Design Director

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and experiences that capture the imagination, delivering impressive returns for our clients.

Creatives at AKQA apply artistry and craftsmanship to strategic insight to create and bring to life beautiful ideas that move the world. Skilled storytellers and conceptors, they work in a multidisciplinary environment to develop labours of love that delight customers and deliver results for clients.

As Design Director at AKQA you will inspire and lead a creative team, influencing changes in consumer behaviour through ideas, creativity, and brand design. You will make a difference in visual communications, brand design, advertising, and inspire the best global brands.

You will bring exceptional design thought to AKQA, delivering projects from brief to consumer in partnership with the Client, Strategy teams and Senior creative team leads.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• Deliver and inspire award-winning design work from your team, influencing change through ideas, creativity and design.
• Consistently deliver a number of successful solutions and high-quality work to clients on time.
• Immerse within the client’s business. Identify, understand and overcome commercial and internal challenges to inspire and deliver effective solutions that consider the holistic needs of the brand.
• Evolve the design thinking of the studio to industry leading standards.
• Set and communicate the overall design direction for projects, ensuring exceptionally high standards of visual aesthetics and innovation.
• Lead by example to consistently inspire creative colleagues to originate world-class, pioneering ideas that conceptualise world-class solutions.
• Generate useful, usable designs across all existing and emerging digital platforms.
• Continually develop practices and processes to inspire, innovate and harness new ways of thinking.
• Set creative direction and offer hands-on guidance throughout client team projects.
• Inspire clients with opportunities, growing partnerships organically through both ideas and successes.
• High level internal and external client and team satisfaction.
• High level of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Learn new skills and stay abreast of technical and digital design developments, and successfully apply them to work practices to help improve processes and procedures.
• Display a cohesive understanding and execute principles that make innovative and effective digital communications, interface design and interaction design.
• Select the most appropriate supplier for the required task. Successfully manage multiple suppliers, partners and clients to ensure outsourced projects are creatively delivered on time, within budget and to the highest standards.
• Ensure AKQA always obtains the most cost-effective solution.
• Oversee creation of award entries and case studies of key projects, ensuring they are distributed across the business to relevant people (e.g. client team, Business Development Director).
• Creatively lead new business pitches. Responsible for ideas and design work, and competently present pitches.
• Develop strategies to build a climate of trust, openness and respect; forges strong relationships to drive successful outcomes.
• Possess highly advanced writing skills to effectively present a point of view, using logic, fact and a compelling storyline via any medium.

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

• Fluent in English, both written and spoken. Arabic is a plus.
• Extensive experience working at an Associate Creative Director or Design Director level in a similar agency environment.
• Set and communicate the overall design direction for projects, ensuring high standards of visual aesthetics and innovative thinking.
• Demonstrated creative success in leading collaborative multi-functional teams, including project planning, to winning a number of industry recognised awards.
• Considerable experience of European and Global projects.
• Experience developing/leading client relationships.
• Proven track record generating new business.
• Exceptional information presentation (visual and written) experience.
• Experience in, and enthusiasm for, creating design work from brief to delivery and beyond.
• Experience in side-by-side collaboration teams from creative to experience.
• A strong track record in large-scale project planning, including accurate estimation of costs and timing, with limited overruns.
• Expert knowledge of design, branding, application, mobile and responsive design, using the latest design tools.

AKQA is an Equal Opportunities Employer, we believe that diversity is vital to AKQA’s ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Your race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.