Director of Graphic Design (Lifestyle & Multi‑Category Creative)
New York City, NY (On-site)
Posted 4 weeks ago
Job Description
Director of Graphic Design (Lifestyle & Multi‑Category Creative)
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Workplace: Onsite/ 5 days a week
Salary: $150K - $175K
About the Company
A New York–based, globally recognized lifestyle brand operating at the intersection of fashion, culture, and experiential retail is seeking a Director of Graphic Design to lead its multi‑category design team. The company has expanded significantly over the last decade, building a world-class creative engine that spans apparel, collaborations, retail environments, experiential activations, and digital storytelling. The brand is known for its premium materials, high-impact seasonal campaigns, and culturally fluent point of view.
This role sits within the brand’s central creative organization and partners closely with senior leadership to shape the next chapter of its visual identity.
The Director of Graphic Design will serve as the creative leadership spine of the design team — responsible for taste, systems, direction, and execution across all brand touchpoints. You will manage a team of five designers and bring clarity, mentorship, and elevated creative standards to a fast-moving, founder-led environment.
This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who can operate across fashion, lifestyle, experiential, and digital, and who thrives in high-volume, culturally driven creative ecosystems.
What You'll Do
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of five designers, including Senior, Mid-Level, Motion, Environmental/Experiential, and Associate-level talent.
- Own and evolve the brand’s visual identity across campaigns, collaborations, retail, experiential, packaging, motion, and digital.
- Create campaign systems that scale across digital, social, retail, OOH, experiential, and large-format environments.
- Partner closely with senior creative leadership to translate founder-led direction into refined, executable design solutions.
- Elevate design quality through strong taste, typography, layout, composition, and storytelling.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Visuals, Studio Ops, Marketing Strategy, Events, Partnerships, Merchandising, and Operations.
- Work with a Creative Operations partner to ensure visibility, timelines, approvals, and workflow clarity.
- Oversee production-ready design for digital, print, packaging, retail signage, event branding, and environmental graphics.
- Art direct motion graphics, animation, and AI-assisted creative workflows to expand the brand’s capabilities.
- Lead creative for major collaborations, cultural partnerships, experiential activations, and retail initiatives.
- Partner with photographers, producers, animators, fabricators, and external agencies to execute high-impact creative.
- Maintain excellence under fast-paced timelines, shifting priorities, and founder-led pivots.
What You Bring
- 8–10+ years in graphic design, brand design, or art direction within fashion, lifestyle, luxury, or culturally driven brands.
- 3–5+ years managing graphic designers or leading creative teams.
- A portfolio demonstrating taste, typography, campaign systems, brand identity, and integrated storytelling.
- Expertise across digital, social, print, retail, experiential, packaging, and motion.
- Strong production knowledge and experience directing photography, motion, and creative production.
- Advanced Adobe Creative Cloud; familiarity with motion tools and AI-assisted workflows.
- Ability to operate in a fast-paced, founder-led environment with shifting priorities.
- A seasoned creative leader who provides clarity, consistency, and a stabilizing presence across the design team.
Who You Are
- A senior creative leader with strong taste and the ability to elevate everything you touch.
- A mentor who builds designers up and strengthens a high-volume creative engine.
- A systems thinker who brings structure without disrupting creative flow.
- Someone who thrives in founder-led creative cultures and understands how to translate vision into execution.
- A leadership presence who reinforces alignment, communication, and continuity across teams.
To Apply
Please include an active portfolio link in your resume. If password‑protected, kindly provide the password so your work can be reviewed without delay.
KMKnyc is a bespoke global consulting firm founded by Karen Mercado‐Kempter, specializing in executive search, organizational design, DEI, and modern talent development strategies. Karen brings more than two decades of senior leadership experience across iconic global brands, where she built and led high‐impact talent acquisition, HR, and employer branding functions.Her background includes serving as Vice President of Talent Acquisition, Early Career & Emerging Talent, and Global Employer Branding for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger at PVH, as well as Senior Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Sotheby’s. She previously spent over a decade at Calvin Klein in progressive HR and Talent Acquisition leadership roles, following earlier HR positions at ZenithOptimedia, Saks Fifth Avenue, Rapp Collins Worldwide, Macy’s, and Sears.Karen is also deeply committed to supporting early‐career professionals and individuals transitioning into the fashion industry. She partners with accredited universities and business schools as a mentor and subject‐matter expert, offering real‐talk guidance, unfiltered industry insight, and practical pathways into early‐career and transitional roles based on individual skill sets.Today, KMKnyc partners with clients across fashion, retail, beauty, architecture, media, private equity, and early‐stage venture capital to deliver thoughtful, high‐touch talent solutions. A native New Yorker and Fordham graduate, Karen brings a modern, people‐first approach to every engagement.
Salaries
Posted range
$150K/yr – $175K/yr
Taken straight from the job posting.
Links
This role is listed on SalaryGuide for informational purposes. SalaryGuide is not the employer, recruitment agency, or hiring representative for this position. Hiring decisions and the application process are managed by the employer. SalaryGuide will never ask candidates to pay to apply for a job or request bank details or identification documents as part of an application.
Director of Graphic Design (Lifestyle & Multi‑Category Creative)
KMKnyc · New York City, NY · On-site
