What You’ll Do
Lead the Work
- Define the vision for brand design at Metalab—elevating our brand practice to new levels of creative excellence.
- Guide and mentor Brand Designers of all levels through all stages of the brand process—from insight to identity to expression.
- Partner with clients at a strategic level, helping founders and executives articulate, evolve, and scale their brands for digital-first environments.
- Oversee and refine brand systems that translate seamlessly into product experiences, marketing ecosystems, and motion design.
- Ensure every brand engagement—internal or client-facing—embodies clarity, consistency, and purpose.
Shape Creative Direction
- Drive the creative process for major brand initiatives, setting the tone for identity systems, storytelling frameworks, and brand guidelines.
- Collaborate with Product Design leadership to ensure cohesive brand-to-product experiences.
- Lead cross-disciplinary reviews, elevating critique culture and building team fluency in storytelling, systems thinking, and craft.
- Push creative boundaries by integrating motion, 3D, and interaction design to create dynamic, immersive brand moments.
Champion Collaboration and Growth
- Partner closely with the Chief Design Officer and Partnerships team in new business pursuits—pitching visionary, brand-led design approaches.
- Collaborate with Marketing to ensure Metalab’s own brand maintains the highest standard of craft and cohesion across all expressions.
- Foster team culture rooted in openness, mentorship, and curiosity, ensuring Metalab remains a place where designers grow and thrive.
- Build bridges across disciplines, connecting brand, product, and marketing to create holistic experiences.
Technical & Strategic Competencies
Visionary Brand Leadership
You inspire creative excellence, lead with clarity, and communicate a compelling brand vision that motivates teams and earns client trust. You’re adept at balancing creative risk-taking with strategic rigor—ensuring every brand direction is both aspirational and grounded in business value.
Hands on Design Craft
You don’t just direct great design; you do it. As one of the most senior contributors in the work, you lead by example with exceptional craft and attention to detail. You’re fluent in modern tools and practices, able to concept, design, and refine at a world-class level. You bring hands-on design energy to pitches, reviews, and live work, ensuring every output reflects the highest creative standards.
Brand Systems Expertise
You translate complex ideas into coherent, scalable brand systems—visual, verbal, and experiential. You understand how identity lives across environments, from pixels to motion to storytelling, and can direct others to execute at this level.
Strategic Storytelling
You see brand as narrative—how story, identity, and experience intersect. You guide teams and clients through this lens, helping them articulate what makes their brand meaningful and distinctive.
Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration
You work fluidly across product design, strategy, and marketing, ensuring brand vision permeates all layers of experience. You bring a systems mindset to brand-building, connecting the dots across every touchpoint.
Mentorship & Critique
You elevate the design community within Metalab by coaching, inspiring, and setting standards for exceptional creative work. You foster a culture of constructive critique and shared learning.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in brand design, creative direction, or design leadership—preferably in a digital-first environment.
- Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and large-scale brand engagements from strategy through execution.
- A portfolio that demonstrates mastery in visual identity, brand systems, and storytelling across digital touchpoints.
- Experience presenting to executive stakeholders, with the ability to translate creative thinking into strategic outcomes.
- Proficiency in modern design tools (Figma, Illustrator, After Effects, etc.) and an understanding of how brands extend through motion, interaction, and content.
- Strong facilitation and communication skills—you guide workshops and strategic sessions with confidence and empathy.
- Deep knowledge of design trends, emerging tools, and the evolving role of brand in the digital ecosystem.
- A passion for mentoring others and shaping the future of design culture at Metalab.
