Creative Director

Great Northern Corporation; Des Plaines (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K match & profit sharing

Paid Time Off & IL Paid Leave after 30

9 Paid Holidays

Medical PPO, HSA, Dental, Vision

Wellness Program

Life Insurance & Disability

Tuition Reimbursement

Career advancement opportunities

Annual salary increases

Job summary

Great Northern Corporation in Des Plaines, IL is seeking a hands-on Creative Director to lead Industrial Design and Graphic Design teams, balancing creative strategy with business growth and daily project execution.

The role requires deep experience in retail displays and fixtures, strong leadership, and hands-on technical skills in CAD, rendering, and prototyping. You will drive design quality, collaborate with Sales, and guide resources to meet timelines and budgets.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in industrial design or related field.
• 5+ years leading a design team or creative group.
• Hands-on experience with CAD, sketching, rendering, rapid prototyping.
• Knowledge of product development and manufacturing processes for displays or fixtures.
• Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and manage priorities.
• Strong understanding of design decisions affecting cost and manufacturability.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Experience with permanent POP displays or retail fixtures preferred.

Responsibilities

• Leads, coaches, and develops design teams; sets expectations for quality and accountability.
• Reviews concepts to ensure visually compelling, strategically relevant, and manufacturable solutions.
• Drives ideation and concept development for differentiated customer-facing displays.
• Stays current on design trends and emerging technologies; applies AI where appropriate.
• Partner with Sales on meetings and new business opportunities; allocates creative resources.

Skills

Design leadership

CAD

Rendering

Prototyping

Education

Bachelor's degree in industrial design

Tools

CAD software

Sketching tools

Job description

Creative Director

Why Great Northern

Privately held, Great Northern Instore, a division of Great Northern Corporation, is a Multi-Million Dollar, Designer, Engineering, and Manufacturer of Custom Permanent Point Purchase Displays and Retail Fixtures.

Great Northern is committed to making a difference in the lives of our team members, customers, and the communities in which we live and work. Many of our team members were referred to by their friends and families who are already a part of the Great Northern team.

The Benefits of Great Northern

Competitive 401K match and a historically generous profit-sharing retirement savings contribution

Paid Time Off and IL Paid Leave after 30 days of employment

9 Paid Holidays

Medical PPO, Health Savings Account, Dental, and Vision insurance

Wellness Program

Life Insurance, Short Term and Long-Term Disability available

Health Fitness, Safety Prescription Glasses, and Safety Shoes Reimbursement annually

Tuition Reimbursement available after 1 year of service

Opportunities to advance your career and compensation level

Annual increases

Pay/Schedule

On-site Weekdays 8a.m.-4:30p.m.

Competitive Salary

Position Summary

The Creative Director is a hands-on creative leader, responsible for leading Industrial Design and Graphic Design while balancing creative strategy, business growth, and day-to-day project execution

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Leads, coaches, and develops the Industrial Design and Graphic Design teams; establishes expectations for design quality, collaboration, accountability, and performance.
• Reviews concepts and presentations to ensure solutions are visually compelling, strategically relevant, technically sound, manufacturable, and appropriate for the customer
• Leads brainstorming and concept-development activities to create differentiated solutions that address customer, brand, shopper, budget, and retail needs.
• Stays current on retail, design, material, manufacturing, and technology trends, including practical uses of generative AI for design exploration.
• Partners with Sales on customer meetings, project kickoffs, prototype reviews, presentations, and new business opportunities; helps qualify where creative resources should be invested.
• Provides creative and technical direction from initial brief and ideation through client presentation, engineering, prototyping, and production.
• Reviews the WebCenter schedule and active workloads to monitor deadlines, revisions, project progress, and resource capacity.
• Tracks key measures such as project throughput, development timing, win rates, freelance spending, and first-run orders; recommends improvements to staffing, tools, capabilities, and processes.
• Participates in preliminary estimating and design-to-cost discussions, balancing creativity with material, manufacturing, timing, shipping, installation, and budget considerations.
• Reviews new projects, determines the appropriate development path and deliverables, assigns work, balances internal and freelance resources, work capacity, and adjusts priorities as needs change.
• Provides hands-on project support when workload, timing, or project complexity requires it, using CAD, sketching, rendering, concept development, or other relevant design tools.
• Collaborates in "ballpark" estimating meetings to develop budgetary pricing ahead of engineering and formal estimating.
• Contributes creative insight to business strategy, growth priorities, resource planning, and operational decisions

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in industrial design or a related field, or significant equivalent experience in retail display, fixture, or in-store environment design.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading a design or creative team in a manager or director role.
• Strong working knowledge of product development, including CAD, sketching, rendering, rapid prototyping, materials, and manufacturing processes for displays, fixtures, or similar physical products.
• Recent hands-on technical experience and the ability to support design project execution during periods of high workload.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, set direction, provide constructive feedback, manage competing priorities, and develop talent.
• Strong understanding of how design decisions affect cost, manufacturability, timing, customer value, and business results.
• Excellent verbal, written, presentation, organizational, collaboration, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to adapt to changing priorities and work effectively with different disciplines, personalities, and organizational levels.
• Experience in permanent POP displays, retail fixtures, store environments, shopper marketing, or a closely related industry strongly preferred.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office; familiarity with generative AI and emerging design technologies preferred.
• Ability to perform the essential functions of the position and maintain regular, punctual attendance consistent with applicable federal, state, and local requirements.

Physical Requirements

Ability to safely and successfully perform the essential job functions consistent with the ADA, FMLA and other federal, state, and local standards, including meeting qualitative and/or quantitative productivity standards.

Ability to maintain regular, punctual attendance consistent with the ADA, FMLA and other federal, state and local standards

Opportunities for Growth

You will have the opportunity to gain experience, and new skills and acquire new knowledge that can be applied to grow into new positions with higher pay. Furthermore, you can grow your career with Great Northern through advancement opportunities available at our facilities locally and nationally.

Expectation

To be successful your teammates will depend on you to have pride in your work, be on time, work safely, work effectively with others, be optimistic, take ownership of your responsibilities, and look for continuous improvement opportunities.

Great Northern is an equal opportunity at-will employer and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of age, race, religion, color, disability, sex, sexual orientation, or national origin.