Design Director

Prelude Growth; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Summer Fridays is seeking a Design Director to lead and elevate brand design across its ecosystem. You will shape how the visual identity comes to life across social, campaigns, product launches, events, and retail, balancing strategic direction with hands-on leadership.

You will partner with Creative, Brand Marketing, Social, Retail, and Events to translate brand strategy into cohesive visual systems, ensuring authenticity and cultural relevance across platforms in a hybrid Los Angeles setting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Art Direction, Visual Communication, or a related field; equivalent professional experience will be considered.
• 10+ years of experience in brand design, graphic design, or art direction, including leadership of design teams.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional brand design and visual storytelling across digital and physical touchpoints.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma; working knowledge of Keynote and Google Workspace; motion design workflows and emerging AI tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Design team across social, campaigns, retail, events, OOH, eCommerce, and digital brand initiatives.
• Set a clear design vision and high creative standards for cohesive, elevated brand touchpoints.
• Translate brand strategy and product stories into compelling visual systems and design direction.

Skills

Brand design

Leadership

Typography

Visual storytelling

Creative direction

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

Keynote

Job description

JOB TITLE: Design Director

REPORTS TO: Creative Director; interim reporting to the Sr. Director of Brand

DEPARTMENT: Marketing & Creative

OVERVIEW

We are hiring a Design Director to lead and elevate brand design across the Summer Fridays ecosystem. This role will shape how our visual identity comes to life across every touchpoint- including social, brand campaigns, product launches, events, out-of-home, retail, eComm, VIP gifting, and broader brand collateral.

Working closely with Creative, Brand Marketing, Social, Retail, Visual Merchandising, Digital and Events, this leader will translate brand strategy and creative concepts into cohesive, compelling design expressions. They will bring clarity and consistency to every launch and campaign while ensuring the work feels elevated, culturally relevant and distinctly Summer Fridays. This role balances high-level creative direction with hands-on design leadership. The ideal candidate is a thoughtful team builder, strong creative partner and confident presenter who can guide multiple projects, raise the standard of execution, and connect social-first storytelling to meaningful physical and digital brand experiences.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Design team, overseeing graphic designers and allocating resources across social, campaigns, retail, events, OOH, VIP gifting, eComm, digital and other brand initiatives.
• Set a clear design vision and consistently high creative standard, ensuring every touchpoint feels cohesive, elevated, intentional, and distinctly Summer Fridays.
• Partner with Creative and Brand Marketing leadership to translate brand strategy, campaign concepts, and product positioning into compelling visual systems and design direction.
• Build immersive design worlds across new product launches, innovation, core assortment, evergreen storytelling and seasonal campaigns-from early concept through final execution.
• Develop scalable launch toolkits and design systems that create alignment across channels while allowing work to feel native to each platform, placement and audience.
• Champion a social-first design approach, identifying the visual ideas, formats and brand codes that originate on social and extend seamlessly into retail, events, OOH, gifting and other IRL experiences and touchpoints.
• Lead the design development of integrated, 360-degree brand moments, ensuring digital storytelling and physical experiences feel connected and cohesive.
• Present design direction to Founders, executives and cross-functional partners, clearly articulating the creative strategy, visual rationale and recommended direction.
• Establish alignment early in the creative process by defining objectives, deliverables, timelines and decision points with key cross-functional stakeholders.
• Oversee design from concept through production, including typography, layout, graphic systems, packaging-adjacent launch assets, print production and final file delivery.
• Create and maintain clear brand design standards, templates, and toolkits that improve consistency and efficiency across internal teams and external partners.
• Continually assess the brand experience to identify visual gaps, refine existing brand materials and strengthen consistency across the full customer journey.
• Collaborate with Art Directors, photographers, motion designers, production partners, fabricators, agencies and freelancers to deliver integrated creative at the highest standard.
• Stay deeply attuned to design, beauty, fashion, culture, and social platform trends, translating relevant insights into forward-thinking ideas that feel authentic to Summer Fridays.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Art Direction, Visual Communication, or a related field; equivalent professional experience will also be considered.
• 10+ years of experience in brand design, graphic design, or art direction, including meaningful experience leading and developing design teams.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional brand design, visual storytelling and integrated creative across digital and physical touchpoints.
• Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma; working knowledge of Keynote, Google Workspace, motion design workflows and emerging AI creative tools.
• Experience with beauty, skincare, fashion, lifestyle, or culturally relevant consumer-brand strongly preferred.
• Exceptional design judgment with deep expertise in typography, layout, hierarchy, color and visual systems across digital and physical formats.
• Proven ability to translate brand strategy and product stories into clear, ownable and scalable creative direction.
• Confident presenter and communicator with experience leading creative reviews and building alignment with Founders, executives and cross-functional teams.
• Strong people leadership skills, with the ability to mentor designers, give clear feedback and create a collaborative, high-performing team environment.
• Strong understanding of production processes and specifications across social, digital, print, OOH, retail, gifting, and experiential design.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, resourceful, and able to manage multiple projects and tight deadlines without compromising quality.
• A collaborative, solutions-oriented self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced environment with direct Founder interaction.
• Must be based in Los Angeles, CA and willing to work a hybrid schedule.