Art Director, Digital Experience

Deseret Book Company

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Art Director for Digital Experience will lead the visual direction and design execution of Deseret Book's digital marketing touchpoints—social media, website, email, landing pages, digital ads, and video graphics/motion. Reporting to the Creative Director and serving on the creative management team, this role is a hands-on creative leader who shares ownership of our brand standards, ensuring our digital presence reflects the same excellence, consistency, and craft as every other touchpoint. This Art Director will help manage a team of designers, mentor their growth, and build scalable workflows and templates that enable high-velocity digital content without sacrificing quality. They will partner closely with the Art Director of Physical Experiences to ensure a unified brand experience across digital and physical channels, and will collaborate cross-functionally with Social, eCommerce, Email, Content, and Video teams to create compelling, conversion-minded visual experiences. A strong familiarity with UX/UI design principles is essential—this person must be comfortable navigating user flows, wireframes, and interface design concepts to create digital work that is not only visually compelling but intuitive and user-centered.

Requirements

8+ years of professional design experience with a strong portfolio demonstrating excellence across social, web, email, digital advertising, and motion/video graphics; 3+ years in an art director or senior designer role leading people.
Expert-level proficiency in industry-leading creative software: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign); strong working knowledge of After Effects and Figma.
Comfortable leveraging AI-powered features within these tools (e.g., Generative Fill, Generative Expand, AI-assisted compositing) to accelerate production without sacrificing craft.
Familiarity and comfort with AI-assisted creative workflows: understanding of how generative-AI tools (image generation, background replacement, copy assistance) can be applied responsibly within brand guidelines, editorial standards, and intellectual-property guardrails.
Familiarity and comfort with UX/UI design principles: understanding of user flows, wireframing, information architecture, interaction patterns, accessibility standards (WCAG), and responsive/adaptive design.
Direct UX/UI practitioner experience is not required, but this person must be able to think in terms of user experience, collaborate credibly with product and development teams, and ensure digital creative is intuitive and user-centered.
Deep knowledge of digital production: social platform specs and best practices, email rendering across clients, digital ad specs, and video thumbnail/graphic specs for YouTube, social, and web.
Strong typography, layout, and compositional skills optimized for screen: hierarchy, readability, accessible contrast, and responsive behavior.
Experience building and maintaining digital design systems: component libraries, templates, and reusable modules that scale quality across channels.
Data-informed design sensibility: comfortable interpreting A/B test results, engagement metrics, and conversion data to improve creative performance.
Strong storytelling sensibility with the ability to turn strategic briefs and subject-matter expertise into accessible, narrative-driven content aligned to our brand and mission.
Demonstrated people leadership: mentoring designers, running critiques, providing actionable feedback, and building team culture.
Excellent communication and presentation skills; able to articulate creative rationale and defend design decisions to stakeholders and leadership.
Strong project management awareness: able to manage multiple concurrent projects, meet deadlines, and collaborate effectively within Asana or similar tools.
Understanding of basic HTML/CSS as it relates to email and web implementation; able to communicate effectively with developers.
Proficient with Microsoft Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

Nice To Haves

Animation/motion depth
Photography direction
Illustration skills
Familiarity with CMS platforms and ESPs.
Experience in retail, eCommerce, DTC, or faith-based brands; familiarity with the interests and culture of our core customer communities.

Responsibilities

Set and own the visual direction for all digital marketing touchpoints: social media (organic and paid), website (homepage, landing pages, PDPs, banners), apps, email campaigns and automations, digital advertising (display, retargeting, programmatic), and video graphics/motion (lower thirds, thumbnails, end-cards, animated social assets).
Concept, design, and art direct campaigns from brief through final delivery; create mood boards, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes that bring strategic direction to life.
Ensure every deliverable meets the highest standards of digital design craft: hierarchy, readability, accessibility, responsive behavior, animation principles, and platform-specific best practices, along with brand adherence and appropriateness.
Apply UX/UI awareness to all web, motion, email, and app-related work—ensuring layouts, navigation patterns, CTAs, and user flows are intuitive, accessible, and aligned with conversion goals.
Collaborate with the Senior Photo & Video Producer on visual direction for photo and video content, thumbnails, and social-first video assets.
Stay current on digital design trends, platform updates (social algorithms, email rendering, web standards), UI/UX best practices, and emerging formats (AR, phygital, interactive, AI-assisted) to keep our brand fresh and competitive.
Co-own, define, document, and defend visual brand standards as they apply to digital channels: responsive logo usage, digital color systems (RGB/HEX, accessible contrast ratios), web/email typography, iconography, motion principles, and imagery guidelines—in collaboration with the Art Director of Physical Experience.
Ensure the brand system translates seamlessly into digital environments and platforms while maintaining alignment with physical expressions of the brand.
Build and maintain scalable digital design systems: reusable component libraries, social templates, email modules, web pattern libraries, and motion presets that enable speed without sacrificing quality; incorporate UX/UI principles (consistency, affordance, feedback, accessibility) into system documentation and standards.
Lead brand reviews, design critiques, and quality gates for all digital output; ensure consistency across teams, platforms, and agency partners.
Manage, mentor, and develop a team of designers: assign work, set priorities, provide constructive feedback, and support career growth.
Foster a collaborative, craft-driven team culture rooted in creative excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Manage freelancers and agency partners as needed for overflow, specialized skills, or campaign surges.
Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and performance management for the design team.
Partner with Social, eCommerce, Email, Content, Paid Media, and Video teams to understand channel strategies, audience insights, and performance data; translate them into effective, conversion-minded creative.
Collaborate with product and development teams on web and app experiences, providing design direction informed by UX/UI best practices and advocating for the end user.
Use performance data (CTR, engagement, conversion, open rates, A/B test results) to inform design decisions, iterate on creative, and build a culture of test-and-learn optimization.
Collaborate with Project Managers to manage timelines, capacity, and deliverables in Asana; participate in intake, prioritization, and workflow optimization.
Coordinate with external agencies and tech partners on specs, creative handoffs, and implementation fidelity.