Creative Director

The Creative Director at Brailsford & Dunlavey (B&D) owns and advances the firm’s visual expression, setting creative direction and defining creative excellence across the organization. This is a hands-on role focused on strengthening brand quality and consistency through brand systems, standards, tools, and repeatable creative practices. Role Overview In this position, you will guide how B&D presents its brand across external and internal channels. You will partner with marketing to bring the new brand identity to life, set direction for major brand and business development initiatives, and personally concept, design, and produce high-priority work across a wide range of formats. The role also includes translating complex information into clear visual communications and evolving the creative function as the firm grows. Key Responsibilities Own and advance the visual expression of the B&D brand across external and internal channels, ensuring a distinctive and cohesive brand experience. Partner with the marketing team to bring the new brand identity to life across the organization. Set creative direction for major brand, marketing, communications, and business development initiatives, connecting design decisions to firm strategy, audience needs, and business objectives. Serve as a trusted creative advisor by articulating the rationale behind design recommendations, building alignment among stakeholders, and elevating expectations for creative quality. Concept, design, and produce high-priority work across digital, print, presentation, proposal, publication, event, social media, recruiting, and internal communications channels. Develop sophisticated presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint using advanced features, multimedia, and other capabilities to strengthen storytelling and engagement. Elevate proposals, qualifications, interview presentations, and business development materials to communicate complex ideas clearly and help B&D compete effectively. Transform complex ideas, research, data, and business information into clear, accurate, and compelling visual communications. Develop, produce, and edit multimedia and video content, directing external specialists when additional expertise is needed. Strategically incorporate AI and emerging creative technologies into concept development, design, and production workflows where they improve quality or efficiency. Manage projects from concept through delivery while balancing creative ambition with deadlines, budgets, production requirements, and stakeholder needs. Establish and maintain brand standards, creative guidelines, templates, and scalable design systems for consistent execution across a national firm. Create practical tools, processes, and training so employees can apply the brand correctly while protecting its integrity. Develop and manage a flexible ecosystem of brand assets, including typography, imagery, iconography, data visualization, presentation, document, multimedia, and digital standards. Build a responsive creative operating model covering intake, prioritization, resourcing, review, production, and quality control. Balance competing priorities to determine where bespoke creative investment has the greatest impact versus where repeatable systems, templates, or automation are a better solution. Help establish practical guidelines for responsible use of AI-assisted creative tools. Collaborate across Brand & Communications, Industry & Practice Group Marketing, and Business Development Enablement to maintain consistent visual experience while meeting different audience and channel needs. Select, brief, and direct freelance designers, photographers, videographers, animators, and other specialists as needed. Contribute to future acquisition integration by evaluating existing brand assets and supporting migration into the B&D brand system. Help evolve the creative function as B&D grows by identifying opportunities to improve processes, capabilities, and ways of working. Requirements Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, visual communication, or a related field. 10+ years of experience in brand design, graphic design, or creative direction, including significant hands-on design responsibility. Exceptional command of design fundamentals, including typography, composition, hierarchy, color, imagery, and information design. Strong experience translating complex ideas, data, and information into compelling visual communications. Experience managing creative work from concept through production and directing external creative partners. Experience translating a new or refreshed brand identity into scalable systems, tools, and applications across an organization is preferred. Experience in professional services, architecture, engineering, construction, real estate, consulting, or another complex B2B environment is preferred. Advanced proficiency with Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft PowerPoint . Strong technical curiosity and willingness to explore AI, automation, multimedia, and emerging creative technologies. Portfolio demonstrating exceptional design judgment, sophisticated brand thinking, strong concept development, and high-quality execution across a range of channels and formats. Experience with information design or data visualization that makes complex material clear and compelling is preferred. Technologies Microsoft PowerPoint Adobe Creative Cloud AI automation multimedia data visualization Location and Compensation Location: Chicago, IL (hybrid). Compensation: USD 140,000 - 170,000 per yearly. Benefits Comprehensive benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement benefits, professional development support, paid time off, and more. #J-18808-Ljbffr Brailsford and Dunlavey