Senior Designer

SENIOR DESIGNER

Made Thought is a London-based creative studio that prides themselves on their progressive approach to crafting brands. Known for their iconic visual style and obsessive attention to detail, Made Thought collaborates with cutting-edge and leading brands, from adidas, MoMa, Pinterest, Stella McCartney to G.F. Smith and Heckfield Place. Their work explores design as a tool to cultivate desire and humanise brands – to go deep in an increasingly shallow world and they have a bold vision to reimagine the creative agency for tomorrow, globally known for helping the world’s most progressive brands to broaden their thinking and use creativity to forge more ambitious futures. Passionate and known for challenging business convention to transform, it is particularly passionate about and experienced in sustainability and more broadly using creativity to have positive impact in the world.

Beyond its client work, Made Thought also has ambitious plans to expand its own creative output to have more impact in popular culture already having released its own Journal To Think, and its first pop up store in London in 2019.

It’s vision to be “Globally renowned for uncommon creativity” is centred around three core values: Beyond (thinking further and deeper), Human (beautifully simple ideas that connect more deeply emotion) and Desire (creativity should help brands and businesses to change behaviour and become more meaningfully desirable delivering long term value).

These values are key for the work the studio outputs but are also personal values that they seek in all team members and clients.

ROLE OUTLINE AND EXPECTATIONS

Senior Designers are focused on creative excellence, knowledge and expertise in all phases of the design process. They have strong conceptual, creative and communication skills. They are integral to the hands-on creation of creative through expert craft as well as informing and defining the creative outcome of projects through a thoughtful approach. They have a broader professional skillset beyond graphic design encompassing digital, art direction and strategic thinking. Senior Designers are a management figure and role model for the junior creative team. They lead by example and inspire others via their expertly crafted and fine-tuned creative output, exemplifying great time management, ownership and communication throughout the life cycle of a project.

RESPONSIBILITIES

— Working closely with design leaders and the strategic lead to create compelling and inspiring creative possibilities, this role needs to demonstrate autonomy from concept to delivery including presentation creation and narrative.

— Input and inform the strategic approach, utilising cultural insight from within and outside of the category, inspiring senior members of the team.

— Be able to think holistically about the creative solutions, not just the visual outcome and have strong communicative skills in portraying this thought process to the rest of the team.

— Use experience and passion to demonstrate intelligent, thought-provoking and innovative creative solutions, establishing a strong conceptual and creative point of view.

— Be accountable for sign-off of artwork.

— Take ownership and ensure the timely delivery of all creative, upholding the studio’s exceptional creative standards.

— Work closely with Project Managers and Design Directors to review the time allocation for projects in the Studio, ensuring design resource is identified, allocated and planned accordingly to satisfy the success of a project and its delivery.

— Manage both the day to day and longer-term career growth plans of designers within your team, providing clear and ongoing developmental feedback and support.

— Be responsible for working alongside the Creative Resource Manager and HR when it comes to finding new design talent for your team, leading interviews and being heavily involved in the immersion programmes for successful applicants.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

— Use strong management experience to guide, nurture and inspire junior members of the team, ensuring excellent creative output is upheld, there is a strong alignment on creative direction and decision making and ultimately, the project is a success.

— Be confident delegating responsibility, providing autonomy to others to ensure projects run efficiently, and everyone is focussed on the right areas in accordance with their expertise and level.

— Respond quickly and accurately to client feedback, demonstrating professionalism and understanding to exceed client expectations.

— Cultivate partnerships with Project Managers to unite teams and ensure transparency during the design process.

— Demonstrate commercial acumen and work in partnership with the Finance Team to ensure all of your projects are delivered to scope, time and budget in a professional and compliant manner.

— Show experience with confidently and competently leading client presentations, ensuring they are delivered in an engaging and eloquent manner.

— Ability to articulate your point of view clearly, both verbally and through written and creative methods.

— Bring insight, opinions and a broad cultural perspective along with a deep understanding of the design landscape and process, in order to positively affect the creative outcome.

— The ability to multitask across multiple workstreams is key.

EXPERTISE

— Adobe Creative Suite

— Keynote

— 3D programmes

— Typography and layout

— Art Direction

— Photography

— Creative writing

— Building presentation documents

— Presentation skills

— Art working skills – print management and digital

— Production