At Code and Theory, our Art Directors are essential members of the creative team who bring ideas to life across brand, digital, and campaign work. You’ll combine conceptual thinking with design craft to develop compelling visual directions that resonate with audiences and push creative boundaries. As a mid-level Art Director, you’ll have the opportunity to own projects, collaborate across disciplines, and present your work with confidence—while continuing to grow your leadership skills. You’re not just a designer—you’re a visual storyteller who brings energy, curiosity, and craft to every project. You thrive in collaboration, balancing bold conceptual ideas with thoughtful execution. You’re resourceful, adaptable, and passionate about pushing creative work forward, while eager to continue growing into a leadership role.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Lead the art direction on assigned projects, from concept through execution
- Partner closely with Strategy, Copy, Design, and Technology to develop and refine creative ideas
- Present work to internal teams and clients, clearly articulating creative decisions
- Manage multiple assignments simultaneously under deadlines, balancing concept and craft
- Contribute to shaping visual direction across platforms, ensuring consistency and innovation
- Mentor and review junior designers’ work, helping elevate the overall creative output
- Collaborate with production, project management, and developers to bring ideas to life
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
- Professional design or art direction experience, preferably in an agency or creative studio
- Strong portfolio that demonstrates conceptual thinking, storytelling, and design craft across multiple mediums
- Proficiency with modern design and prototyping tools (Figma, Adobe Creative Suite) with working knowledge of After Effects and motion design tools
- Solid understanding of digital platforms, social, and emerging technologies
- Working knowledge of photography, retouching, and video production is a plus
- Strong communication and presentation skills
- Organized, detail-oriented, and able to juggle multiple projects with efficiency
- Familiarity with AI tools and understanding of their capabilities
ABOUT US
Born in 2001, Code and Theory is a digital-first creative agency that sits at the center of creativity and technology. We pride ourselves on not only solving consumer and business problems, but also helping to establish new capabilities for our clients. With a global client roster of Fortune 100s and start-ups alike, we crave the hardest problems to solve. With a remote-first approach to our people, we have teams distributed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Code and Theory global network of agencies is growing and includes Kettle, Instrument, Left Field Labs, Mediacurrent, Rhythm, and TrueLogic.
Striving never to be pigeonholed, we work across every major category: from tech to CPG, financial services to travel & hospitality, government and education to media and publishing. We value the collaboration with our client partners, including but not limited to Adidas, Amazon, Con Edison, Diageo, EY, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lenovo, Marriott, Mars, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, and TikTok.
The Code and Theory network is comprised of nearly 2,000 people with 50% engineers and 50% creative talent. We’re always on the lookout for smart, driven, and forward-thinking people to join our team.
This is a full-time role, based in the United States. The target range of base compensation for this role is $70,000 - $80,000. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience and location.
Top Skills
What We Do
Code and Theory is a strategically driven, digital-first creative agency that lives at the intersection of creativity and technology. We solve consumer and business problems across the entire customer journey that flex to meet the ever-changing needs of consumer expectations. We put the user, their behaviors and needs, at the center of everything we do — from our proprietary research methodologies, to product development processes, to how we create brand, channel and messaging strategies. Our goal is simple: to solve our clients business problems.
We bring big ideas to life by looking holistically at brand ecosystems where digital plays a prominent role in driving the consumer from first-touch through to conversion to relationship deepening over time. We identify gaps in the consumer journey and opportunities in culture that require products, services or communications to fill. We work across categories, ranging as far and wide as health care (Pfizer, Sanofi, Reach MD, Bioreference Laboratories) to financial services (JP Morgan Chase, Prudential, Morgan Stanley, First Data) to cpg (Mars, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson) to technology companies (Facebook, Xerox, Samsung, Comcast) to culture brands (adidas, H&M). And because our DNA is in publishing — we’ve embedded in over 135 newsrooms in the past decade — we bring unique expertise in understanding how content is created, distributed and optimized, including our work with CNN, NBC News, NBC Sports, and Bustle Digital Group.
At Code and Theory, we strive to only be limited by our own ambition and creativity. We believe in pushing our creativity beyond the easy and obvious answers in order to deliver the solutions that are right for our clients, their businesses, and their consumers.
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