Art Director

IWCO•Chanhassen, MN

4d•$105,000 - $120,000

About The Position

The Art Director provides creative guidance, project oversight, and mentoring to creative team members, and supports the Creative Director with workload planning, resource allocation, and freelance resource management. The role partners in the concepting, creation, and delivery of direct response marketing, particularly direct mail and multi-channel marketing communications. It combines hands-on design execution with day-to-day creative workflow coordination to help ensure projects are prioritized, appropriately resourced, and delivered on time. The Art Director develops creative across print, direct mail, digital, and video; works with copywriters, production artists, and other partners to deliver work against briefs; and ensures layouts and files meet client brand and production requirements. The position also coordinates workflow and creative resources, supports estimates, and presents creative concepts, campaigns, and design solutions to clients in partnership with internal stakeholders.

Requirements

Ability to develop or rebuild illustrations, logos, and similar items in vector- or raster-based programs as project needs require.
Ability to build strong working relationships and collaborate across roles and departments to deliver results.
Excellent listening skills and ability to identify the underlying need behind a change request or tweak.
Flexibility to adapt processes and systems to complete projects smoothly.
Ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
Demonstrated initiative, conscientiousness, and exceptional follow-through.
Willingness and ability to learn executional requirements for spot-color and CMYK color separations and file building for four-color and/or black/spot-color plate changes on press.
Ability to develop creative for print, direct mail, digital, and video.
Three to five years of experience in a printing or agency environment.
Seven to ten years of experience in layout and design of impactful advertising and direct response communications.
Previous experience managing a team and project workflow through a project management tool.
Proven experience presenting creative concepts, campaigns, and design solutions to clients in partnership with internal stakeholders.
Proficiency with macOS, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, FTP, and project management platforms such as Monday.com.
Authorization to work for any employer in the United States; IWCO will not sponsor a work visa for this role.

Nice To Haves

Degree in graphic design or art, portfolio school training, or equivalent.
Familiarity with direct mail and digital printing.

Responsibilities

Provide day-to-day creative guidance, feedback, and mentoring to creative team members to ensure quality and consistency.
Coordinate creative project workflow, resource allocation, and freelance team members.
Administer Monday.com, including project workflow, creative team engagement, time cards, and creative team oversight.
Consult with the Creative Director and Account Director on estimating.
Participate in onboarding new creative employees.
Become immersed in MCS clients, including their industry verticals, brands, competitors, and historical campaigns.
Create original layouts and modify existing layouts and copy using Adobe Creative Suite and related tools, following client and team direction and brand guidelines.
Partner with copywriters, production artists, and others to own files created for specific briefs, meet timelines, and make changes through handoff for execution.
Ensure ideas and layouts comply with color palettes, font and link usage, file formats, layers, and brand guidelines.
Oversee creation of physical and electronic samples for presentations and client needs.
Organize server files, follow naming conventions, and move files efficiently through the process.
Ensure deadlines are met and adjust to changing timelines as needed.
Support estimates for creative deliverables by providing input on scope, effort, timelines, and resource requirements.
Stay apprised of production equipment and new formats.
Create new formats in collaboration with cross-functional teams and apply creativity across work.
Perform other related duties as assigned.