Creative Director

Sprints Athletic Apparel; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Sprints seeks a Creative Director to lead how our brand shows up in the world, owning the visual language across photography, video, typography, motion and digital experiences.

You will establish a high creative bar, build the system and team to execute it, and obsess over details that separate good from great creative. The role spans campaigns, launches, organic social, and performance-driven content.

Qualifications

• Led creative for a consumer brand where brand, culture and aesthetics matter.
• Exceptional portfolio demonstrating breadth across photography, video, design and typography.
• Ability to develop big campaign ideas and obsess over social post composition.

Responsibilities

• Own the visual expression and creative direction of the Sprints brand across all touchpoints.
• Lead campaign concepts, art direction, locations, casting, styling, photography and video for launches.
• Direct organic social content, formats and storytelling devices to build a recognizable Sprints universe.
• Partner with performance marketing to create advertising that is both effective and on-brand while maintaining high creative standards.
• Own the creative direction of getsprints.com and the website experience, ensuring it feels like a world-class flagship store.
• Direct internal and external photographers, videographers, designers, models and production partners.

Skills

Brand Direction

Creative Leadership

Photography & Video Direction

Campaign Development

Digital Branding

Job description

Sprints is looking for a Creative Director to lead how our brand shows up in the world.

We believe great brands are built through thousands of creative decisions. A customer should be able to see a piece of Sprints content without seeing our logo and immediately know it came from us. This role owns that standard.

You will lead the creative expression of Sprints across organic social, paid media, collection launches, campaigns, photography, video, website, email, and every other place a customer experiences our brand.

Our expectation is simple: we want industry-leading, beautiful creative everywhere.

You will establish the creative vision, build the systems and team required to execute it, and then obsess over the details that separate good creative from great creative.

Sprints should never look generic. It should never look like every other running brand. And it should never settle for "good enough."

What You'll Own

Brand Creative Direction

• Own the visual expression and creative direction of the Sprints brand.
• Define and continuously evolve our visual language across photography, video, graphic design, typography, illustration, motion, environments and digital experiences.
• Create a recognizable Sprints aesthetic that can stretch across different collections and ideas while always feeling unmistakably like us.
• Establish an exceptionally high creative bar and hold the organization to it.
• Constantly study culture, fashion, athletics, entertainment, art and emerging creative trends to keep Sprints relevant without chasing what everyone else is doing.

Campaigns & Collection Launches

• Lead the creative concept and execution for every major Sprints collection and product launch.
• Turn product stories into bigger creative ideas that people want to engage with, share and remember.
• Own campaign concepts, art direction, locations, casting, styling, photography, video, graphic treatments and launch assets.
• Think beyond "product photography" and create worlds around our biggest launches.
• Build campaigns that make a hat, shirt or collection feel culturally important.

Organic Social & Content

• Make Sprints one of the most interesting athletic brands to follow.
• Lead the creative direction of organic social across Instagram, TikTok and emerging platforms.
• Develop recurring content formats, franchises and storytelling devices that create a recognizable Sprints universe.
• Balance highly produced brand content with fast, culturally relevant content.
• Create content people actually want to watch — not simply content a brand feels obligated to post.
• Build the systems and creative pipeline necessary to produce exceptional content every week.

Performance Creatives

• Partner closely with the Director of Performance Marketing to create advertising that is both highly effective and unmistakably Sprints.
• Translate performance learnings into new creative concepts, hooks and iterations without allowing performance marketing to become generic direct-response advertising.
• Develop a high-volume creative testing system while maintaining an extremely high brand standard.
• Understand that beautiful creative and effective creative are not opposing ideas. Our best advertising should do both.

Website & Digital Experience

• Own the creative expression of getsprints.com.
• Partner with the CEO and Director of Performance Marketing on the evolution and redesign of the website.
• The Performance Marketing Director will own conversion and commercial performance. You will own making sure the experience looks, feels and communicates like a world-class Sprints flagship store.
• Lead art direction, imagery, storytelling, typography, motion and visual merchandising across the site.
• Make every collection landing page and major product launch feel like an experience rather than a product grid.

Photography & Video

• Lead the visual standard for Sprints photography and video.
• Direct internal and external photographers, videographers, creators, stylists, models and production partners.
• Build a network of exceptional creative talent we can activate depending on the idea.
• Develop distinctive approaches to product photography, lifestyle photography, athlete storytelling and short-form video.
• Art direct the details! From the location and lighting to the way a hat sits on someone's head.

Creative Team & Operations

• Build and lead a world-class internal and external creative team.
• Identify what capabilities should live internally versus with freelancers, agencies and specialist partners.
• Lead creative processes that allow us to increase creative output without sacrificing quality.
• Create clear briefs, timelines and feedback systems.
• Know when something needs another round and when it needs to ship.
• Protect the creative team's ability to do exceptional work while operating at the speed of a fast-growing company.

The Standard

• We aren't trying to make creative that is "good for a company our size."
• We want Sprints creative to stand next to the best work from the best athletic, fashion and lifestyle brands in the world and belong there.
• Every customer touchpoint matters.

Who We're Looking For

• You have led creative for a consumer brand where brand, culture and aesthetics matter.
• You have exceptional taste and an exceptional portfolio.
• You understand the difference between making something polished and making something interesting.
• You can develop a big campaign idea and also obsess over the crop of an Instagram post.
• You understand photography, video, design, typography, social content and digital experiences well enough to direct specialists across each discipline.
• You understand how modern brands are built across both organic and paid media.
• You know how to create a consistent brand without making everything look the same.
• You are comfortable giving direct creative feedback and pushing work until it is great.
• You move quickly and understand that a fast-growing brand needs both exceptional quality and significant creative volume.
• You are deeply curious about culture and have strong instincts about what feels current, what feels tired and what could be next.
• You are collaborative and comfortable partnering closely with performance marketing, e-commerce, product and leadership.
• You have an extraordinary attention to detail.