Art Direction and Design Manager

Position Overview:

As the Art Direction & Design Manager, you will play a pivotal role in producing and directing design solutions that drive growth from awareness to advocacy. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you’ll translate business objectives and consumer insights into creative design solutions that resonate with our target markets to scale the brand and achieve annual operating plan sales goals. Leveraging your expertise in design thinking, storytelling, and performance marketing, you will act as both a leader and do-er to direct and design compelling visuals that align with brand strategy and marketing goals.

Core Responsibilities:

Performance Marketing Art Direction

• Brainstorm campaign concepts and brand acts that extend to experiential and digital channels, conceptually bringing the brand to life through an array of digital and physical executions, creating a seamless brand experience. 
• Provide clear direction and feedback to internal and external teams ensuring that all creative executions meet the highest standards of quality, and reflects brand strategy, standards, and project objectives. 
• Lead and direct print and digital creative executions that support cyclical, always-on performance marketing activities including monthly promotions, bi-monthly promotional windows, and paid media, facilitating with external creative partners to produce assets and deliverables. 
• Consult on and direct how product is communicated to our guests in coffeehouses including on packaging, signage, gift cards, and more. 
• Attend and guide direction for product marketing photo + video shoots in partnership with in-house Content Creator + trusted and established creative partners. 
• Partner with Creative Director to support the vision of projects and effectively communicate that vision internally. Present thorough and data-informed creative recommendations to stakeholders ensuring business and sales goals are being met. 
• Lead and guide kick off calls, creative reviews, and brainstorming sessions with internal creative team and external creative partners in both in-person and virtual settings. 
• Manage and facilitate relationships with external design agencies, freelancers, and other vendors/partners as needed in partnership with Creative Director. 
• Participate in developing realistic timelines in partnership with Creative Coordinator. 
• Develop resources, guidelines, and templates that empower cross-functional teams to create thoughtful brand expressions

Design Execution

• Ideate, design, and execute compelling and distinctive assets that align with the Caribou brand identity, including emails, in-app messages, landing pages, social media graphics, direct mail, gift cards, specialty merchandise, signage, and more while tailoring designs for specific audience segments and growth goals. 
• Provide creative and design support for various internal and corporate communications materials including presentations, reports, and event materials. 
• Demonstrate an understanding of design and production processes for print, digital, and packaging executions. 
• Manage and prioritize a workload of projects from concept to completion, ensuring deadlines are met and deliverables are high quality. 
• Incorporate feedback from stakeholders to refine designs to ensure they meet project requirements and objectives. 
• Ensure that all design work aligns with our brand strategy and guidelines, creating and maintaining consistent storytelling across all channels. 
• Take on special projects and complete ad hoc and/or sometimes non-strategic design updates as needed.

Skills and Requirements:

• Bring the Core Values to life in all that you do: Support One Another, Make Fun Happen, Be Yourself, Take Ownership, Serve With Love. 
• Ability to balance creative vision with performance data to produce high-converting designs. 
• Strong written and oral communication skills with the ability to present ideas clearly and confidently to stakeholders. 
• Possess a clear and engaging communication style rooted in a desire to understand others and cocreate solutions. 
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, delivering high-quality work under tight deadlines, in a sometimes-ambiguous environment. 
• Inspire and motivate internal and external teams while providing clear, constructive direction and feedback for continuous improvement. 
• Ability to work both independently and within a highly collaborative environment. 
• Actively seek feedback and consistently work to integrate into work processes.

Qualifications:

Required:

• 5-8 years of art direction and design experience, developing performance marketing campaigns in-house or at an agency. 
• Previous experience leading and collaborating with external agencies, freelancers, or other vendors. 
• Expert-level proficiency using Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator).
• Possess strong expertise in creating illustrations, bringing concepts to life with impactful illustrations. 
• Strong design and art direction skills for static and dynamic mediums demonstrating an understanding of design principles, typography, communication design, and brand strategy with a portfolio showcasing performance-based design work both directed and designed by you. 
• Solid understanding of information hierarchy and customer journey mapping in the context of marketing campaigns. 
• Experience working with performance marketing teams, including designing for A/B tests and data-driven creative development. 
• Ability to make design decisions while reaching agreement with multiple parties. 
• Ability to work on multiple projects and execute all with high standards.

Preferred:

• Bachelor’s degree in graphic design or a related field. 
• Experience successfully leading or designing packaging projects. 
• Experience successfully leading video/motion design projects. 
• Experience with environmental design. 
• Previous experience in the QSR industry. 
• A love of coffee is helpful, but not necessary .