Conceptual Creative Lead - Art Director (4m FTC)

Role:  Conceptual Creative Lead - Art Director

Location:  London, United Kingdom  

About the role: 

As Creative Lead (Art), you'll own the creative vision across all integrated campaigns for the client's Durex team — from conceiving compelling concepts and setting visual direction, to overseeing production, reviewing output, and presenting work to clients with strategic confidence. You'll lead and mentor the creative team, build strong client relationships, and bring a proactive, solutions-focused approach to every brief. Great creative needs both freedom and structure to thrive — and you understand how to create the conditions for both.

What you will be doing: 

• Creative Direction & Development
  • Own the creative vision and art direction across all integrated campaigns — video, photography, graphic design, digital, and social.
  • Develop compelling creative concepts and campaign ideas that drive brand engagement and deliver measurable results.
  • Create comprehensive creative briefs and visual guidelines to communicate direction clearly to internal teams and external creative resources.
  • Push creative boundaries while maintaining brand integrity, platform suitability, and client requirements.
  • Ensure consistent visual standards and brand identity across all deliverables and platforms.
• Project Execution
  • Work closely with digital, video, and photography producers to execute creative vision across integrated campaigns.
  • Oversee creative production workflows and timelines, ensuring all deliverables meet creative and technical standards and land on time.
  • Review and approve all creative output for quality, brand alignment, and platform optimisation.
  • Identify production constraints early and problem-solve creatively within those parameters.
• Client Collaboration
  • Present creative work to clients with confidence, clarity, and strategic rationale — acting as a trusted creative advisor throughout.
  • Anticipate client needs and proactively suggest creative solutions and opportunities.
  • Manage creative feedback and revisions while maintaining the integrity of the creative direction.
  • Educate clients on creative processes and best practice where relevant, building their understanding and confidence in the work.
• Leadership & Team Development
  • Lead, brief, and mentor the creative team — including designers, art directors, and junior creatives — fostering a culture of craft, ambition, and continuous improvement.
  • Contribute to post-project analysis and learnings, ensuring creative output is measured against objectives and KPIs.
  • Support the ongoing development of the team's creative capabilities and ways of working.
• Strategic Thinking
  • Translate client briefs and marketing objectives into effective, insight-led creative strategies.
  • Contribute to social and content strategy development from a creative perspective.
  • Stay current with platform trends, competitor activity, and emerging creative technologies — bringing relevant thinking to the team and client proactively.
  • Use data and analytics to inform, refine, and justify creative approaches.

What you need to be great in this role: 

• A strong portfolio demonstrating creative excellence across integrated digital and social campaigns — with clear evidence of conceptual thinking, art direction, and craft across video, photography, and design.
• Proven experience leading creative development on complex, multi-platform campaigns in a creative agency or in-house studio environment.
• Experience art directing across video, photography, graphic design, and digital formats, and working with producers to execute creative vision.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and mentor creative teams, and to brief both internal and external creative resources with clarity and direction.
• Confident, credible client-facing skills — you can present and defend creative work with conviction, and build genuine trust with senior stakeholders.
• The ability to translate strategic briefs into compelling creative solutions, and to contribute meaningfully to strategy from a creative perspective.
• Proficiency across Adobe Creative Suite; familiarity with Figma and an understanding of responsive design and platform-specific asset optimisation.
• Strong understanding of social-first creative — platform specs, format behaviour, and what drives engagement across channels.
• Experience working with production budgets and an understanding of production constraints across video, photography, and digital.
• Knowledge of CMSs, e-commerce platforms, or digital publishing is an advantage.
• Manage project-level creative budgets in collaboration with producers — including awareness of cost implications across video, photography, and digital production workstreams.
• Work with producers to source and manage external creative resources within agreed budget parameters.
• Flag budget risks early and contribute to cost-effective creative decision-making without compromising output quality.
• Expert use of Gen AI tools relevant to creative direction and art — including image generation, ideation, concept development, and visual research — to enhance output quality and efficiency.
• Experience setting quality benchmarks for AI-assisted creative output within a team context.
• Ability to train and guide others in effective AI tool use for creative disciplines.
• Agentic thinking for complex, multi-deliverable campaign challenges — you break problems down systematically and create clear paths from brief to delivery.
• Strong understanding of when AI enhances creative craft and when human judgement and authorship must lead.
• Formal qualifications are welcome but not required. Equival