melin Sr. Art Director

Archipelago Companies•San Clemente, CA

1d•$150,000 - $170,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Sr. Art Director leads the design half of melin’s Creative team and owns how the brand looks across campaigns, product launches, logos and product graphics, packaging, paid and social channels, melin stores, wholesale and corporate partners, licensing, and new markets. The role translates the brand vision into a working visual system—including brand standards, templates, and reviews—that guides the Content team’s studio and channel content as launch volume grows. The Sr. Art Director oversees shoots from concept through delivery, creating concept decks and mood boards, coordinating production planning with the Content Director, directing photographers and videographers on set, and overseeing selects, retouching, color, treatments, layouts, deliverables, and revisions. The role directly manages the Associate Art Director and Junior Graphic Designer. The studio, film, content, and performance creative team reports to the Content Director and follows the Art Director’s visual direction. The position partners closely with the Content Director, Project Manager, Marketing, Product, and DTC. The ideal candidate has built and maintained a brand system at a premium consumer brand, is confident directing on set, gives fast and specific feedback, and delivers work on schedule.

Requirements

7+ years of professional brand and campaign design experience.
2+ years of experience leading designers.
Demonstrated ability to art direct photo and video shoots from start to finish, including concept decks, mood boards, production planning, on-set direction, selects, and layouts.
A portfolio demonstrating brand systems maintained across ecommerce, retail, wholesale, and partners, including logo and identity work—not only finished pieces.
Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and Figma.
Exceptional typography, layout, logo design, branding, production design, and packaging skills.
Experience creating print, packaging, and retail assets from concept through final production, including hang tags, boxes, labels, windows, in-store assets, sell sheets, and catalogs.
Working knowledge of performance creative for paid channels and ecommerce imagery standards.
Ability to provide clear, fast feedback and run design reviews.
Experience developing junior designers.
Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to align with senior leadership and cross-functional partners.
Passion for premium products, craftsmanship, design, and building world-class brands.

Nice To Haves

Experience in luxury lifestyle, headwear, apparel, footwear, or outdoor brands.
Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design or a related discipline.

Responsibilities

Art direct every campaign and seasonal photoshoot from concept to delivery, including concept decks, mood boards, production planning with the Content Director, on-set direction of photographers and videographers, selects, retouching, and color.
Design treatments, layouts, and the design portion of launch kits and campaigns across paid, social, site, email, retail, and wholesale, delivering on the GTM date.
Own and evolve melin’s visual identity and brand standards, including the brand book, Visual DNA, and logo system and usage rules, in partnership with the VP of Creative.
Create and steward logos and product graphics, including seasonal logo waves, collaboration and partner lockups, corporate and custom-program logos, and product graphics.
Own packaging and hang tags with Product and Production, including seasonal hang-tag waves, boxes, labels, and inserts, meeting Product’s gates and brand standards.
Build, publish, and maintain the Visual DNA template system and ensure each new design asset follows it.
Run quarterly brand checks across channels and partners and close identified gaps.
Build toolkits for other teams, including store-opening kits, regional localizations, sales-meeting sell-in tools, show kits, Corporate Sales mockup systems, custom and MPP templates, licensing partner brand kits, and new-market toolkits.
Turn Product’s Get Full Credit brief into launch storytelling covering the problem solved, materials, details, and named technology.
Manage and develop the Associate Art Director and Junior Graphic Designer; run weekly design reviews and revision rounds and create a development plan for each.
Plan the design lane within the intake process run by the Project Manager and Content Director, assigning a named designer and hours to every design request and creating a dated design brief for every launch.
Use the monthly creative-performance read led by the Content Director with DTC and Marketing to incorporate winning approaches into templates and briefs.