Design Director

Plastic Sunshine; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading design agency in Portland is seeking a Design Director to lead their Branded Environments Design team. You will be responsible for creating innovative physical environments and mentoring designers. The ideal candidate has 4-6 years of design experience and is proficient in Adobe tools, Figma, and SketchUp. This dynamic role requires exceptional collaboration and presentation skills, guiding projects from concept to final delivery.

Qualifications

• Able to collaborate on the fly with clients and internal teams.
• Adept at researching and crafting informed design solutions.
• Strong presentation and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multidisciplinary design team to deliver quality designs.
• Present and defend design concepts to clients.
• Manage multiple projects while ensuring quality and timeliness.

Skills

Collaboration

Presentation skills

Organizational skills

Adobe Creative tools

Flexibility

Design thinking

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in related field

4-6 years of professional conceptual design experience

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Figma

SketchUp

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a Design Director to lead our Branded Environments Design team. You will be responsible for creating and delivering premium, innovative, physical environments that provide truly unique experiences, exceeding the promise of the brief and fulfilling the design intent. You’ll be making cool things for some of the world’s best brands. We value originality and unexpected solutions that deliver positive experiences and outcomes. You’ll be responsible for creating a fresh vision that you will communicate to drive projects forward to inconceivable success. You’ll be expected to constantly think of ways to elevate the client, the brand, the team, and the world. But you also know when it’s time to wrap things up and get it out the door.

As a Design Director, your role revolves around ideating, concepting, and constantly searching for ideas that will lift the projects. You must be collaborative, inclusive, and decisive. You are a multidisciplinary creative. This doesn’t mean you know everything about everything, rather, you know how to craft a vision, and you’re able to connect the right people to projects and direct them to get the best results, and you're not afraid of asking questions. Sometimes you're doing the work, and sometimes you’re directing the team on multiple projects simultaneously. You’ll also be presenting the agency’s work directly to clients and helping guide them to the right answers.

Are you a proven creative leader who can effectively manage creative output, teams, and the humans that make up those teams, mentoring and encouraging the designers to reach their true potential? If so, then we need to talk.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary design team to deliver premium branded environments from concept through installation. • Present and defend design concepts to clients and internal stakeholders. • Collaborate with clients, freelancers, and internal teams to ideate quickly and solve design problems. • Build and communicate a clear design vision, guiding projects from concept to final delivery and installation. • Manage multiple projects simultaneously, maintaining quality and timely delivery. • Build pitches and presentations to sell ideas and concepts. • Maintain a high standard of creative output and brand narrative across projects.

Qualifications

• You're able to collaborate on the fly with clients, freelancers, and internal teams and ideate quickly to solve deeper design problems.
• You seek to understand the problem to be solved before exploring solutions.
• You're adept at researching and crafting informed solutions and design directions.
• You see possibilities beyond the brief, and are always searching for unexpected, innovative design solutions.
• You work on building and preparing pitches and presentations to sell in ideas and concepts.
• You are able to see a project through from concepting through to final delivery and installation.
• You confidently and clearly present work and ideas to clients, and internal teams. Your presentation skills must be super solid.
• You’re a thinker and a doer, staying close to the work and never hesitating to roll up your sleeves to make great work happen.
• You’re a flexible team player, willing to jump in to help, even if it’s outside of your daily responsibilities.
• You’re fluent in brand language and understand how to craft a cohesive brand narrative and consumer journey.
• You’re comfortable working in and developing a variety of design styles.
• You’re dedicated to quality as well as timely delivery. We show up on time.
• We talk fast, we move fast. You need to do the same.
• You’re highly organized and able to manage multiple streams of communication.
• You have clear, concise communications skills.
• You understand how to manage a team to quickly get to great solutions and high quality design output.
• We work together as a team, and you understand how to work both as a team leader and a team player.
• You understand how to be diplomatic and strategic, able to defuse conflict and always find the way forward.
• You are an inspiring leader, and you’re able to direct a multidisciplinary team on a variety of projects.
• You are the face of our brand and you present yourself with an air of kind professionalism.
• You’re adaptable to new technologies, platforms, and ways of working, and you’re willing to grow and develop your skills and proficiency.
• You have an in-depth knowledge of Adobe Creative tools, Figma, and SketchUp.

Educational, Professional, and Technical Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in related field or equivalent experience.
• 4-6 years of professional conceptual design experience.
• Fluent with Apple creative tools.

About us

We’re Plastic Sunshine, an independent strategic creative agency based in Portland. We’re highly collaborative and multidisciplinary, with a wide variety of clients and capabilities. Thanks for stopping by. Maybe you’re here out of curiosity, but our guess is that you’re probably looking for something different, something more than just a job. A place where your job title is just the starting point — a place where you can realize your true potential. If that’s what you’re after, then you’ve come to the right place.

Portland, Oregon Metropolitan Area