Lead Art Director

CHICAGO

Lead Art Directors at at IA Collaborative are called Principal Graphic Designers. They are masters of their craft in typography, photography, illustration, iconography, color, pattern, and form with the purpose of communicating clarity and inspiring engagement. At the forefront of user-centered design that creates business value, we live and work at the leading edge of technology; at the intersection of design and business; of creativity and strategy. Join our team to support current clients in user experience and digital transformation strategy, service design, digital product design, and enterprise application design.

How we work:

We serve as our clients’ design partner and guide by becoming knowledgeable and passionate about our clients’ creative goals and business through immersion in their business. Combining human-centered design and strategic business consulting, we help multinational organizations and emerging leaders set visions, create strategies, design compelling experiences and empower their own cultures of innovation. We reframe problems, uncover opportunities and set a strategic vision. We take Insight to Action, to define business models — profit, process, channel, brand and partnership strategies — and create new physical and digital products, brands, services and environments.

You will:

• Lead concept sessions and solution-oriented sessions, providing creative solutions within multi-disciplinary teams
• Integrate new tools and techniques into project work and discipline
• Own proposal creation and lead client approach/pitch discussions 
• Participate and contribute to ethnographic in-field research
• Collaborate with project team members from different design verticals (IXD, Research, Strategy, AXD and ID)
• Advance approaches to client experiences; identify and solution client needs and challenges; grow and maintain client relationships beyond the project
• Identify and curate new ways for IA Collaborative to engage with broader audiences
• Teach junior graphic design team members how to execute on projects; mentor multiple new team members across disciplines; create growth opportunities for skills development; assist in performance reviews and goal-setting

Your Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in Communication Design, Graphic Design or related field.

Six to 10 years work experience, preferably within a design firm or digital agency, including experience:

• Collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams in a solution-oriented environment.
• Translating user research into design decisions.
• Creating compelling brands, digital interfaces, motion graphics, video, VR, packaging, environments, data visualization, Illustration, and art direction.
• Proficiency in layout/animation tools (Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite) and rapid prototyping tools (InVision, Flinto, Framer, etc). Proficiency in Final Cut and Keynote experience a plus.

Ability to travel periodically for consecutive weekday nights both domestically and internationally.

Why IA Collaborative

At IA, you’ll practice your craft in a whole new context. You’ll be a part of designing the future of human experience as you transform your client’s business, empower communities and create a positive and lasting impact on the world.

Our internationally recognized workspace provides the inspiration and flexibility to effectively collaborate with teams, or deeply focus as an individual.

IA’s comprehensive benefits package includes medical, dental, vision; flexible spending accounts for dependent care, health expenses and childcare; employer-paid life insurance and disability; health club enrollment reimbursement, in-house Leminars (learning-seminars), scholarship funds to promote individual learning, growth and inspiration; as well as discretionary bonus and profit-sharing programs.

About the Graphic Design Team

Graphic designers at IA Collaborative are brilliant creatives and strategic thinkers. We turn insights into action by developing brands, crafting stories and defining experiences that strategically solve for unmet user needs.

Our highly collaborative team thrives in the ambiguous space of innovation. We work across disciplines, creating clarity and inspiring vision from concept to commercialization. Leveraging disciplined experience, our team challenges design’s “comfort zones” to courageously push the limits of how design can transform the human experience.

About IA Collaborative

IA Collaborative is a global design and innovation consultancy. At the forefront of user-centered design that creates business value, we live and work at the intersection of design and business; of creativity and strategy.

Combining human-centered design and strategic business consulting, we help multinational organizations and emerging leaders set visions, create strategies, design compelling experiences and empower their own cultures of innovation. We reframe problems, uncover opportunities and set a strategic vision. From Insight to Action, we define business models — profit, process, channel, brand and partnership strategies — and create new physical and digital products, brands, services and environments.

IA is on the national and global stage speaking about the business value of design. Featured by Fast Company as one of the country’s preeminent design thinkers, IA has been profiled by prominent business publications and has received multiple design accolades including the IDSA International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), the GOOD DESIGN™ Awards, the iF World Design Awards and the Red Dot International and SXSW Business Design awards. IA works with some of the world’s most successful brands, including FedEx, GE, Hyatt, Johnson & Johnson and Nike.

For more information about IA Collaborative visit iacollaborative.com, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Glassdoor.

EOE