Design Director, Brand Experience

Digital Surgeons is a demand design consultancy that partners with brands in high growth categories to explore and unlock new business-building possibilities. We’re headquartered in our very own technology & innovation campus in New Haven called District, and our work has been featured in TechCrunch, Forbes, and The Webby Awards to name a few. 

Our Directors are the pinnacle of our brand experience design practice, second to none when it comes to the creative execution and delivery of the work product as it relates to brand identity development and digital product design. As a Director, not only lead projects but you’ll also set the bar for quality, guide best practices, add capabilities to the team through new tools and processes. You’ll work with your fellow directors and the VP, Design to maximize the growth, performance and success of all team members within the department. 

Success is measured by maintaining client satisfaction and retention through relationship-building, quality of the work product, team skill growth, and new business contribution.

What You’ll Do

Project Execution & Quality (60%)

• Partner with clients across a number of verticals and life stages to create visual identities and new digital products that address our clients’ unique opportunities and challenges and resonate with consumers.
• Serve as the design lead on simultaneous projects, working with the team through direction or direct contribution to deliver exemplary work and to exceed the expectations of the client.
• Deeply understand our clients business and its strategic objectives
• Concept, produce, and present pixel-perfect design solutions that reflect a deep understanding of a client’s goals, vision, and customer-centric data.
• Create design deliverables such as: brand logo marks, identity systems, guidelines, branded collateral, packaging, display units, social content, landing pages, product interfaces, and investor presentations (to name a few) while upholding the best practices outlined by DS
• Collaborate closely with DS growth marketing and production teams to bring brand you’ve helped evolve or establish to life across multiple touchpoints
• Present work and communicate design decisions with a strong POV through a data-driven, human-centered lens to both clients and internal project teams.
• Actively plan, facilitate, and/or participate in immersion or ideation sessions representing the look, feel, and functionality brand communications and digital experiences.
• Concepts and directs photo/video shoots as needed in partnership with our production team to produce custom brand photo or video assets.
• Assist in the execution of UX research-related activities as it relates to developing and launching new products and services – doing desk research, stakeholder interviewing, and journey mapping to define high value flows, features, and experiences
• Create key UX deliverables including user flows, sitemaps, wireframes, and prototypes as needed to reflect high-impact user functionality for a product or experience focused on a client’s business goals.
• Reconciles provided brand strategy documentation or qualitative and quantitative research into effective design solutions
• Ensures consistency of brand across platforms.
• Creation of digital creative direction artifacts, such as site inspiration decks, mockups, pre-production decks
• Create and maintain digital design systems that will define the components, modules, and elements of responsive, user interfaces for digital B2C and B2B products
• Source and direct freelancers, vendors, and partner platforms as needed to successfully execute project initiatives and activities.
• Directs, mentors, and coaches junior staff to maintain DS’s standards of quality
• Conducts design research (competitive, direct, and indirect)
• Anchors work in DS’s core values
• Ensure best practices are always upheld
• Keeps aware of the overall financial health of an engagement and how design contributes to it
• Drive the project team to utilize the best and latest approaches and tools to be competitive
• Look for workflow efficiencies. Always iterate for improvement

Team Improvement / Department Leadership (20%)

• Trains junior designers and others on brand experience design best practices, approach, and philosophy
• Advocates for design best practices throughout the organization
• Develops thought leadership content on the topics of Design, Brand Identity Development, and Digital Product/Experience Design
• Keeps up to date with industry trends, reports back finding to the company, and uses this knowledge to continuously improve and expand the team’s capabilities.
• Produce and direct client case studies as needed
• Identify opportunities for Awards submission wins or other design-related PR.

Internal Processes (10%)

• Influences and implements process that increase company efficiency and thus, profitability (Ways of working, the collaboration between teams both inside and outside of design department)
• Creates documentation that can be used as guides for other departments to effectively translate brands to other touchpoints
• Identifies opportunities and develops initiatives that ladder opportunities
• Support other design leads as needed. 

Power Organic Growth for our Accounts (10%)

• Makes recommendations and proactively suggests ideas to upsell clients (looks for opportunities)
• Partners with Account Leaders to identify growth opportunities to grow our accounts
• Proactively contributes to spec work as incremental upsells
• May be asked to support business development opportunities, through the creation of branded artifacts, spec pieces, or deck creation/assistance.

