Senior Art Director

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR

Weber Shandwick, one of the world’s leading marketing and communications agencies, is seeking a creative, passionate and unique thinker to join our Toronto office as a Senior Art Director. You'll help set the tone for a growing and innovative team of art directors, designers and writers, working on some of Canada’s biggest brands.

The right candidate will have a graphic design background, a keen eye for design and be able to execute flawlessly, in addition to the ability to communicate your vision to collaborators. You should be able to adapt your work for any platform in service of telling a great story through imagery, from social to digital to out-of-home to print.

You will also be asked to think ‘earned first,’ in other words, develop ideas that are designed to travel organically through media and get people talking.

You'll have the chance to work closely with the brightest minds across the North American Weber Shandwick network, solving provocative client challenges as you develop in your creative career. 

You must be comfortable presenting and engaging directly with clients, representing agency work with confidence and finesse. In addition, you will work a minimum of four days in office each week at our Toronto office on King Street East at Parliament Street.

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Develop refined, production-heavy concepts and executions with a focus on social and digital media. Use experience in social media to incorporate creative/design/layout best practices for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube and others.
• Develop strong video, print and digital design for a wide range of assignments, including branding, layout, storyboarding, mockups, infographics, presentations, print collateral and signage.
• Ensure all visual design adheres to existing brand guidelines.
• Be extremely comfortable creating iterative digital executions, such as resizes of campaign assets for various channels — and overseeing others in this task.
• Wear multiple hats: contingent on your skills, there will be times when you must drive the creative/design process by playing the role of producer, re-toucher, illustrator, photographer, etc. 
• From concept to execution, bring an enthusiasm for solving design and marketing challenges throughout the life of a project, and amid stakeholder revisions.
• Display an understanding of digital and interactive design principles; we do not produce many websites or mobile apps, but need someone who can speak to and define those UX/UI needs when necessary.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across teams and potentially manage junior designers and art directors.
• Present your work comfortably and confidently in client meetings.
• Join client meetings, brainstorms and planning sessions for ongoing projects.
• Build and maintain strong rapport with creative team colleagues, client leads and project managers.
• Cultivate an inclusive culture and champion the contributions of your colleagues. 
• Have a proficient grasp on generative AI as it concerns art direction, renders, and mocks.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• 5+ years of art direction and/or design experience in a related agency department or industry (advertising, digital, social media, content or public relations).
• Ability to work quickly, efficiently, and accurately within all required aspects of the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator), as well as presentation software (eg: PowerPoint).
• Be curious, self-motivated, hard-working, well-organized, thick-skinned and resilient to
  ever-changing timelines, requests, and deliverables.
• Be culture-obsessed and a heavy consumer of media.
• Experience with social media platforms and a working knowledge of their best practices
• Ongoing drive to learn and incorporate new and emerging techniques, trends and philosophies in design, technology, and social media.
• Must have a portfolio (share anything that conveys the way you think or approach assignments, even if it was never produced).

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

• Education in advertising design and conceptual thinking is preferred.
• Bonus skills: illustration, photography, retouching, filmmaking, etc. Any artistic passion points are always a plus.
• Experience managing junior creatives is a plus.
• Knowledge of or strong interest in consumer electronics a plus.

NOTE: If you are selected for an interview, please come prepared to discuss and showcase your art direction portfolio and walk through your conceptual/strategic creative approach to assignments (show us how your brain works). Use whatever work or case studies necessary to best represent these areas of expertise.

The Weber Shandwick Collective recognizes that your health and wellbeing are a priority. This is why we offer a full suite of benefits including:

• Medical
• Dental
• Vision
• RRSP (with employer match)
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Juice Money - $60 monthly reimbursement to be used towards purchases that nourish your health, mind, body, and soul
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – $50 monthly cell phone reimbursement
• MyDays – Flexible time off
• Short-Term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave Policy

Salary range: CAD 74,000.00 - CAD 105,000.00

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications.

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status.

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