We're looking for an Art Director at CHOW to drive end-to-end creative vision across campaigns, social-first content, and branding, while actively mentoring Creatives and participating in hands-on production as needed. Beyond F&B and Hospitality, you'll work across a multi-industry client portfolio spanning lifestyle, retail, and more. You'll translate strategy into compelling visuals, direct shoots, guide editing workflows, mentor Creatives, and ensure every asset meets (or exceeds) expectations in craft, storytelling, and strategic impact.
Key Responsibilities:
Creative Leadership & Hands-on Direction
- Set and communicate the visual direction for campaigns, content, and branded assets across digital, social, and video platforms, ensuring alignment with brand identity and brand/content strategy.
- Lead concept development from brand strategy through to execution (storyboards, brand systems and campaign frameworks) that are both creatively ambitious and production-ready; and hands-on participation across pre- to post-.
- Mentor and guide Designers and Creatives, providing actionable feedback, skill development, and problem-solving support.
Production Partnership & Execution
- Experiment with formats, trends, and emerging platforms to introduce new approaches for social-first, short-form, and long-form content that is relevant across multi-industry portfolios, particularly in the F&B and Hospitality Sectors.
- Collaborate closely with Production Managers and Producers to plan shoots, allocate resources, and balance creative ambition with timelines and budgets.
- Direct on-set shoots, providing real-time guidance on framing, styling, lighting, motion, pacing, and performance to ensure assets reflect the intended vision.
- Oversee post-production workflows—editing, visual/audio treatment, and delivery—while stepping in hands-on as needed.
Quality & Craft Oversight
- Act as the creative quality gatekeeper, ensuring all content and branding work meets brand standards, client and campaign objectives, and agency benchmarks.
- Balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution, ensuring work is both conceptually strong and practically effective.
- Apply knowledge and demonstrate expertise in photography, videography, motion graphics, design, and social content formats to maintain a consistently high standard across all outputs.
Collaboration & Communication
- Present and defend creative work to internal teams and clients, articulating ideas with clarity and conviction.
- Align with cross-functional teams (Accounts, Strategy, Production, Branding & Design) to ensure creative vision is understood and executed effectively.
- Facilitate smooth project flows, keeping communication clear on timelines, dependencies, and expectations.
- Contribute to internal process improvements to strengthen the link between creative vision, delivery and new technology adoption.
Experience Criteria:
- 6–8 years of experience in creative/design/production roles, with at least 2–3 years in an Art Director or senior creative leadership position.
- Strong portfolio showcasing branding work (identity systems, packaging, brand refreshes), alongside social-first campaigns, ideally in F&B and hospitality, with examples across photography, video, and digital content.
- Demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, and collaborating with creatives while still actively contributing to content production.
- Deep understanding of social platforms, digital trends, and audience engagement for short-form and long-form content.
- Hands-on proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, After Effects).
- Confident presenter and communicator, comfortable working with clients and internal teams.
- Solutions-oriented, collaborative, and able to thrive in a fast-paced, evolving agency environment.
- Familiarity with AI design and content tools to accelerate conceptualisation and workflows is a plus!
