Creative Director

Job Description

Creative Director (Art)

Virtue is looking for a Creative Director who loves to create brand fame at the intersection of advertising and entertainment. Your work should not only be culturally-relevant; what you do and make should BE culture itself. You should know what it takes to make a piece of work or a brand famous, newsworthy, and deserving of people's time and attention.

As a Creative Director, you'd be responsible for overseeing an ever-shifting 'portfolio' of ongoing creative work, new projects, and pitches. A core creative team will depend on you for guidance on the work itself. CD's at Virtue have a special role in that they are both player and coach. You'll need to get your hands dirty leading your group and projects.

In addition to the actual creative work, you would have direct reports (within and outside of your project focus) who will require managing in terms of 360 feedback, annual reviews, promotion and compensation conversations, etc. And beyond the people management piece, CD is responsible for contributing to the overall creative vision of the agency, participating in industry events, running awards submissions processes, and recruitment efforts.

Lastly, CD's must be ready to challenge the logical working processes in order to get to the best work.

What you'll need to do:
• Set the bar for creative excellence and brilliance at the start of every project, so the working team knows how high we're aiming.
• Work with strategy and client management to 'widen the doorway' for excellent work from the very beginning. It will be on you to challenge the ask, the brief, the insight.
• Provide creative direction for a number of projects simultaneously, making sure none of them backslide over the course of creative development.
• International experience is not required, but a plus.
• Be a sounding board and supportive creative leader for the team under your direction, while at the same time making sure they know the expectations of the work.
• Cultivate a culture of high-volume creativity. This means pushing your team to come up with lots and lots of ideas, knowing that most of them will either miss the mark strategically, creatively, or feasibly. From this process, beautiful gems can be unearthed.
• Guide team in developing creative presentations, run mega pitches, be magnificent in front of clients, handle shoots, all the usual stuff.
• Help your ECD build the broader creative vision for the agency.
• Jump in to teach more junior creatives whenever the opportunity arises. Your knowledge is invaluable to them.
• Make sure you and the creative department as a whole are aware of the work out there in the industry right now. Not just the bad stuff, but the 'good' stuff too.
• Play a role in talent recruitment, book reviews, interviews, etc.
• Work with the Business Development team to handle creds meetings, client engagement opportunities, etc.
• A creative mission, something to prove to yourself or the world
• An understanding of what it takes to persuade people, internally or externally, to get excellent work made
• Senior-level presentation skills
• An entrepreneurial attitude. Resourcefulness. No dependence on big budgets or stacked staffing for your projects.

What you'll need to bring with you:
• Solid experience in advertising and an academic background in Graphic Design, Visual Arts, or equivalent.
• Must have a minimum of 8 years of progressively responsible art direction experience with an established media publication, ad agency or technology company.
• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite, (including Acrobat, Bridge, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop), Google Suite, Keynote, and font editing software (e.g. FontLab or Glyph) required.
• Knowledge of color theory, print production process and techniques, and layout and grid principles required.
• Experience leading a team of designers and/or art directors.
• Ability to strike a balance between A) upholding standards of creative excellence, and B) allowing creative leads to have a level of autonomy on their projects.
• A history of producing fame-worthy work that has made headlines (in both trade and consumer press).
• Ability to assess and evaluate creative skills and capabilities among creative staff, from Senior level down to intern level.
• Ability to share direct and constructive criticism with creative staff in service of growth and to make tough decisions.
• Knowledge of how to work together, but also how to break through processes and redirect a project that's about to lose its creative integrity.
• Contemporary taste in design, copy, art direction, music, etc. All the magical stuff we work with to make our work.
• Interpersonal savvy; the ability to relate well to all kinds of people, build rapport, form constructive and effective relationships, utilize diplomacy and tact, and diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably

Who are we

Virtue is the creative agency both our of VICE. At Virtue, you get to work in a Global agency, where creativity and culture is key. This role is placed in the Western Europe region, consisting of office in Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris. You will be truly working borderlessly with colleagues and clients from all around the world, catering to an international market.

If you find this role interesting for you, please submit your application as soon as possible - we are also recruiting talent that is based outside of Austria.

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-g3v969-3-148-102-90-42 in your application.