Art Director

Art Director: Jekyll + Hyde Labs Location: Northville, MI (On-Site Working Requirement) J+H is looking for a talented Art Director with traditional mass media experience to help us raise the floor for our National CPG and retail clients. If you’re looking for the single-task comfort of automotive advertising, or the stifling bureaucracy of a massive holding company, we aren’t the agency for you. Who Are You? You are a dynamic, integrated Mid-to-Senior Art Director with Ad agency experience. A “Conceptual Craftsman", who can lead or follow and switch between those roles seamlessly. Art for Commerce: The tortured artist act won’t fly here. If you aren’t interested in selling product, we aren’t a match. We’re in advertising and marketing to do one thing – help our clients succeed in their business. We have killer strategic chops that helps the creative do what it’s supposed to do—move product off the shelf. Mass Media is Your Playground: You know TV and how it gets made. Concepts, storyboards, shot lists, and presentation decks are your native tongue. You should have broad-reach, video-first experience. Hybrid Thinking: You understand the customer buying journey. You know that UX, heuristics, and paid social are necessary for support, but you live for the Big Idea— and you can take concept to execution with minimal oversight. No Solo Geniuses: You need to work well with others. We’re big on rubbing elbows and digging in the dirt together. However, you must be able to work alone when necessary and get stuff done. What You’ll Do Own the Visual Strategy Concept & Execute: Partner with other creatives to develop big ideas, visual systems, and executable blueprints for national CPG brands Pressure-Test: Kill the good ideas in favor of great ones. Ensure every design is in line with brand strategy. Art for art’s sake isn’t the goal here. Execute with Precision Drive Production: Move from a napkin sketch to a 30- or 60-second or even a 120 TV spot with total confidence and technical authority. Master the Craft: Maintain a meticulous eye for typography, composition, and the psychology of color (choosing a palette because it triggers a response, not because you like it). Goals over Tasks: Know the difference and problem solve to accomplish a goal, not JUST a checklist of tasks. Own the Room + the Future Lead with Rationale: Present work internally and to clients with a clear strategy. Defend the work while remaining open to feedback that improves the final product. Leverage AI: Treat Gemini, Flow, Claude, and other visual AI systems as high-speed collaborators to accelerate ideation and reduce manual grunt work. What Success Looks Like (Year One) The "Unstifled" Portfolio: You will finally produce the killer ideas you’ve always wanted to make but couldn't because of bureaucracy – and you’ll create a lot of them. Performance Impact: Your work doesn’t just look good; it moves the needle on CPA, ROAS, and retail velocity. Rule Mastery: You’ll know and champion our 27 Unbreakable Rules to ensure every design is engineered for success. Speed with Purpose: You deliver high-quality, error-free assets at the pace of a challenger agency. Experience Required Ad agency experience (and the grit that comes with it) The ability to work independently with direction from the CD, but collaboratively with the production team. (CPG experience is a massive plus). Technical Mastery: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) is your native language, and you are deep into emerging tech as a tool for bringing ideas to life. Video Mastery: A portfolio that proves you can handle Mass Media, video-first storytelling, and broad-reach campaigns – if you have the cutting room floor versions, we want to see that too – how you got to the end is as important as the polished project. AI Literacy: Active experience using AI tools to improve creative efficiency and visual exploration. Why Jekyll + Hyde Labs? Jekyll + Hyde Labs is an independent, tight-knit challenger-agency with deep roots in CPG mass media; you know, the fun stuff. And after 30 years of CPG brand success, we know what it takes to turn challenger-brands into category leaders. We literally wrote the book: 27 Unbreakable Rules: Build a $100M+ Brick-and-Mortar CPG Brand . We aren’t interested in incremental growth for our clients, we aren’t afraid to take chances, and we don’t shy away from ‘impossible’ goals. Our ambitious CPG clients come to us because we create mass impact and turn CPG Challengers into 100M+ Brands. We are a small, agile team where there is nowhere to hide and every contribution matters. If you are energized by responsibility, creativity, and the chance to operate at your highest level, we’d love to hear from you. Location + Application Details This is an in-office role based in the Metro Detroit area. Candidates must be local or willing to relocate. No recruiters or agencies, please. Must provide portfolio with resume. Agency Core Values Speed with Purpose Time is a tool that allows us to reduce noise, eliminate distractions, and focus only on the signals that drive growth. Be a Hero Today Look for moments to positively affect someone’s life. Ask yourself, “How can I be a hero to someone today?” then take action. Raise the Floor + Protect it Raising the floor is the goal; never going below it is the standard. That is how we grow. Relentless Transformation We are continually improving so that we can be better today than we were yesterday. Courage Over Comfort Courage builds the future. Comfort protects the present. Abundance Through Generosity We provide value to everyone we meet without the expectation of reciprocity. #J-18808-Ljbffr