Senior Art Director

This position is a part of the Association of the Academic Staff of the University of Alberta (AASUA).

In accordance with the Administrative and Professional Officer Agreement , this full-time continuing position offers a comprehensive benefits package found on our Benefits Overview page and annual salary range of  $67,095 - $111,831.

Location

Work primarily takes place at Enterprise Square .

Working for the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is teeming with change makers, community builders, and world 

shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to more than 40,000 students in 200+ undergraduate and 500+ graduate programs, over 13,000 faculty and staff, 260,000 alumni worldwide and have been recognized as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for over a decade.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross section of people—from our students and stakeholders, to our renowned researchers and innovators who are quite literally curing diseases, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger, and more just.

Position Summary

The University of Alberta is teeming with change makers, community builders, and world shapers. Here’s a chance to help tell our stories across the globe.

As the Senior Art Director, you will partner with copywriters and other designers to create memorable, effective, on-brand creative that breaks through and delivers. With an eye for detail and a brain for big ideas, you will lead other designers and work on a range of projects across all media, digital and traditional. With your 7+ years of agency or related marketing experience, you have the ability to analyze a creative brief, ask the right questions, and understand how to integrate design with strategy. You obsess about all the expected things—typography, grids, the battle for whitespace—but you also know that a brand is not merely a logo. You value quality, consistency, accessibility and relevance. And you instinctively know when to bend a rule or two for the sake of excellent creative.

Reporting to the Creative Director, you can expect to be part of a skilled creative department staffed with art directors, graphic designers, copywriters, videographers, motion designers and more. This is new at the U of A, so you should also expect a veritable whirlwind of learning, growing, creating, and supporting each other on our collective journey to “build the university of tomorrow.”

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross section of people—from our students and stakeholders, to our renowned researchers and innovators who are quite literally curing diseases, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger, and more just.

Help us shine a light on this immensely outstanding— yet largely unsung—Top 5 research university.

Duties

• Create and deliver traditional and digital design that is high-quality and on-brand for the audience
• Collaborate and ideate with copywriters and other members of the creative department to come up with exceptional creative solutions to business problems and opportunities
• Present those solutions to clients with solid rationale, take feedback
• Able to work from concept to completion across all mediums and exceptionally skilled in the areas of typography, colour theory, structure and space
• Direct graphic designers in their efforts to execute on your initial ideas and guide them through execution when needed
• Mentor and oversee the day-to-day activities of graphic designers and production artists
• Have the ability to comprehend, and apply, audience and competitor data to creative solutioning
• Seek out research and information needed to better understand and action on creative briefs
• Participate in video production with or without the Creative Director
• Provide design feedback and guidance to clients and other designers that helps elevate our brand look and feel while maintaining meaningful consistency
• Participate, when needed, in sessions to teach others how to design in the U of A style
• Responsible for maintaining a high design aesthetic representative of a top 5 research institution in Canada, and ensuring others on the team are working to that standard.
• QC (in conjunction with the CD) of others’ design
• Help source, evaluate and direct external vendors as needed (including photographers, illustrators, videographers, and freelance designers)
• Use excellent communication skills working with the project team to ensure the goals outlined in the creative brief are met.
• Understand and respect the subtleties and sensitivities of marketing and communications in complex and decentralized organizations.
• Take responsibility and be held accountable for design aspects of project work.
• Participate in appropriate committee meetings and task forces.
• Monitor design and creative projects through Workfront (our job management system) from initial assignment to completion.
• Maintain working files on shared drives.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of marketing and advertising design experience (preferably at an agency) with a thoughtful portfolio of creative and engaging work that demonstrates your ability.
• MFA, BA, Bdes or other education and/or equivalent experience relevant to the role is required.
• Experience in working within creative team pairings such as art director with copywriter.
• Previous experience overseeing graphic designers/production artists, and directing vendors.
• End-to-end working knowledge of the print process
• Fluent in Adobe CC, Google Worksuite.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the Agile method preferred but not required
• Video production experience preferred
• Motion design experience, or willingness to be trained, considered an asset
• Accessibility knowledge/training considered an asset

Application Instructions

In addition to your cover letter and resume, please upload a copy of your portfolio, or a link to view your porfolio in a separate document. Please upload it using the "other" tab when applying.

Note: Online applications are accepted until midnight Mountain Standard Time of the closing date.