The Yard Creative
The Yard Creative is looking for a new Associate Design Director of Branding to join our management team in collectively continuing to drive the business forward. As a boutique design agency that’ only works with people who want to challenge a sector’ our abilities to see the world differently from others and identify opportunities for our clients is what drives us. Our clients have already voted TYC as the No3 Graphics design agency in the UKand the Top 50 in the world.
Role overview
The candidate will be responsible for delivering world-class branding and graphics for ourclients, backed by solid research, trends, insights and consumer behaviours mixed with anability to think differently and innovate past the norm.We are looking for someone with a proven track record of successful branding and graphicdesign, as well as digital and interactive design projects for global clients across Well-beingand Health, Sports, Retail, Food and Beverage, Property Development, Hospitality andTransport sectors.
They must be able to demonstrate a track record of running a department within such abusiness, an ability to deliver positive GP on projects, manage workflow, manage multipleclients at the same time and use their managerial skills to help continue the growth of aworld class team of talent. This role as much about managing the team and clients as it isthe creative output. You’ll be working hand in hand with the Creative Director who isresponsible for the overall creative vision.
As a boutique agency the role is such that hands on liaison and engagement with the clientis paramount. The role will be supported by a Client Services Manager but there will beaspects such as planning, resourcing and client services that sits alongside the creative sideof the role.
Roles and responsibilities
This is a very hands-on role in terms of leading the creative, and working closely with ourclients, inspiring and directing the graphic & UX/UI design teams. Your design andmanagement responsibilities will be a 60/40 split in your working week where you will beworking alongside the account management team and Creative Director in the projectrunning and scheduling and day-to-day project running. This person must be able to inspireand manage the graphics team, always working across multiple projects. You’ll have aproven experience of working with blue chip companies as well as entrepreneurs and startupsacross all aspects of the graphic design life cycle including:-
Creativity responsibilities
- Taking client briefs and translating in to project requirements
- Planning, facilitating and running both client and team meetings / workshops
- Creating strategic directions and positioning for brands
- Leveraging knowledge and science of branding to create remarkable brands
- Driving brand identity concept generation, creation and execution
- Defining overarching ideas for brand engagement, user experience and interactiondesign
- Putting as much emphasis on the use of ‘language’ to create brands not just thevisual (defining and writing TOV)
- Keeping up to date with trends and a love for all that’s new and innovative
- Inspiration and art direction of the branding and graphics team (including suppliers)
- Review and sign off on all graphic production work e.g. copywriting, communicationpacks, brand guidelines, print-ready artwork etc.
Managerial responsibilities of the role
Supporting & working towards:
- Mentoring, reviewing and writing staff smart objectives to ensure their progressionand growth through TYC
- Project management and scheduling of the graphics team workflow, includingfreelancers and other members of the team including researchers, strategists,interior and digital designers
- Recruiting and interviewing new recruits to the Brand/Graphic design team
Responsible for:
- Business acumen regarding the balance of making great design profitable (includingservice levels, managing scope creep, timekeeping and budgets)
- Developing existing client relationships and farming new work
- Supporting new business activities and winning new clients
- Reporting to Leadership on team performance, project profitability, growth initiatives, farming opportunities
- Writing blogs and TYC project case studies for the website
- Responsible for key client accounts and forming long-lasting relationships
This is a client-facing role that requires you to be able to engage and manage clients in aproactive manner. There will be regular onsite client meetings that will be planned,managed, and run by you, however, the day to day will be conducted in our office inLondon. Our client base covers the UK, Europe, the Middle East and the US.
Who will you be?
You’ll be your own person. Be confident in who you are, stand up for what you believe andnever hide what you know. You’ll share everything you know to help others around yougrow and flourish whilst be inquisitive to ask them questions back. People will describe yourknowledge and energy as infectious. You’ll of course have a passion for what you do(otherwise why are you doing it?!), bring energy to the team and help grow our culture. Andyou’ll know your stuff. You’ll not bluff your way through, never lie and always have TYCfront of mind.
What we’ll do for you
In exchange for bringing it everyday, we’ll ensure you’ll manage a wide variety of creativechallenges, work with Global Brands and entrepreneurs, have exposure to many differentaspects of the business and continue to learn at every step of the way. We’ll support youand believe in you. You’ll get a strong work life balance. You’ll be involved in all our culturalactivities.
And lastly
You’ll be part of an agency whose profits go towards affecting climate, demographic andeconomic change. At a time where we’re all telling our clients to have a bigger purpose,we’re leading the way and showing others how its done.
Qualifications required:
2:1 or higher Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design, Branding or DesignInternational design agency and client experience is required
If this sounds like you then please email us your CV and portfolio documenting all mind blowing(and relevant) experience.
Specific skills required for the role:
Excellent idea and concept generation abilities
Extensive experience in creating brand strategy and identities, marketing ideas andcommunications materials
Outstanding skills in copywriting and creating tone of voice
Outstanding skills in creating campaign related graphic materials (experience must be in both physical and digital campaigns)
Extensive experience in designing communication packages and environmental graphics for physical environments
Extensive experience in designing uniforms, packaging and production of packaging
Experience in designing responsive website interfaces focused on improving both websiteusability and the user experience
Experience in designing applications for smart devices, including e-commerce apps
Extensive experience in liaison with suppliers e.g. print houses, website and applicationdevelopers
Exceptionally confident and articulate when presenting concepts or ideas
Outstanding client liaison and management skills
Business management including financial understanding, reporting and board liaison
Outstanding team leadership skills whilst also being able to produce all project deliverablesto an exceptionally high standard
Outstanding art direction and photography direction skills
Expert knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud
Expert Apple Mac user
Expert user of MS Office
Excellent storyboarding and creation of presentations using Adobe InDesign