How to Hire a Creative Director to Drive Your Design Strategy

Does your business need a Creative Director? Creative Directors are responsible for the visual and creative projects of a company. These professionals ensure that these projects are on-brand and attract the target audience’s attention. If you’re looking to hire a Creative Director, we’ll lay out the details so you can make the best decision for your business.

Why Hire a Creative Director?

We often talk about design strategy on this blog, and for good reason. Your design strategy is fundamental to moving the needle in your business. Some of the most successful companies in the world (e.g. Apple, Google, Microsoft) have their design strategies at the heart of everything they do. It goes far beyond visual appeal and, with the right approach, can drive your business’s bottom line. In a chaotic workday, someone should be driving the process. This is where creative directors come in.

A Creative Director can:

1. Strengthen Your Brand Aesthetic: A Creative Director ensures that all creative projects align with your brand’s identity, creating a cohesive and compelling visual presence.
   
2. Enhance Client Satisfaction: They act as a bridge between your creative teams and clients, smoothing over issues and supporting client retention.
   
3. Create Cohesion Across Teams: Creative Directors guide designers and provide strategic direction, ensuring everyone is working toward the same vision.
   
4. Stay on Top of Trends: They keep your creative projects up-to-date by tracking industry trends, helping your brand remain competitive.
   
5. Contribute to Business Development: Creative Directors often play a role in business development, helping you expand your creative capabilities and client base.

Agencies are notorious for having difficult clients and struggling to meet their demands. Your director can smooth things over with clients who are angry or impatient. In this sense, they can do a world of good in supporting client retention.

What Does a Creative Director Do?

You can think of your Creative Director as the final checker. As your designs and projects pass through many hands with many iterations, the Creative Director oversees it all. They have the final say and pay attention to the big picture of your brand’s creative strategy.

Once you hire a Creative Director, their typical workload includes:

• Making sure projects are on-brand and on-time
• Staying on top of creative trends in your industry
• Being a point person for your clients
• Contributing to business development
• Overlooking creative briefs
• Guiding designers and helping them succeed

Unlike an Art Director who typically does the technical art, Creative Directors are more like strategists.

Skills to Look for in a Creative Director

A great Creative Director candidate will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• Creative vision
• Graphic design 
• Collaborative project management
• Communication
• Meticulous and detail-oriented

How Much Should You Pay a Creative Director?

Fortunately, we live in a world where the workplace has become far more flexible. You can hire an in-house creative director if it suits your needs. But you can hire a part-time professional to steer the ship as needed.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary is about $95,000 for a full-time, making it a highly coveted and competitive position.

Types of Creative Directors

You might wonder if your company needs to hire a Creative Director. The answer is: It’s best to have one if you can afford it. This position is quickly becoming a must-have rather than a ‘nice-to-have’ in today’s design-driven world. You don’t want your company pumping out projects without someone reviewing each one with a critical eye. So what are your options?

Fractional Creative Director

This is a fancy term for a part-time Creative Director. They’ll work with you as needed (eg. 2 days per week) to handle all the same tasks as an in-house professional. This is a perfect option for small brands or brands that are scaling but don’t yet need someone on staff full-time.

Fractional Creative Directors typically work for multiple clients simultaneously or on a project-by-project basis. They are typically brought in for specific projects to provide creative direction, strategic guidance, and leadership to creative teams or to assist in executing creative campaigns.

Agency Creative Director

These professionals typically have more to juggle. They may work for a marketing or advertising agency and handle several of their clients at a time. This requires them to be diverse and have a sharp eye for different types of brands and their design requirements. Agency Creative Directors must ensure that the work aligns with the client’s objectives, effectively communicates the desired message, and meets high-quality standards. They play a pivotal role in concept development.

In-House Creative Director

These professionals work for one company and focus on that company’s creative direction, plain and simple. Their role requires them to know the brand deeply, enforce its guidelines, and know what strategic decisions are in the best interest of the company.

If you have a growing creative team that includes copywriters, artists, and various types of designers, you need someone to.. wrangle them. A bunch of creatives in a room can easily lead to each person going off on their own direction. And while it may lead to some interesting art, this isn’t ideal. When you hire a Creative Director, they bring everyone together toward the same goal, delegate tasks, and ensure all team members contribute to the same vision.

If you’re bogged down in work and your creative projects aren’t getting done soon enough, it may be time to get outside help.

What to Look for when Hiring a Creative Director

A great Creative Director candidate must have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience: 

1. Creative Vision

Creative directors must possess a strong creative vision to develop new ideas for brands they work with. This vision provides a foundation for imaginative ideas and strategies for achieving business goals and attracting new customers through an ad campaign. These directors can also apply this skill to maintain clarity in the plans and ensure that the creative or marketing teams understand the project’s objectives.

