Creative Director

We are not about throwing a red W on a white background or settling for the same old campus image. Here, we expect much more. You will be working on multiple brands across a wide-range of programs all with a singular mission — advancing UW-Madison as one of the world’s greatest universities.

Get ready to lead. As our Creative Director, you’ll collaborate with your team and others to concept big ideas and develop them into powerful design and visual story telling. You will be the one that directs our identity and leads a talented team to make that happen.

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association (WFAA)*, the private fundraising and alumni relations organization for UW-Madison, is seeking an experienced professional to join our Marketing Division. As Creative Director, you will serve as a key member of the Marketing Leadership Team and report to the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Leads a team of graphic designers, print-production professionals and video talent. Manages design and quality of WFAA visual identities and sub-brands. Supervises and manages staff engaged in all aspects of print, digital and video as related to visual identity. Serves as the lead creative on strategic projects.

Primary responsibilities will include:

Lead creative, print-production and video teams

• Inspire team to perform at their highest level
• Represent the brand in strategic projects and is an important member of the Marketing Leadership Team
• Assign design and production work to appropriate team members
• Provide timely feedback on work performance and coach on improvement opportunities
• Identify career path, professional development and growth opportunities for team members
• Hold team accountable to performance expectations
• Identify, hire and manage external freelance creative as needed
• Manage departmental budgets

Conceive, design, and create artistic, graphic design, campaign and other visual elements for application in touch points across multiple platforms.

• Develop visual concepts and elements for print, digital, out of home and other mediums
• Develop and provide imagery and other visual elements that enhance and amplifies message impact
• Create visually compelling communications that meet the objective of marketing brief and engages the audience
• Establish creative templates and other tools to increase efficiency and ensure adherence to brand standards
• Direct photo and video shoots to support creative and campaign requirements
• Maintain photo library and other archival assets used in the creative process

Develop and maintain brand standards

• Design and develop WFAA, UWF, and WAA graphic and visual identity standards to reinforce and strengthen the brand
• Design and ensure brand integrity of UW-Madison graphic and visual identity standards to reinforce and strengthen the brand
• Direct design staff in proper use and understanding of visual identity; ensure proper usage of logos, corporate color palette and imagery
• Review all departmental outputs to ensure visual and brand objectives are met and provide feedback to appropriate staff
• Maintain and ensure brand consistency across multiple platforms, projects and campaigns

Ensure quality in execution of design and production of materials

• Lead production team to deliver on-brand, quality outputs
• Direct production staff in proper use and understanding of visual identity and provide production solutions to meet project/campaign needs
• Identify and utilize external print and production resources as needed
• Ensure accurate use of variable data in design

The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer

*The Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association is the “doing business as” name of the merged organization comprising the University of Wisconsin Foundation (www.supportuw.org) and the Wisconsin Alumni Association (www.uwalumni.com), whose legal corporate name is registered as the University of Wisconsin Foundation.

Here's a short list of what we're looking for in our next Managing Director of Creative:

1. Leadership skills that inspire and influence your team and the organization
2. Incredible design aesthetic and robust samples of smart conceptually-led integrated campaign work
3. Stellar organizational skills to help manage projects
4. Ability to concept across traditional and nontraditional channels (digital, social, experiential, environmental, etc)
5. Commanding presentation skills to show your work and gain buy in
6. Hunger for what’s next and new in mediums, channels, and design
7. Great attitude | How we get the work done is as important as the work we do; positivity and can-do attitude required

This is a full time, exempt position reporting to the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. We offer a competitive salary and an excellent benefit program.