Creative Director

Creative Director

The Creative Director is a creative leadership role responsible for how Pfeffer Torode's work is seen, understood, and remembered. The Principals hold the firm's creative vision; the Creative Director provides the leadership, execution, and stewardship that carry that vision into the world — through brand, imagery, storytelling, publication, and the standards by which PTA presents itself. This role is both executor and creative partner. The Principals sets the larger direction; the Creative Director develops ideas against it, challenges and refines them, and sees them through to a finished, considered result. The expectation is not only to direct the work but to make it — this is a hands-on role with genuine craft in layout, image, and language. Roughly two-thirds of the role is firm-level: brand, photography, publications, awards, website and social direction, and the presentation standards that govern how every PTA document looks. The remainder is project-level. On a small number of high-profile projects, the Creative Director embeds with the design team, shaping the project's thesis so that the story of the work is built while the work is being built, rather than assembled after the fact. Project-embedded work represents approximately 25–35% of the role and is billable to projects. Reports to: Ginny Au, Principal, with a direct working relationship with the Managing Director and Principals. Direct report: Creative Lead. Works closely with Operations, Business Development, and third party marketing. Location: Birmingham Studio with regular travel to our Nashville Studio.

Responsibilities

• Hold and extend PTA's visual and verbal identity so that every touchpoint — brand, website, social, publications, presentations, collateral, events — reads as one firm with one point of view
• Translate the creative direction into concepts, narratives, and finished pieces, bringing ideas forward rather than waiting for assignment
• Challenge and refine direction where doing so strengthens the result, and defend the reasoning behind creative decisions
• Establish and maintain firmwide presentation standards — templates, typography, image treatment, document craft — so that any document leaving PTA meets the same bar
• Personally produce high-craft layouts, presentations, and visual storytelling in Figma, InDesign and Photoshop
• Review and approve external presentations, messaging, imagery, and collateral before they leave the firm
• Oversee the photography program end to end: contribute to which projects are photographed and when, work with the Creative Lead on shot lists, art direction on site, and make final selects with the Principal
• Refine the designer thesis of each project — the argument the work is making — and carry it consistently into decks, publications, web, and social
• Cultivate editorial relationships and pitch projects for publication; manage print publication processes end to end
• Own the awards and competitions calendar: select what to enter, write the narratives, package the imagery, and manage submissions through to result
• Set social strategy and provide art direction across channels; the Creative Lead and marketing support carry communications, coordination, scheduling, and posting
• Direct website content, imagery, and structure, keeping the site current with work
• Review web and social analytic reports, using what they show to adjust strategy rather than merely to report it
• Support business development with pitch materials, RFP's, and capability collateral that make PTA's argument clearly and beautifully
• Shape PTA's presence at events and within the industry — among peers, vendors, editors, and press
• Steward employer brand: how PTA presents itself to the people it hopes to hire
• Serve as embedded creative director on a small number of high-profile projects, under the design direction of the Principals
• Participate from concept, contributing to concept development, project narrative, and the visual argument of the work
• Direct project presentation materials so that client-facing work reflects PTA's standard of craft
• Plan the eventual story of the project early — imagery, publication potential, awards path — while the project is still in design
• Coordinate with project teams, Principals, clients, and consultants with composure and clarity
• Lead and develop the Creative Lead, setting standards, giving clear briefs, and providing useful, specific feedback
• Direct the efforts of operations, business development, and marketing colleagues who join creative work as needed
• Manage creative budgets and timelines, and report progress at major stages of conception, creation, and execution
• Protect the internal creative process — nurture it, hold it to standard, and keep it from being flattened by deadline pressure
• Travel regularly between the Birmingham and Nashville studios

Qualifications

• 10+ years of professional experience in architecture, interiors, graphic/brand design, creative direction, or a related design discipline, including 3–5+ years of progressively responsible creative leadership
• Portfolio demonstrating exceptional layout, typographic, and image craft; visual storytelling with a clear point of view; and work that was personally made, not only overseen
• Demonstrated ability to produce finished work at a high level of craft — this role makes as well as directs
• Experience directing photography: shot planning, photographer selection, art direction on site, and image editing (styling support is available; this role directs rather than styles)
• Experience with publications, press relationships, or awards submissions strongly preferred
• Core proficiency: Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Acrobat
• Working proficiency: Figma, social platforms, website CMS (Squarespace or WordPress), and Microsoft Office
• Architecture and interiors literacy — able to read drawings, sit in a design review, and speak credibly with designers about their work
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to write in the firm's voice
• Ability to handle sensitive project, business, and personal information with discretion

Disposition

• A discerning eye — knows what is good, and can say why
• Conceptual: works outward from an idea rather than assembling from parts
• A storyteller who can find and articulate the argument of a project in words as well as images
• Strategic: thinks in terms of positioning, audience, and where the firm should be in three years
• A confident presenter who can hold a room — clients, editors, the studio — without a Principal present
• Calm under pressure, steady through shoot days, deadlines, and competing demands
• Resourceful, with the judgment to move work forward inside real constraints

Compensation

This is a full-time position; salary will be commensurate with experience and skill level.

Benefits

• Employer provided healthcare (vision and dental included)
• Paid Time Off (20 days starting + 9 holidays)
• 4% 401K matching with immediate vesting (after 1 year of employment)
• $200 monthly technology stipend
• Professional Development opportunities

Submission Requirements

• One PDF including cover letter, resume, and portfolio.
• The portfolio should show work you personally made — layout, art direction, brand systems, publications, campaigns, photography direction — with a brief note on your role in each piece.
• Include at least one sample of writing: a project narrative, an award submission, a press pitch, or an essay.
• File should be saved as: yourname_pta_creativedirector
• File size should not exceed 15MB. Links to motion, web, or social work may be embedded in the PDF.
• Submit to View email address on click.appcast.io with the subject heading "Creative Director — Birmingham".
• No phone inquiries please.