills

Creative leadership

Team management

Brand strategy

Art direction

Concept development

Adobe Creative Suite

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Hornets Sports & Entertainment (HSE) Creative is a brand-focused, concept-driven team responsible for building, shaping and evolving the HSE brand across touchpoints. Working closely with partners across the organization, the team develops campaigns, brand systems, revenue initiatives, presentations, arena branding, digital content and live-event experiences designed to feel distinctive, consistent and connected to our fans, partners and community.

The Art Director serves as a creative leader within the team, reporting to the Senior Director, Brand Strategy & Creative, helping turn business and brand objectives into clear, compelling visual ideas and ensuring those ideas are carried through to a high standard across channels.

This role combines hands‑on creative development with leadership and management responsibilities. The Art Director will concept and execute key initiatives, direct the work of a team of designers, provide actionable creative feedback, and help establish the visual standard for Hornets Sports & Entertainment. They are accountable for ensuring all creative work consistently reflects HSE brand standards across touchpoints.

The ideal candidate is an experienced multidisciplinary designer and conceptual thinker with strong visual judgment, a collaborative leadership style and the ability to move comfortably between big‑picture direction and detailed execution. They can translate strategy into creative ideas, present and defend those ideas clearly, develop designers around them, and take ownership of projects from brief through final delivery.

Experience in sports, entertainment or large consumer‑facing brands is preferred, and agency experience is a plus.

Hornets Values

• We operate with the highest level of integrity, driven by moral standards that guide us in everything we do.
• We communicate with full candor; openly, honestly, and respectfully with clarity.
• We work in the spirit of one team, committed to one vision, shared values, and an inclusive culture that ensures every person feels valued and respected.
• We hold ourselves accountable, and responsible to raise high levels of expectations of ourselves and our team.
• We compete at the highest levels and strive to be the best at everything we do
• We act with resilience and thrive in the face of challenges bringing others along with us.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

• Lead the development of creative concepts, visual systems and campaign ideas for Hornets Sports & Entertainment across print, digital, social, environmental, apparel, presentation and live‑experience touchpoints
• Manage and provide day‑time creative direction for a team of designers, establishing clear expectations, priorities, timelines and quality standards
• Review creative work before it is shared with stakeholders, providing clear, constructive and actionable feedback that improves both the work and the designers creating it
• Mentor and develop designers through regular coaching, feedback and opportunities for professional growth
• Translate strategic and creative briefs into compelling visual ideas that support Ticket Sales, Partnerships, Marketing, Arena Marketing and other areas across the organization
• Own assigned creative initiatives from concept through completion, ensuring work is strategically aligned, visually strong, accurate, on brand and delivered on time
• Clarify project objectives, audiences, messaging, deliverables, timelines and success criteria with stakeholders before creative development begins
• Collaborate with Video, Animation, Digital and other creative partners to develop integrated campaign ideas and cohesive brand experiences across channels
• Present creative concepts and recommendations clearly and confidently, articulating the strategic and creative rationale behind the work
• Maintain and evolve HSE brand standards while identifying opportunities to push the brand forward in fresh, relevant and distinctive ways
• Oversee production quality and ensure final creative is appropriate for the realities and requirements of each channel.
• Help strengthen creative operations by improving workflows, review processes, project prioritization and overall team effectiveness
• Proactively identify creative challenges, resource needs, dependencies and risks, communicating them early and recommending solutions
• Stay informed on developme