Associate Creative Director

George P. Johnson Experience Marketing•Boston, MA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

GPJ is hiring an Associate Creative Director to join their growing team. This role is hybrid, requiring on-site work in the Boston office a minimum of 2 days per week. The Associate Creative Director will help lead the agency in creative ideation and innovative thinking, and mentor the creative team to deliver great work through inclusivity and collaboration. This role requires a diverse background balancing graphic, environmental, experience, and digital design. The Associate Creative Director will work on conceptualizing captivating multi-touch experiences that are creative and align with client brands. Collaboration with the Creative Lead on a given account is essential to ensure the vision is brought to life across all projects. This is a hands-on position involving management of work and the project team, as well as active engagement in the creative process. Travel to shows, both domestically and internationally, accounts for approximately 15% of responsibilities. The role involves day-to-day supervision of one to two team members and impactful participation in new business development efforts, including the pitch process. The Associate Creative Director will contribute to the creative and agency culture by inspiring teams and translating clients' brands into thoughtful, compelling, and interactive experiences, setting high standards for creatives by leading in new thinking and techniques. This role requires a clear understanding of all creative disciplines and collaboration with creative leadership to create high-quality, strategic presentations that exceed client expectations through copywriting, sketches, renders, mock-ups, and presentations. The Associate Creative Director will produce and inspire inventive, thoughtful, and on-brand work with a hands-on approach to team mentorship, excelling at managing team workload and meeting tight deadlines. Participation in planning and strategy sessions and comfort leading project creative design teams, overseeing designers’ work, and ensuring execution consistency and quality are expected. Collaboration with Creative Directors to execute strategic design solutions, approaching design with thoughtfulness and an understanding of its business impact, bringing to life multiple concepts and solutions to meet client objectives. Developing personal client relationships, managing expectations, identifying new projects and opportunities with existing clients, and participating in new business development and client presentations are key. Collaboration with IP, graphics production, fabrication, and creative tech to solve design and budgetary challenges while maintaining design and brand integrity is also required.

Requirements

Minimum of four-year degree in Design, Advertising, Theater or related creative discipline
Minimum 7 years industry experience or related creative process experience combining strategy, content, message with creative deliverables.
Strong written, verbal and presentation skills required.
Ability to lead, motivate and inspire the creative team, while keeping the creative process in alignment with GPJ business goals and objectives.
Solutions-oriented mindset and focus on strategically solving challenges.
Proven track record of leading successful creative teams and delivering high-impact design solutions for experiential marketing campaigns.
Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to articulate creative concepts, provide constructive feedback, and inspire teams to achieve excellence.
Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving abilities, with a deep understanding of brand strategy, consumer behavior, and market trends.
Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite and Google Suite.
Always learning new softwares and tracking emerging trends such as AI-based softwares (Firefly, Gemini, etc.).
Work closely with the Creative Director to develop a project roadmap.
Understand the creative team’s bandwidth and recommends when we need additional resources.
Provide clear creative direction at initiation, and follows through by coaching creative team members (as well as account teams), while monitoring and guiding their efforts, and investing in successful results.
Create a thoughtful and engaging guest journey for all projects.
Maintain project budgets and tracks allocated hours to ensure profitability of the creative team – in partnership with Creative Project Managers and Account Teams.
Demonstrate astute design skills and an incredible eye for detail.
Assist in the education and development of designers.
Inspire clients and creative partners with mind-blowing concepts, approaches, and presentations.
Lead the development of new ideas and creative design solutions based on sound strategic rationale across multiple brands and initiatives.
Conceptualize unique experiences that exceed client expectations.
Contribute compelling and innovative design solutions for our clients.
Contributing to account-based creative teams, while partnering closely with strategy, production, and accounts.
Create sketches, mood boards, layouts, 2D and 3D renders, deck design/ templates, presentation/content structure and POS materials.
Partner with clients and senior team members across departments to heighten a brand’s significance and performance.
Advocate for brand and identity standards, and extracts their equity to maximum effect – understands when to adhere closely to them and when to advise more creative approached.
Passionate about versatile communication and problem-solving skills, and is equally comfortable with words and visuals.
Excel in presenting work in a clear and inspiring manner to both internal and external partners.
Inspire creativity, innovative thinking, and focused effort in the development of strong concepts and solutions.
Mentor creative team members so well that they can one day take your job; identify areas of growth and help them establish their career paths.
Convey by example the mechanics and attributes of team strategy and accountability.
Work directly with the Production team to vet ideas and understand what’s feasible within budgets.
Adjust work when necessary to maintain the strategic integrity within any client restrictions.
Decisive, responsive, and fast acting; achieve goals quickly both when working on your own and in collaboration with others.
Demonstrate adaptability and agility when making on-the-spot decisions never sacrificing quality or work interactions.
Able to eliminate unnecessary steps and use network resources to aid in project completion.
Easily convey and sell ideas, and can articulate an idea with brevity during a brainstorm or client presentation.
Express yourself clearly when collaborating and presenting, maintaining a positive image for GPJ both internally and externally.
Understand the value of a well-turned phrase and a well-told story.
Idea-driven creative: someone who thinks about the big picture.
Drive, develop, or support new and improved creative methods, products, procedures or technologies.
Propel innovation by implementing the latest interactive technology in your storytelling.
Devise new approaches to make improvements or solve problems.
Innovative storyteller who is constantly challenging themselves to come up with ideas that are on strategy, transformative, and authentic to the client’s brand.
Easily move on to new tasks with little to no notice.
Put personal preferences aside and switch to a different strategy, form of communication or other objective without panicking.
Maintain composure when deadlines move up and priorities shift.
Keep an open mind.
Properly allocate time and resources so that jobs are completed within a defined timeframe; within budget and managing all resources (Full-time and freelance) as effectively as possible.
Establish a reasonable timeline for completion when no concrete date is given.

