Concept Designer

Grapevine Media

About The Position

The Concept Designer turns briefs, opportunities, and open-ended challenges into compelling, original, strategic concepts that inspire client confidence and can be executed in the real world. The role focuses primarily on large-scale, concept-led experiential pitches, including centre courts, mall activations, Expo stands, and launches. Pitch work is defined by the need for original ideas and strategic thinking, rather than by budget or physical footprint. The role combines conceptual thinking, consumer insight, visual storytelling, and spatial design with practical knowledge of print and production. The Concept Designer works closely with Sales, the Design Studio, Operations, and specialist production partners to develop work that is compelling, original, strategic, executable, and profitable. This includes developing concepts and pitch materials, visualising spaces and consumer journeys, preparing accurate artwork, and guiding concepts through production handover.

Requirements

Strong conceptual thinking and the ability to generate ideas beyond visually attractive design.
Ability to explain why an idea works and how it answers the brief.
Understanding of consumer journeys and interactions with physical spaces.
Ability to build persuasive pitch presentations.
Strong eye for layout, typography, composition, and premium design.
Understanding of how creative work moves from concept through print and production.
Ability to work quickly, take feedback constructively, and refine ideas without losing the core concept.
Ability to balance creative ambition with practical execution.
Commercial and growth-oriented thinking, including awareness that a winning idea must be profitable.
Strong Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign skills.
Good understanding of print production and print-ready artwork.
Experience with a 3D or spatial design tool such as SketchUp, Blender, or similar.
Strong presentation-design and visual-storytelling skills.
Approximately 3–5 years of relevant design experience; portfolio strength and conceptual ability are valued more than years alone.

Nice To Haves

Experience in retail, experiential, exhibition, beauty, cosmetics, or brand activation design.
Portfolio examples showing the brief or challenge, initial thinking and concept development, big idea and rationale, consumer journey or spatial thinking, pitch presentation or visualisation, and final execution.
Portfolio information clarifying the candidate’s personal conceptual and design contributions and whether projects were pitched, won, and produced.

Responsibilities

Turn client briefs into strong, distinctive creative concepts.
Research brands, audiences, retail environments, and relevant trends.
Develop big ideas, concept rationales, moodboards, and creative direction.
Build consumer journeys that turn spaces into engaging brand experiences.
Create persuasive pitch decks that clearly communicate the thinking behind the concepts.
Produce mock-ups, layouts, sketches, and 3D or spatial visualisations.
Consider budget, gross profit, timelines, venue restrictions, and production realities from the initial concept stage.
Present and defend creative thinking in internal reviews and, where required, to clients.
Develop winning concepts into clear, executable design direction.
Set up accurate artwork for retail and large-format print.
Work accurately with dimensions, floorplans, technical specifications, and brand guidelines.
Quality-check work and maintain clean, organised files for studio and production handover.
Work with specialist production partners, fabricators, and Operations to direct and control the experience from idea through installation.
Refine ideas based on feedback while preserving the core concept.
Create concepts that can be confidently produced, delivered, and made profitable.