The posting
Our Opportunity
GPJ is hiring an Art Director to join our growing team.
This role is hybrid, requiring you to report on-site to our Boston office location a minimum of 2 days per week.
Your Role
The role of the Art Director is to lead in strategically founded creative ideation and distill it into a unique and innovative experience design approach that is clearly communicated to internal and external teams.
As an Art Director, I excel in story-telling through words and visuals as I work to shape the attendee experience, contributing to every touch point. In my role, I work closely with our Creative Director and other team members to come up with unique ideas and experiences that meet client objectives and solve challenges. I am a leader within the creative team and often coach and mentor other creatives. Travel will also be part of the job, with an estimated 3-5 trips per year, both domestically and internationally, often to attend shows and events.
In this role, I will:
- Be an agency leader in translating the clients brand into a thoughtful, compelling and interactive experience.
- Lead the creative team in new thinking and techniques and set the highest standard for all designers to follow.
- Collaborate with creative leadership to create high-quality, strategic presentations that exceed client expectations through copywriting, sketches, renders, mock-ups, and presentations
- Produce and inspire inventive, thoughtful, on-brand work.
- Produce print ready graphic files
- Excel at managing workload and meeting tight deadlines
- Participate in planning and strategy sessions
- Comfortable leading the graphic design team on assigned projects, overseeing designers’ work and ensuring execution is consistent and of the highest quality
- Work closely with Creative Directors to execute on strategic design solutions
- Approach design with thoughtfulness and understanding of how it impacts the larger business, bringing to life multiple concepts and solutions to meet client objectives
- Present creative ideas to clients, developing client relationships
- Collaborate with graphics production and creative tech to solve design and budgetary challenges while maintaining design and brand integrity
Your Skills
- Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite and Google Suite
- Passion for learning new software and tracking emerging trends such as AI-based software (Firefly, Gemini, etc.)
- Ensure deadlines are being adhered to for each state in the process
- Communicate all changes to other team members in a timely and articulate manner
- Lead the development of new ideas and creative design solutions across multiple brands and initiatives
- Demonstrate excellent taste, astute design skills and an incredible eye for detail
- Conceptualize unique experiences that exceed client expectations
- Mentor creative account team members so well that they can one day take your job; identify areas of growth and help them establish their career paths.
- Oversee account-based creative teams, while partnering closely with creative leadership and fostering positive relationships with account and productions teams
- Supervises design team on projects, assists CPM in overall management of projects
- Understand the creative team’s bandwidth and recommends when we need additional resources
- Provide clear art direction at initiation, and follows through by coaching creative team members (as well as account teams), while monitoring and guiding their efforts, and investing in successful results
- Knows how to adjust direction and feedback based on the project and designer needs
- Inspire clients and creative partners with mind-blowing concepts, approaches, and presentations
- Inspire creativity, innovative thinking, and focused effort in the development of strong concepts and solutions
- Create sketches, mood boards, layouts, 2D and 3D renders, deck design/ templates, presentation/content structure and POS materials
- Inspire creativity, innovative thinking, and focused effort in the development of strong concepts and solutions
- Create a thoughtful and engaging guest journey for all projects
- Adjust work when necessary to maintain the strategic integrity within any client restrictions
- Deliver ideas and themes based on sound strategic rationales and a deep understanding of branding
- Adeptly contribute to and oversees the concept, design and development of pitch presentations and concepts for new business and existing clients
- Advocate for brand and identity standards, and extracts their equity to maximum effect – understands when to adhere closely to them and when to advise more creative approached
- Convey by example the mechanics and attributes of team strategy and accountability
- Jump in and is hands on, doing what needs to be done
- Excel in presenting work in a clear and inspiring manner to both internal and external partners
- Offer versatile communication and problem-solving skills, and is equally comfortable with words and visuals
- Work directly with the Production teams to vet ideas and understand what’s feasible within budgets
- Expert comprehension of graphic production
- Works collaboratively with the graphic production department to ensure all graphics are high quality and files are set up for success
- Comprehensive understanding of budgets and budgetary limitations
- Expert comprehension of graphic production
- Works collaboratively with the graphic production department to ensure all graphics are high quality and files are set up for success
- Comprehensive understanding of budgets and budgetary limitations
Your Competencies
Urgency - Decisive, responsive, and fast acting you achieve goals quickly both when working on your own and in collaboration with others. You demonstrate adaptability and agility when making on-the-spot decisions never sacrificing quality or work interactions. Cool under pressure. For the sake of time, you are able to eliminate unnecessary steps and use network resources to aid in project completion.
Communication - At all levels, you easily convey and sell your ideas, and can articulate an idea with brevity during a brainstorm or client presentation. You express yourself clearly when collaborating and presenting, maintaining a positive image for GPJ both internally and externally. You understand the value of a well-turned phrase and a well-told story.
Creative Innovation - You are an idea-driven creative: someone who thinks about the big picture. Drive, develop, or support new and improved creative methods, products, procedures or technologies. Propels innovation by implementing the latest interactive technology in your storytelling. Devise new approaches to make improvements or solve problems. You are an innovative storyteller who is constantly challenging themselves to come up with ideas that are on strategy, transformative, and authentic to the client’s brand.
Flexible - Easily move on to new tasks with little to no notice. Put personal preferences aside and switch to a different strategy, form of communication or other objective without panicking. Maintain composure when deadlines move up and priorities shift. Keeps an open mind.
Prioritization/Organization - Properly allocate time and resources so that jobs are completed within a defined timeframe; within budget and managing all resources (Full-time and freelance) as effectively as possible. Establishing a reasonable timeline for completion when no concrete date is given.
Your Experience
Experience & Education
- Associates degree in Advertising, Communication Design, or Visual Arts. Bachelor’s degree highly preferred or 6–8(+) years’ of related experience in agency setting.
- 3(+) years of design experience in an agency setting.
- 1-2 years of supervisory experience.
- Experience working on Macintosh operating platform, PC knowledge is a plus
- Thorough knowledge of the following software applications: Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office.
- Demonstrated complete understanding of the following: color theory and color relationships, typographic terms and specifications, print production processes and techniques and photographic processes.
Travel & Mobility
- Ability to travel 25%
- Ability to work irregular hours in addition to normal business hours, to include nights, weekends and holidays as needed
Your Impact
In your role, you will have influence and responsibility over:
- Project Launch & Resource Management
- Strategy & Creative
- Management, Delivery & Deployment
Salary Range
Salary is dependent on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) experience, skills, and location.
Who We Are
GPJ is the world leader in experiential marketing. Our 29 global offices are filled with fearless people dreaming up ideas that are transforming industries and bringing the most respected brands to life in powerfully, exciting ways. We are a part of the Project Worldwide family. An independent, employee-owned global network of complementary, wholly owned agencies.
You read that “employee-owned” part, right? You heard us correctly. You work hard, she works hard, we all work hard… we all succeed and reap the rewards. We have an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – providing our employees with an ownership interest. We thought you would want to know that. In fact, there is a lot more you would want to know about us, like our FTO policy (no more “accruing” time off), our employer matching 401(k) plan (no vesting period), and our low employee contribution healthcare option. But we are getting ahead of ourselves here, let’s talk about this exciting opportunity first and we can fill you in on our perks & benefits later.
GPJ is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), national origin, citizenship, disability, protected veteran status, or any other protected class. In addition to federal law requirements, GPJ complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. GPJ expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on any protected class.
