Creative Director, Design Job at VSA Partners in Chicago

Creative Director, Campaign Design

Are you an art director by trade, a designer at heart, and a person with a passion for great advertising? If so, we should talk.

We’re looking for a smart, strategic creative director to join our campaign design team. In this role, you’ll work on every kind of campaign—from the digital- and social-first to the big 360s—creating beautiful, impactful visuals that draw viewers in (and make our clients stand out).

You’re the perfect candidate if:

• You love being on a tight-knit team that works hard and moves fast, but also just really likes each other
• You have an uncanny ability to translate ideas into visuals that move people
• You truly love design and bring an elevated aesthetic to all of your work
• You want to help sell big, bold ideas that break through
• You have a healthy appreciation for deadlines
• You like working in a variety of industries, from Big Tech to small consumer brands
• You’re energetic, optimistic, and excited to do great things
• You play well with others—and appreciate working with really, really nice people and clients

Still with us? Good! Check out a few more of the responsibilities below.

Core Responsibilities:

Creative Leadership:

• Enthusiastically develops and executes high-impact, visually compelling concepts for integrated campaigns
• Brings deep production experience
• Is fluent in full-funnel digital marketing, including trends in social media, paid search, video advertising, influencer marketing and more
• Establishes and maintains the overall art direction, ensuring a consistent visual language across client projects.
• Serves as a leader in the creative process, guiding teams through ideation, design, and execution.

Collaboration & Teamwork:

• Works closely with copywriters, designers, strategists, project managers and the production team to ensure cohesive creative direction that delivers on the creative brief.
• Leads brainstorming sessions and provides constructive feedback to ensure high-quality work.
• Acts as a liaison between the creative team and internal stakeholders, facilitating clear communication and idea flow.

Client Engagement & Communication:

• Eagerly engages in client content to best understand the client’s vision, business goals, and their products and services and then translating these into compelling creative deliverables.
• Presents creative concepts and campaigns to clients and internal teams, articulating design decisions and the strategic rationale behind them.
• Identifies growth opportunities within existing accounts and collaborates with client-facing teams to nurture and expand client relationships.
• Represents the creative team in new business presentations and pitches, showcasing VSA’s design capabilities and approach to campaign work.
• Helps identify new business opportunities and contribute to the agency’s growth strategy.

Project Management & Execution:

• Coordinates across teams to ensure that all deliverables meet deadlines and production quality standards.
• Oversees multiple campaigns, ensuring consistency and high-quality execution across platforms and media.

Mentorship & Development:

• Supports the development of junior staff by providing mentorship and feedback to foster their growth as needed.
• Identifies tools, resources, and processes that improve creative efficiency and team performance.

Skills and Experience Required:

• Visual Design Expertise: 10+ years of experience in design. Strong command of design principles, typography, layout, and color theory to execute top-tier, visually impactful campaigns.
• Strong Portfolio: A robust portfolio of integrated campaign work that spans from print to digital to experiential for B2b and B2C brands.
• Leadership & Team Management: 3+ years of managing teams. Proven ability to lead and inspire creative teams, providing direction and feedback while fostering a collaborative environment.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to synthesize client briefs, strategic objectives, and market insights into innovative campaign executions.
• Communication Skills: Strong verbal and written communication skills for client presentations, team coordination, and internal collaboration.
• Project Management: Capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously, with strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Software Proficiency: Advanced skills in design tools (Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, etc.) and familiarity with project management tools (e.g. Slack, Google Suite and Workamajig).

About us

VSA’s purpose is to design for a better human experience. As a strategy and creative agency, we blend consumer insights and data with human-centered design to activate meaningful, motivating and measurable experiences in the world. VSA offers a full range of fully integrated capabilities—branding, advertising, data science and technology—all under one roof. VSA is also a founding agency of Meet The People, a family of unified and independent agencies. For more than 40 years, we have delivered solutions for business and creative leaders at some of the world’s most respected brands and forward-thinking organizations, including Google, Nike and IBM.

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