The Creative Director leads GSE Live’s creative department, setting the vision and standard for all design and content output across our portfolio of sports and entertainment marketing clients. This is a senior leadership role responsible for guiding a team of 10–15 designers and creatives, championing the agency’s creative reputation, and playing a central role in winning and growing business. The ideal candidate is an accomplished creative leader who can move fluidly between high-level strategy and hands‑on execution—someone who inspires a team, elevates the work, and thrives in a fast‑paced, deadline‑driven environment. A successful candidate must embrace the GSE Live culture, balance multiple priorities across client and new‑business work, and lead with both creative excellence and business acumen.
Job Duties
- Lead, manage, and mentor a team of 10–15 designers and creatives while strategically growing the department’s capabilities, structure, and talent to meet evolving client and business needs.
- Build the future of GSE Live’s creative organization by identifying opportunities to expand capabilities, strengthen processes, recruit top talent, and elevate the agency’s creative offering.
- Set and uphold the creative vision and quality standard across all department output—brand campaigns, presentation design, digital and print collateral, experiential and environmental assets, and content.
- Play a major role in new business pitches, including shaping creative strategy, designing and directing response decks, and presenting the agency’s creative vision to prospective clients.
- Strategize and lead content and commercial production, including concept development, storyboarding, script writing, and overseeing production through final delivery.
- Recruit, hire, onboard, and develop creative talent; provide ongoing coaching, performance feedback, and career development to build bench strength across the team.
- Partner with account, project, strategy, and marketing leaders to ensure creative consistency, exceed client expectations, and deliver against brand objectives and strategy.
- Provide creative direction across multiple concurrent projects, balancing short‑and‑long‑term deadlines and allocating team resources effectively.
- Champion adherence to client brand standards and tone while continually pushing a fresh, best‑in‑class creative approach.
- Present creative concepts and rationale persuasively to internal stakeholders and clients, translating business goals into compelling visual and content solutions.
- Stay ahead of industry trends, emerging tools, and best practices, bringing new thinking that strengthens the agency’s competitive edge.
Job Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design, Digital Arts, Communications, or a related field, or equivalent years of experience.
- 8–10+ years of relevant creative experience, including demonstrated success leading and managing a creative team.
- Proven track record building, mentoring, and developing high‑performing design/creative teams.
- Significant experience contributing to new business pitches—developing creative strategy, designing winning response decks, and presenting to prospective clients.
- Demonstrated experience strategizing and leading content and commercial production, including storyboarding, script writing, and directing production.
- Expert command of design fundamentals—layout, typography, composition, and brand systems—with mastery of Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator; XD and/or After Effects a plus).
- Strong strategic and conceptual thinking, with the ability to translate client business goals into effective creative solutions.
- Excellent verbal and written communication and presentation skills, with confidence presenting to senior client stakeholders.
- Ability to balance multiple projects and priorities, multitask, and thrive in a fast‑paced, deadline‑driven environment.
- Experience in an agency environment required; experience in sports, entertainment, or experiential marketing strongly preferred.
- Dependable, detail‑oriented, and highly organized, with strong judgment and the ability to lead through ambiguity.