Temporary/On Call Photo Art Director

Location: Portland, Oregon

This position is paid on a monthly basis. 

Position Summary:

The Photo Art Director is responsible for leading the creative direction for production team members to formulate and execute creative strategies for large retail clients. The Photo Art Director will partner with the Creative Director and clients to strategize, conceptualize, design, and direct creative solutions for a wide-range of projects including seasonal PDP imagery, digital and social promotional as well as campaigns. This position will utilize a mix of artistic, marketing, and business expertise enhance our business offering and providing added value to our clients.

The Photo Art Director is responsible for directing production team members in the execution for their clients and leading the work from original brief and style guide creation to execution workflow through revisions and on to delivery with minimal oversight. This position will oversee creative quality and adherence to style guides by making selects on final images, creating post-production notes, and reviewing imagery and video after final postproduction work and before delivery.

The Photo Art Director is well versed in current e-commerce visual trends and comfortable being in front of senior clients, leading client meetings, directing the creative teams, ensuring they are motivated and working at their highest ability. And when it comes to collaborating with Straub Collaborative many departments and production partners, it means communicating clearly and decisively, in a way that best maintains and builds on the agency's excellent creative reputation.

Key Functions: 

• Establish creative department standards for production, productivity, quality, and client service
• Ensure team adheres to style guides and established processes, identifying opportunities for continuous improvement, and proposing and creating processes and tools to support design operations
• Collaborate with internal and external marketing and sales divisions in creating marketing plans, aligning team priorities with business objectives to deliver high-quality work on time and on budget
• Develop presentation approaches, styles, and techniques for the team to implement
• Analyze market trends in retail and ecommerce, consumer need, and the competitive landscape, and track campaign performance

Position Duties: 

• Collaborates with Creative Director, clients and key stakeholders to formulate creative strategies, producing art layouts & concepts, creating style guides and creative execution strategies to product outstanding creative content.
• Meets client and industry standards by following production, productivity, quality, and customer service standards.
• Works with operations staff to produce creative that achieves operational efficiencies while producing top-quality work.
• Partners with cross-departmental leadership to resolve operational roadblocks.
• Identifies work process improvements.
• Meets company and project standards by monitoring expenses and implementing cost-saving actions.
• Formulates visual concepts by supervising staff engaged in executing photography and video content to be presented by visual communications media.
• Keeps customers informed by reviewing illustrative material for presentation.
• Reviews project production factors by studying budget, background information, objectives, presentation approaches, styles, and techniques.
• Selects and secures illustrative material by formulating basic layout design concepts and conducting research.
• Obtains client approval by presenting final presentations, storyboards, and illustrations; and responds to client commentary and requests.
• Improves quality results by studying, evaluating, and re-designing processes.
• Updates job knowledge by participating in educational opportunities, reading professional publications, and participating in professional organizations.
• Take full ownership of a project; have a creative vision that is clearly communicated and executed
• Oversee multiple pieces of business at once, effectively managing time and delegating work
• Manage productions with minor check-ins and reviews from senior leaders
• Build client relationships with a deep understanding of clients, their business needs, and our role in their success. Establish full client trust in their instincts and decisions.
  

Knowledge and Exprience:

• Bachelor's degree in Fine Art, Graphic Design, Video or Photography Production or equivalent education and experience in Photography or Video content production
• Deep knowledge in Photography and Video capture technologies as well as studio lighting and various post-production and color augmentation programs.
• 8-10 years of experience in visual concepts and strategies for retail with 5+ years of experience in a management role
• Proficiency with design software, such as Adobe Creative Suite, Power Point or Keynote.
• Exceptional visual presentation skills with ability to tell a story to convey a feeling through pictures and video.
• Highly skilled with leading a team of creative talent
• Strong creative vision with an understanding of business objectives

Skills and Abilities:  

• Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously while ensuring seamless execution through stellar organizational and time management skills.
• Strong attention to details with ability to focus on a repetitive task and consistently accurate entry of data.
• Solves non-routine problems in collaboration with his or her manager; takes initiative to modify procedures and processes as appropriate and makes contributions that impact work team results.
• Demonstrated planning skills and the ability to prioritize using information around due dates, clients, internal resource skill sets and when to escalate for assistance and awareness.
• Ability to work both independently and within a changing team.
• Ability to handle frequent interruptions and adapt to changes in workload and work schedules.
• Is respectful and courteous when interacting with others, a calm and collaborative demeanor is expected when working through conflict.
•  Proficient skill in Microsoft Office software programs, specifically, Word, Excel and Power point.
• Must have proficient basic math skills and ability to read, write, and speak English.

Physical Requirements:

The physical requirements described here are representative of those that must be met by this position. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Repetitive use of hands and fingers (i.e. keyboarding, data entry, sample tagging).
• Must be able to see and hear to gather and input information; respond to face-to-face and telephone inquiries.
• Ability to walk throughout a warehouse floor following our internal safety guidelines.
  

Culture/EEO Statement: 

Straub Collaborative embraces diversity in a profound way and believes in the power of a shared table to bring people together as we are committed to building a culturally inclusive team. We see diversity and inclusion as central to our organization. This means that we stand up against discrimination and harassment wherever we operate.

Straub Collaborative is committed to providing equal employment opportunity (EEO) and equal pay to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law.

Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the US. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment Visa at this time.

The above declarations are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of the duties and responsibilities of the job described, nor are they intended to be such a listing of the skills and abilities required to do the job. Rather, they are intended only to describe the general nature of the job and may be changed as deemed necessary by the company.