Creative Director - Harry's Inc. (New York, NY)
About Harry’s
Harry’s Inc. started in 2013 with a specific goal: disrupt the shaving industry by creating an innovative, everyday product at a fair price. Since then, Harry’s has expanded to Canada and Europe, developed relationships with retailers such as Target and Walmart, expanded our grooming brand into a personal care powerhouse, launched two new brands including Flamingo and Cat Person, and made our first brand acquisition with Lumē.
The key to our success? Our amazing people. From chemists, mechanical engineers, CX associates, to creative directors, sourcing managers, and logistics specialists, the Harry’s team is composed of some of the most brilliant, diverse, and humble people you’ll ever meet.
Our brands answer unmet consumer needs, but our company is a place of inclusion and innovation that attracts some of the brightest minds across industries, geographies, and backgrounds. Whether we have a team of 5 or 500, our core values and our startup mentality remain; we value continuous improvement and learning, teamwork and collaboration, creative problem solving, and open and direct dialogue and feedback.
Harry’s is operating as a hybrid-first environment - for us, that means that we ask folks to come into our beautiful, 88,000 square foot SoHo office a minimum of 2 days per week, with flexibility to choose exactly which days work best for you. What will you get out of that? Bagels on Wednesdays and lunch on Thursdays, and fully stocked kitchens with snacks, coffee, and drinks everyday. Can’t forget the free products and the opportunity to have some meetings without Zoom (remember what 2019 was like?)
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About The Role
As the Creative Director of the Harry’s Brand, you’ll guide a talented team of designers, art directors, copywriters and creative project managers to build inspiring creative output that reinforces key messages of the Harry’s brand and inspires our customers. You will be responsible for bringing our brand essence and personality to life for our customers across a number of different surfaces from our website, to email, to packaging, in-store marketing, advertising and beyond. You’ll also be an important steward of the brand partnering with agencies and our internal comms and growth teams to ensure that we continue to develop and share creative output that endears us to customers and furthers the aspirations of the brand.
You will work very closely with the Head of Brand (your manager) to align on our overall brand goals and plans. You will manage a creative team (graphic designers, art directors, copywriters, in-house photography studio, operations and production), and work closely with our Comms team (partnerships, PR, and organic social & community), and key cross-functional partners across marketing, industrial design, retail, insights, and direct-to-consumer teams, to develop a high standard of creative output that supports the business and brand.
This role will also over-index on leading vs. doing/designing, so you must get energy from managing and mentoring an art and copy team, growing graphic designers and art directors to excel and meet a high standard, driving clear design vision and prioritization, and pushing the team to ensure we’re continuing to raise the bar on our creative output and how we show up for customers. Moreover, this role will be part of the leadership team for the Harry’s brand and be part of the team responsible for setting the strategic direction and goals for the brand.
About You
You are a creative director who’s built high performing teams and overseen inspiring and boundary pushing creative work in multiple different contexts. You come from a strong design and art direction background with proven experience leading visual direction across mediums (digital and print graphic design, photography, illustration, animation, other form making). You are a strong conceptual storyteller and believe in the power of storytelling in a holistic way—visually as well as verbally. You are an experienced leader and you have led creative teams that have done truly inspiring work. You have managed a team of designers, art directors, copywriters to tell compelling brand stories across packaging and in-store marketing, advertising, online content, packaging, and other brand communications touch points.
What you’ll accomplish:
Strengthen and push a high standard for the brand aesthetic across Harry’s brand touch points, print and packaging to digital
Lead implementing our holistic visual system to create an inspiring and recognizable brand, carrying it through in everything we do from now and for the next 10+ years
Lead regular evolution and updates to visual guidelines and toolkits, inclusive of digital design through both print and packaging—ensuring consistent application of the brand internally and externally
Partner with copy/content leads to make sure our holistic brand guidelines successfully guide internal and external partners
Lead our holistic graphic strategy—inclusive of DTC (Harrys.com) to packaging and ISM—to maintain a distinctive but cohesive design system across categories and channels
Find opportunities to strengthen and evolve the brand holistically to resonate with our target audience in a way that feels honest, ownable, and distinct from the competition.
Bring the brand’s essence (honesty, charisma, performance) to life through all execution touch points across channels
Develop and coach a high-performing creative team that scales with our business
This role will be primarily a director/mentor (~90%) vs. doer/designer (~10%), so managing and mentoring team members to develop an inspiring creative for the brand to high standards within a fast-paced environment must motivate you
Guide the team on the optimal process for creative development
Set clear, and ambitious goals, and hold yourself and your team to the highest standard to achieve those goals.
Build and lead an immensely talented team with world class creative capabilities to support brand development - have the ability to push design teams and art directors to their most optimal output but in motivating, inspiring ways and attract and retain world class creative talent that continues to up the standard for our customers
Deliver regular, ongoing feedback in a way that both pushes the brand and the team to always meet a high standard—supporting the team along the way, celebrating wins and learning from failures
Establish strong, collaborative working relationships with cross functional partners (Brand Managers, Retail, Direct to Consumer, Industrial Design) to inspire them behind a common creative vision and become a key partner in driving exceptional creative work.