What You’ll Bring

The person we are looking for needs to be consistently proficient in these skills.

• Creativity – Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
• Approachability –  Is easy to approach and talk to; spends the extra effort to put others at ease; can be warm, pleasant, and gracious; is sensitive to and patient with the interpersonal anxieties of others; builds rapport well; is a good listener; is an early knower, getting informal and incomplete information in time to do something about it.
• Presentation Skills- Is effective in a variety of formal presentation settings: one-on-one, small and large groups, with peers, direct reports, and bosses; is effective both inside and outside the organization, on both cool data and hot and controversial topics; commands attention and can manage group processes during the presentation; can change tactics midstream when something isn’t working.
• Directing Others- Is good at establishing clear directions; sets stretching objectives; distributes the workload appropriately; lays out work in a well-planned and organized manner; maintains two-way dialogue with others on work and results; brings out the best in people; is a clear communicator.
• Developing Direct Reports Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each direct report’s career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes direct reports to accept developmental moves; will take direct reports who need work; is a people builder.
• Decision Quality Makes good decisions (without considering how much time it takes) based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most of his/her solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate when judged over time; sought out by others for advice and solutions

Qualifications

• 10-15 years experience in a creative, digital, or branding agency with a track record of successful, pixel-perfect design work that’s evidenced by a portfolio inclusive of the strategy as well as the final outcome. 
• A razor-sharp eye and attention to detail when it comes to grid usage, design consistency, layout, and composition.
• Deep experience working with a wide variety of B2B and B2C organizations.
• You are an organized project team player with the ability to iron out an amorphous process and effectively lead the design team’s deliverables and responsibilities
• Excellent communication (written and verbal) skills to articulate decision decisions, surface opportunities, and build rapport with client stakeholders.
• Not just a love for, but a mastery of the craft; fluent in visual design fundamentals, typography, color theory, brand communication, responsive UI design, and modern user experience principles.
• An awareness of the current landscape of design trends and best-practices globally.
• A mastery of design execution across all mediums – digital and physical.
• Experience working with no/low code web design solutions and platforms.
• Demonstrated mastery with tools and platforms that span Presentation Design (PPT/Keynote), Digital Layout Design & Prototyping (Figma/Sketch/XD), Image manipulation and compositing (Photoshop & Illustrator)
• You have an advanced technical proficiency in working with motion design (After Effects, Principle).
• Experience leading video/photoshoots in service of capturing tightly art directed content.
• You have an entrepreneurial sense of urgency with a passion for working in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.
• You’re proactive and enjoy creative problem-solving. You can manage your time and meet deadlines and no design challenge is too big or small.
• Passions in life that go beyond day-to-day work whether they’re side hustles or hobbies that inspire your way of thinking and working.
• You’re a multidisciplinary thinker with a growth mindset. You are curious to learn more about other creative, marketing, business, or technology-focused practices to build memorable brand experiences.

Benefits

This is a full time position, eligible for enrollment in the Company’s benefits program including medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance, and 401k. 

Our Vision

To be a catalyst for new possibility and growth for brands, businesses and their teams.

Our Mission

To use creativity and curiosity to drive the world forward. 

Our Values

Our values guide all our decisions at DS – big or small

• Be Curious: The world is constantly changing, and the more we ask, explore, wonder, understand, and ideate on, the more we can accomplish. Curiosity helps us understand what’s happening today, so we can define what’s possible tomorrow for ourselves and for you.
• Care Greatly: About our work. About our partners. About each other. We’re at our best when we care about designing demand, who we’re doing it for, and why we’re even doing it in the first place. By opening up our hearts, we create human connections that benefit everyone.
• Adapt and Respond: Change is inevitable, and we know that those who welcome it and react effectively are the ones who succeed. That’s why we find not uncertainty but wonder & possibility in change. It’s a new opportunity to create, to collaborate, and to change our world for the better.
• Simply Believe: There’s magic to be discovered through business, technology, and creativity. It’s in there, in us, and in you, but only if you believe in it. When you do, we can transform businesses and inspire people to engage with brands — even to fall in love with them

Legal Stuff

Digital Surgeons is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics or those of a family member, or any other basis protected by applicable law.