Brand Design Lead

Kindredventures; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Tonal is seeking a Creative Lead to define and bring to life the brand across the customer journey. This highly hands-on role blends leadership with personal design execution, guiding a lean team and external partners to deliver distinctive, on-brand work.

You’ll collaborate with Brand Marketing, Growth, Product Marketing, E‑commerce, Content, and more to elevate Tonal’s creative expression. A strong portfolio and ability to mentor a growing team are essential.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in design, art direction, or creative roles for consumer brands or agencies.
• Portfolio demonstrates outstanding visual craft and integrated brand work.
• Player/coach who actively creates and guides others.
• Proficient with design tools and able to take concepts through execution.
• Experience across digital, social, paid media, web, email, retail, and other consumer touchpoints.
• Strong photography, video, motion, typography, and visual storytelling.
• Experience developing integrated campaigns across brand and performance channels.
• Able to translate complex products into simple, human creative.
• Comfortable building processes with lean teams and mentoring designers.
• Collaborative, low ego, and capable of cross-functional collaboration.
• Able to move quickly, handle ambiguity, and balance priorities.

Responsibilities

• Translate brand strategy and insights into compelling creative across the customer journey.
• Set and evolve Tonal’s visual expression for consistency and distinctiveness.
• Concept and design campaigns across channels including paid media, web, email, and retail.
• Lead creative development for campaigns, product launches, and partnerships from concept to execution.
• Establish high creative standards across design, photography, video, motion, and storytelling.
• Evolve visual identity and develop templates to keep work on-brand and scalable.
• Partner with Brand Marketing to turn briefs into engaging ideas that build awareness.
• Collaborate with Growth and agencies to iterate performance creative and strengthen brand.
• Hire, mentor, and develop internal creative capabilities over time.
• Direct external resources and provide clear, constructive feedback to teams.
• Prioritize creative needs with cross-functional partners in a fast-paced environment.

Skills

Creative leadership

Brand direction

Portfolio mastery

Design execution

Digital & social

Photography/Video

Typography & storytelling

Mentoring designers

Lean team building

Cross-functional collaboration

AI tools knowledge

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

Job description

Overview

Tonal is looking for a Creative Lead to serve as the main driver in defining and bringing to life the next chapter of the Tonal brand. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Brand Marketing, this role will translate brand strategy into distinctive, compelling creative across the full customer journey.

This is a highly hands‑on player/coach role. You’ll set the creative vision and standard for the brand while also designing and producing work yourself. You should be equally excited to concept a major campaign, design the assets that bring it to life, and provide direction to other creative partners.

You’ll initially operate as a lean creative team, partnering closely with our Brand Content Producer, Senior Copywriter, and external resources while helping identify, hire, and develop Tonal’s internal creative capabilities over time.

You’ll work closely with Brand Marketing, Growth, Product Marketing, E-commerce, Content, and other cross‑functional partners to create work that is distinctive, effective, and unmistakably Tonal.

What You Will Do

Creative Direction & Design

• Translate Tonal’s brand strategy, positioning, consumer insights, and business objectives into compelling creative ideas and executions.
• Set and evolve Tonal’s visual expression across the full customer journey, creating greater consistency and distinctiveness across channels.
• Concept and design creative yourself across campaigns, paid media, organic social, web, email, retail, events, and other brand touchpoints.
• Lead creative development for integrated brand campaigns, product launches, partnerships, and key marketing moments from concept through execution.
• Establish a high creative standard across design, typography, photography, video, motion, and storytelling.
• Evolve Tonal’s visual identity and creative guidelines, developing practical systems and templates that help the organization create consistently strong, on‑brand work.

Brand & Performance Creative

• Partner closely with Brand Marketing to turn strategic briefs into creative ideas that build awareness, consideration, and affinity for Tonal.
• Work with Growth Marketing and external agencies to develop and iterate performance creative that drives action while strengthening the Tonal brand.
• Translate Tonal’s technology, training intelligence, product benefits, and member outcomes into simple, compelling consumer stories.
• Use creative performance and consumer insights to continually improve the work while maintaining a strong and cohesive brand expression.

Creative Team & Collaboration

• Help build Tonal’s internal creative function, identifying the capabilities and resources needed as the brand and business grow.
• Over time, hire, manage, and develop creative talent, beginning with a lean design team.
• Partner closely with the Brand Content Producer to bring ideas to life through photography, video, and other visual content.
• Partner closely with the Senior Copywriter to develop integrated creative concepts, ensuring visual and verbal ideas work together to bring the Tonal brand to life consistently across channels.
• Direct agencies, freelancers, photographers, directors, production partners, and other external creative resources as needed.
• Provide clear, thoughtful creative feedback while remaining willing and able to jump into the work yourself.
• Collaborate closely with Brand Marketing, Growth, Product Marketing, E-commerce, Content, and other teams to prioritize creative needs and deliver high-quality work in a fast-moving environment.

Who You Are

• 8+ years of experience in design, art direction, or creative roles for consumer brands or agencies, with experience providing creative direction to others.
• An exceptional designer with a portfolio demonstrating outstanding visual craft, conceptual thinking, and integrated brand work.
• A true player/coach who gets energy from making the work, not just directing it.
• Highly proficient in the tools of the trade and able to personally take creative from concept through polished execution.
• Experience developing creative across digital, social, paid media, web, email, retail, and other consumer touchpoints.
• Strong understanding of photography, video, motion, typography, and visual storytelling.
• Experience developing integrated campaigns that work across both brand and performance channels.
• Skilled at translating complex products, technology, and benefits into simple, human, compelling creative.
• Comfortable working with lean teams and building processes and capabilities from the ground up.
• Experience managing or mentoring designers and an interest in helping build and develop a high‑performing creative team.
• Collaborative and low ego, with the ability to work effectively with marketers, producers, growth teams, product teams, and senior leaders.
• Comfortable moving quickly, navigating ambiguity, and balancing multiple priorities without compromising the quality of the work.
• Passionate about creativity, culture, fitness, health, and the role strength can play in helping people live better lives.
• Knowledge of AI creative tools a plus

At Tonal, we believe that the unique and varied lived experiences of our teammates contribute to our overall strength. We don’t just appreciate differences, we celebrate them, and we always seek people that represent a wide variety of backgrounds. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team and designing employee experiences that contribute to your growth as much as you do to ours.

Tonal is committed to meeting the diverse needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner that is consistent with the principles of independence, dignity, integration, and equality of opportunity. Should you have any accommodation requests, please reach out to us via our confidential email, [e-mail]. All requests will be addressed and responded to in accordance with Tonal’s Accessibility Policy and local legislation.