Work collaboratively with key partners to get to the most inspiring creative output across disciplines and channels
Participate in selection of key creative partners including - advertising agencies, comms agencies (content, influencer), growth marketing agencies
Educate internal teams and partners around essence and purpose of the brand, set clear guidelines and expectations around creative output, and partner closely to ensure we deliver inspiring output
Work with key stakeholders to build briefs that drive inspiring work, collaborate on prioritization efforts, and work with Creative operations to build sustainable ways of working
See projects throughout the process, from pre-briefing (in partnership with marketing colleagues, playing a key role as creative leader) through execution—from big (ex: GTM campaigns) to small (ex: one-off emails)
Support on the development of creative platforms, concepts and campaigns to support marketing and business goals
Create interwoven link between art and copywriting, as well as comms, within team, setting high storytelling standards both visually and verbally — i.e. you should believe that copy and art need to work together to speak to our consumer
What you’ll accomplish:
Exceptional leader in a complex and growing brand and business - your energy comes with guiding teams and being a strong creative manager — i.e. you’re a born director!
Exceptional manager of people who can consistently inspire and motivate their teams to develop world class work
Strong collaborator who can work with others to drive best outcomes for the customer and the business
Able to translate business/customer objectives into creative needs and to frame those needs in an inspiring way to the creative team
Excellent organizational and multitasking skills in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment; ability to drive multiple projects at a time, and iterate quickly
Able to work in fluid environments where you need to manage changing priorities quarter to quarter, working closely with key stakeholders to clearly understand and communicate restacked priorities
Able to foster very strong working relationships with team members and cross-functional partners
Comfortable in your soft skills: listening, negotiating, and decision-making
Must be a creative and wide-ranging thinker who can frame a project strategically for any executive stakeholder and bring it to the highest degree of finish and execution.
World class designer/art director capable of helping to craft/implement a design system that propels the brand forward for the next decade
An MFA or BFA in graphic design and proven track record as a design leader (to start) and a broader creative leader over time
A proven track record developing highly elevated yet approachable design and art direction across channels
A strong portfolio as a design/visual leader, showcasing brand experience across a range of mediums and with leading or implementing design and packaging systems as examples within your portfolio
Exceptional taste and design aesthetic, variations on styles, and awareness of design trends and innovationDeep knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and Google Suite (proficiency with AfterEffects and Premiere Pro a plus)
Excellence in typography, color, layout, and composition; skilled at form and image making
Strong conceptual story teller - bringing together words and visuals to tell compelling stories to customers
You deeply understand the Harry’s brand and push teams to bring forward and balance the pillars of our essence (honesty, performance, charisma) in every piece of creative work
You understand how words and pictures can come together to tell a compelling and inspiring story and you push yourself and teams around you to ensure we’re telling that story to the customer
Excellent conceptual ability with thorough knowledge of visual systems, advertising, digital media, print (packaging, in-store marketing), and digital production.
You take your work seriously, but not yourself — you love creating excellent work, but also having fun doing it
Benefits And Perks
Medical, dental, and vision coverage
401k match
Equity in Harry’s
Flexible time off and working hours
Wellness and L&D stipends
4 weeks sabbatical after 5 years, 6 weeks after 10 years, and 8 weeks after 15 years
Up to 20 weeks of pregnancy leave and up to 16 weeks of parental leave
Fun IRL and virtual events including happy hours, team building events, and parties on our rooftop
Free products from all of our brands
Harry’s is committed to bringing together individuals from different backgrounds and perspectives. We strive to create an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, feel a sense of belonging, and do great work together.
Harry’s is an Equal Opportunity Employer, providing equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. We recruit, hire and promote into all job levels the most qualified applicants without regard to race, color, creed, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), parental status, age, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, transgender status, sexual orientation, marital, family or partnership status, political affiliation or activities, military service, domestic violence victim status, arrest/conviction record, sexual or reproductive health decisions, caregiver status, credit history immigration status, unemployment status, traits historically associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles or any other status protected under applicable federal, state and local laws. Harry’s commitment to providing equal employment opportunities extends to all aspects of employment, including job assignment, compensation, discipline and access to benefits and training.
We respect the laws enforced by the EEOC and are dedicated to going above and beyond in fostering diversity across our company.
We can’t quantify all of the intangible things we think you’ll love about working at Harry’s, like the exciting challenges we tackle, the smart and humble team you’ll get to work with, and our supportive and inclusive culture. That said, our salary ranges are based on paying competitively for our size and industry, and are one part of our total rewards package, which also includes a comprehensive set of benefits and our equity program. The base salary hiring range for this position is $200,000-$250,000, but the final compensation offer will ultimately be based on the candidate’s location, skill level and experience.
