Soul, performance, and style take flight at Jordan Brand. With its deep roots in basketball, the Jordan Brand began as an homage to one player: Michael Jordan. Since then, Jordan has become synonymous with peak performance and the endless pursuit of greatness. Employees in merchandising, product branding, sports marketing, and sales bring creativity, innovation, and audacious design to footwear and apparel, all with one mission in mind: to inspire and unleash personal greatness across every corner of the world.
The Global Jordan Brand Creative Studio is a multidisciplinary creative team spanning Art Direction, Narrative, Brand Experience, and Brand Concepts. We partner closely with Jordan Design and Brand Marketing teams to deliver visionary storytelling to our consumers through seamless end-to-end execution.
Who We Are Looking For
The Jordan Sr. Director, Art Direction, leads multiple Art Directors and a team of multidisciplinary designers across numerous projects to deliver well-crafted and innovative creative visions. They drive visual and design excellence and foster partnerships, ensuring the team delivers holistic creative solutions aligned with the seasonal strategy. They are an experienced people manager who mentors Art Directors and designers, creating opportunities for individual development, performance management, recognition, and rewards. This leader will execute the creative vision for Jordan Brand initiatives through Art Direction, supporting premium consumer experiences and embodying the Jordan Design ethos. This person will also elevate the consumer experience through outstanding brand representation across product, athlete and entertainer storytelling, communications, collateral materials, digital design (.com, social media, app, email), and retail design worldwide—all while encouraging and leading innovative thinking, collaboration, and partnership.
What You Will Work On
- Lead the Art Direction team, providing leadership, inspiration, mentorship, support, and direction. Encourage excellence, ambition, and team spirit.
- Work strategically to drive brand awareness and deliver strong engagement through creative results.
- Deliver outstanding photography, video content, digital and retail design, and brand experiences in service of the categories, consumers, and culture.
- Collaborate with the Jordan Brand Sr. Creative Director to develop the strategy, concept, and long-term visual direction for the Jordan Brand.
- Develop and strengthen relationships with photographers, filmmakers, artists, illustrators, designers, and their agents for editorial creative, working strategically with other business leads to ensure the strongest approach to external talent.
- Stay up to date on basketball culture, emerging trends in fashion, urban culture, design, film, art, media, social media, and technology, as they relate to Jordan and the design team.
- Collaborate with styling, marketing, tech, retail, photography, and editorial teams to guide creative concepts and projects.
- Ensure all projects are well-planned, creatively exceptional, and delivered on time.
- Identify needs for training, development, coaching, and mentoring.
- Review project work to ensure the highest standards of quality, consistency, and accuracy.
- Collaborate with the larger Jordan Design team to evaluate and continuously improve the creative process.
Who You Will Work With
You will report directly to the Jordan Brand Sr. Creative Director and partner with the Jordan Brand Chief Design Officer, your Brand Creative Studio teammates, Global and Geo Brand Marketing and Merchandising teams, and the Global Jordan Design Studio. You will lead a team of approximately 8–10 designers, including people managers.
What You Bring
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in Design or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- 10+ years of experience leading concept, design, and art direction in a branded content, agency, editorial, or marketing environment.
- A phenomenal eye for elevated visual design, art direction, and contemporary visual culture.
- The ability to originate visionary creative concepts and lead a team toward execution that meets or exceeds the original vision.
- A passion for the athlete* and a special focus on basketball culture.
- A strong knowledge of capturing sport performance, especially basketball.
- Ability to create seasonal concepts and provide the team with both short- and long-term vision.
- Experience building inspiration/concept presentations and mood boards for seasonal concepts and direction.
- Clear, concise, and thoughtful communication skills.
- The ability to present new ideas or seasonal concepts to small and large groups, including executive leaders and external partners or customers.
- Strategic contributions to the business component of Jordan Design.
- Ideas that influence, elevate, and enhance the team and brand.
- Leadership as a strategic creative partner to cross-category partners in Brand Marketing.
- Experience managing and mentoring people, with a passion for helping senior-level and entrepreneurial talent grow, succeed, and advance toward individual and team goals.
- Substantial experience commissioning and directing design, photography, and moving images in digital and experiential environments.
- Strong relationships with relevant freelance photographers, directors, artists, and stylists.
- Depth of experience across digital, print, and experiential design, with a solid understanding of content platforms.
- Highly proficient in image creation, design, typography, and retouching using Adobe Creative Suite.
- Astute attention to detail and meticulous organizational skills.
We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment for all employees and job applicants. We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.
