Senior Creative / Associate Design Director

This role exists because the studio has reached a decisive moment.

The work is strong. Demand is there. Financially, things are stable enough to think long term rather than project to project. What’s holding growth back isn’t ambition or ideas. It’s bandwidth.

Right now, too much sits with one person. Creative direction, craft, client relationships, commercial judgement, and delivery are all being carried centrally. That has worked to get the studio here, but it caps what comes next.

This hire changes that.

The role exists to become a second senior creative presence in the studio. Not a layer beneath the founder, and not a support role. A genuine creative partner who shares responsibility for concept, craft, client relationships, and delivery, helping the studio evolve from a founder-led operation into a sustainable design house.

You would operate as a second creative brain. Running projects and concepts independently, sparring on ideas, challenging thinking, and raising the bar across the work. You’d carry client relationships with confidence, make sound creative and commercial judgements, and help ensure standards are upheld without everything needing to funnel back through one person.

In the first few months, success looks like being fully embedded in the studio’s values and creative standard, contributing at a senior level, and building trust through judgement, taste, and craft.

By six months, you’re running work independently, sharing ownership of projects and clients, and reducing the need for central oversight.

By a year in, the studio operates with two senior creative leaders. Capacity has increased, reliance on freelancers has reduced, and the foundations are in place to hire and grow a wider team.

This role suits someone who enjoys ambiguity and responsibility. Someone motivated by building something properly rather than stepping into a ready-made structure. You need to be comfortable making decisions, sharing ownership, and thinking beyond your own output to the health and direction of the studio as a whole.

It won’t suit everyone.

If you need hierarchy, clear edges, or heavy process to function, this will feel uncomfortable.

If you’re only interested in executing work rather than shaping it, this isn’t the right level.

If ego, preciousness, or avoidance of commercial reality have followed you through your career, they will surface quickly here.

What makes the role genuinely attractive for the right person is the opportunity. This is a rare chance to help build a design house, not just work inside a studio. You’ll have real influence over creative direction, standards, culture, and future hires. It’s a long-term partnership role with meaningful autonomy, collaboration, and ambition.

This is not a stepping stone and not a title play. Hands-on creative involvement remains central. Craft stays first. Progression comes through trust, impact, and shared responsibility, not tenure or hierarchy.

If the idea of helping build something lasting feels motivating rather than daunting, it’s worth a conversation.