Nice To Haves

Event and Experience Design expertise desirable.

Responsibilities

Help lead the agency in creative ideation and innovative thinking.
Mentor the creative team to deliver great work through inclusivity and collaboration.
Conceptualize captivating multi-touch experiences that are creative and align with client brands.
Collaborate closely with the Creative Lead on a given account to ensure their vision is consistently brought to life across all projects.
Manage the work and the project team, while actively engaging in the creative process.
Travel to shows, both domestically and internationally (approximately 15% of responsibilities).
Provide day-to-day supervision of one to two team members.
Participate in new business development efforts, including the pitch process.
Contribute to the creative and agency culture by inspiring teams to do their best work.
Translate clients' brands into thoughtful, compelling, and interactive experiences.
Set the highest standards for all creatives to follow by leading the agency in new thinking and techniques.
Understand all creative disciplines and collaborate with creative leadership to create high-quality, strategic presentations that exceed client expectations through copywriting, sketches, renders, mock-ups, and presentations.
Produce and inspire inventive, thoughtful, and on-brand work.
Take a hands-on approach to team mentorship.
Excel at managing your team's workload and meeting tight deadlines.
Participate in planning and strategy sessions.
Lead the project creative design team on assigned projects, overseeing designers’ work, and ensuring execution is consistent and of the highest quality.
Work closely with Creative Directors to execute strategic design solutions.
Approach design with thoughtfulness and an understanding of how it impacts the larger business.
Bring to life multiple concepts and solutions to meet client objectives.
Develop personal client relationships that inspire them and manage expectations.
Identify new projects and opportunities with existing clients.
Be an integral participant in new business development and client presentations.
Collaborate with IP, graphics production, fabrication, and creative tech to solve design and budgetary challenges while maintaining design and brand integrity.
Lead with a solutions-oriented mindset and focus on strategically solving challenges.
Deliver high-impact design solutions for experiential marketing campaigns.
Articulate creative concepts, provide constructive feedback, and inspire teams to achieve excellence.
Develop a project roadmap.
Manage the design, development and implementation of all event related creative in support of overall defined look and feel and brand objectives.
Understand the creative team’s bandwidth and recommends when additional resources are needed.
Provide clear creative direction at initiation, and follows through by coaching creative team members (as well as account teams), while monitoring and guiding their efforts, and investing in successful results.
Create a thoughtful and engaging guest journey for all projects.
Maintain project budgets and tracks allocated hours to ensure profitability of the creative team – in partnership with Creative Project Managers and Account Teams.
Demonstrate astute design skills and an incredible eye for detail.
Assist in the education and development of designers.
Inspire clients and creative partners with mind-blowing concepts, approaches, and presentations.
Lead the development of new ideas and creative design solutions based on sound strategic rationale across multiple brands and initiatives.
Conceptualize unique experiences that exceed client expectations.
Contribute compelling and innovative design solutions for clients.
Contribute to account-based creative teams, while partnering closely with strategy, production, and accounts.
Create sketches, mood boards, layouts, 2D and 3D renders, deck design/ templates, presentation/content structure and POS materials.
Partner with clients and senior team members across departments to heighten a brand’s significance and performance.
Advocate for brand and identity standards, and extracts their equity to maximum effect – understands when to adhere closely to them and when to advise more creative approached.
Offer versatile communication and problem-solving skills, and is equally comfortable with words and visuals.
Present work in a clear and inspiring manner to both internal and external partners.
Inspire creativity, innovative thinking, and focused effort in the development of strong concepts and solutions.
Mentor creative team members so well that they can one day take your job; identify areas of growth and help them establish their career paths.
Convey by example the mechanics and attributes of team strategy and accountability.
Work directly with the Production team to vet ideas and understand what’s feasible within budgets.
Adjust work when necessary to maintain the strategic integrity within any client restrictions.