2. Project Management

When hiring a creative director, assessing their project management skills is essential to ensure they can effectively lead and support multiple teams throughout each project. A creative director should also oversee the execution of the creative strategy, ensuring that all key elements are met to deliver a cohesive and impactful outcome.

3. Graphic Design

Graphic design skills assist creative directors with creating and designing marketing and ad campaigns. These skills require knowledge in art and design, digital tools, page layouts, and visual hierarchy. Additionally, creative directors may use their graphic design skills to host design meetings between creative members.

4. Communication

Communication skills are essential to creative directors because the role involves negotiation, persuasion, education, guidance, support, and feedback. Creative directors require these skills to discuss their ideas and directions effectively. They often speak with their team, upper management, clients, and stakeholders.

5. True Passion for Human Connections

By this, we mean all the people you work with, including creatives, clients, colleagues, and collaborators. The creative director’s role involves a lot of human interaction and communication, and without this essential quality, you won’t be able to win people’s trust or collaborate successfully. 

6. Strategic Vision

As a creative director, you manage work from multiple angles. You must balance inspiring and motivating your team to achieve creative brilliance, addressing the client’s brief and business goals, and ensuring everything is accomplished within the specified timeline and budget.

7. Curiousity

Embracing creativity in diverse forms and challenging aspects is key to sparking innovative ideas and finding inspiration. This mindset often leads to concepts you can share with others or integrate directly into your own projects.

Challenges of Hiring a Creative Director

There are many factors why finding a good creative director requires a lot of work. First, this role is often perceived as a senior leadership position. Finding good senior-level people is challenging, especially for specialized roles. 

Second, creative directors must blend with the existing team, adapt to company culture, and adjust to the senior leadership team’s management style. Lastly, the increasingly competitive talent markets where job seekers pick their gigs could make the hiring process even more difficult.

For these reasons, you must be ready to quickly identify the best candidate to hire during the interview stage. 

Where to Hire a Creative Director?

There are plenty of websites or platforms where you can hire a creative director online. Below are some reputable sites to find creative directors: 

1. Toptal

Toptal is a freelance network where you can hire fully vetted professionals. Each applicant goes through a strict screening process and the platform claims that they only approve the top 3% of applicants. Businesses can rely to Toptal for finding the right creative directors to help them develop their company’s brand vision and creative strategy.

2. Guru

Guru is another good place to hire a creative director and other professionals. With thousands of experts listed on the platform, you can browse an extensive talent pool with no obligation. However, Guru recommends reviewing freelancers’ transaction data to learn more about their qualifications and credibility before hiring.

3. Upwork

Upwork provides an easy and efficient platform for hiring creative directors by allowing you to post job listings to its extensive global network of talent. While Upwork does not prescreen freelance creative directors or agencies, you have full control over every stage of the hiring process. Its AI-powered feature assists in filtering candidates, presenting those who align most closely with your requirements.

4. icreatives

iCreatives is a specialized talent agency dedicated to sourcing exceptional creative professionals. It offers four flexible hiring options: freelance, full-time employment, contract-to-full-time, and team assembly, with thorough candidate screening to ensure access to premier talent. iCreatives continues to stand out with its commitment to prompt service, guaranteeing a response within 25 minutes during standard business hours—otherwise, your first four hours are free.

5. 24 Seven Talent

24 Seven Talent positions itself as a premier recruitment agency with expansive connections across the creative industry. From crafting job descriptions and sourcing candidates to conducting thorough vetting and managing onboarding, 24 Seven handles the entire hiring process, allowing your team to focus on other priorities. Whether you’re seeking a full-time creative director or talent for a contract project, 24 Seven Talent Solutions ensures a seamless experience.

The Design Team Who Will Change the Game for You

Does it sound too good to be true to get a hardworking design team and a project manager for less than the annual cost of one in-house professional? That’s what we offer at Penji. When you sign up at our Agency level, you get unlimited graphic designs, direct access to our designers, unlimited revisions, and a designated Project Manager for your company. So, if you’re not ready to hire a Creative Director (or even if you already have), Penji will make sure you stay productive.

If you struggle with creative direction, we’ll help you get your creative projects custom-branded and looking fabulous. And if you have a roster of clients, you can organize all their design projects from our dashboard. Cancel anytime or upgrade/downgrade as your design needs to change.

Wanna see your unlimited graphic design subscription in action? Check out a demo and see why so many brands use Penji as their secret weapon for creative output.