About Educational Insights:

We’re the experts in play! For nearly 60 years, our team of teachers, scientists, artists, coders, and kids-at-heart has created award-winning toys and games designed to spark creativity, ignite curiosity, and provide opportunities for kiddos to discover their unique passions, helping them become their truest selves and leaving them bursting with confidence and unlimited potential.

Position Description:

In this role, you’ll provide the creative vision across all product, branding, and marketing touchpoints for our line of award-winning toys, games, and teaching tools. You’ll oversee our talented Creative team, working together to establish the tone of the brand and bring it to life via product design, packaging, and sub-line development, as well as across omnichannel marketing (with a strong emphasis on maximizing the impact of our digital marketing experience, engagement, and activation on marketplaces and across our social channels, while seamlessly tying into our instore presence/promotions), brand and product commercials and videos, trade show and showroom design (both live and virtual), media touchpoints, printed pieces, and more. You’ll collaborate with members of our innovative, industry-leading team to ensure that all visual and written elements, across all mediums, are consistent and in line with the company’s brand strategy. Finally, you’ll serve as the principal liaison to internal and external partners to bring all products and company communications to life.

Scope of Responsibilities:

As our Creative Director, you’ll:

Guide our look and feel! You’ll lead the storytelling of our brand and brand mission through creative development and execution of all graphic design, illustrations, product design, package design and structure, digital marketing/advertising, videos, catalogs, and retail/tradeshow designs to meet the needs of key stakeholders.
Design our online experience! You’ll understand our customers’ digital journey on all retail platforms and provide the vision for a consistent, seamless, engaging digital experience with our brand and product lines.
Keep us consistent! You’ll ensure that all deliverables meet or exceed stakeholder and customer expectations and maintain our brand’s integrity.
Help your team develop and grow! You’ll choose, coach, motivate, and empower a strong, cohesive team of direct and indirect reports, driving employee and organizational performance through the alignment of goals, ongoing feedback, and periodic appraisal.
Grow our line! You’ll collaborate with Product Development and Marketing to ideate new product concepts and to ensure our product mix is in line with both our brand and marketing growth strategies and business goals.
Run a top-performing department! You’ll identify and manage labor resources (internal and external) and budgets, review and approve all projects, manage traffic flow, and help your team with prioritizing their projects.
Try new things! You’ll do the research to find new customer-centric planogram, merchandising, and packaging solutions to meet sales requirements based on feedback from retailers or buyers.
Be the go-between! You’ll be the principal liaison between the internal team and external partners, ensuring they follow your brand vision as they bring our products to life.
And more… Things come up! Other duties for this role will be assigned as necessary/appropriate.

Requirements/Preferences:
Bachelor’s Degree
8+ years of graphic design/creative experience
5+ years experience leading teams, mentoring others and taking a hands-on approach to executing specific projects
Expert knowledge of Adobe Create Suite
Strong illustration art direction skills
Strong interpersonal and excellent communication skills; ability to work with all levels of the organization
Solid understanding of manufacturing processes in a consumer products environment
Excellent knowledge of digital marketing best practices and UX optimizations for everything from platform-specific digital marketplaces to online ads to platform-specific social posts to e-mails to microsites, etc.
Proficient in Microsoft Office, especially Excel (intermediate level)

Ideal attributes:
We’re looking for a leader who can build and coach a team, inspiring them to contribute to our mission and culture, and supporting their professional development
We’re looking for a multi-tasker who can drive and nimbly meet challenging and shifting deadlines and (sometimes) changing priorities
We’re looking for a strategic thinker and creative problem solver who actively seeks opportunities to influence growth and change
We’re looking for an enthusiastic brand advocate with the ability to lead the development and storytelling of our brand and sub-lines and defend our brand guidelines
We’re looking that rare combination of a persuasive communicator with the ability to hear and respect differing opinions

Physical Demands: (standard; based on Position Type)

Standing – 10-15%
Sitting – 85-90%
Computer usage – 70-90%
Travel – 10-15% (off-site photo/commercial shoots, trade shows, etc.)
Ability to perceive detail from 3D industrial design models/mock-ups
Ability to distinguish colors, hues and contrast settings

We are a drug-free workplace and an EEO employer

Please note: This role will be filled by our internal recruitment team, so no assistance is needed from any outside staffing agency at this time.