Creative Director, Art

Godfrey Dadich Partners (GDP) combines the best of strategy, journalism, design, marketing, and digital to build story-driven brands. Our group includes Upstatement, a digital product studio, and Ghost Note, a brand and community creative studio.

GDP is looking for a multidisciplinary creative director. This role will lead projects from brand campaigns to editorial storytelling, bringing ideas to life across digital platforms and often in motion. 

Whatever the brief, you seek to build an authentic connection with audiences to engage, inform, and delight. As a creative leader you want to produce work that shares compelling stories and moves people to action. You believe in the power of design—not as decoration, but as a critical tool to activate an idea. Your work demonstrates a commitment to craft and a clear narrative, from strategic foundation to concept and execution. You listen with empathy, explain the “whys” behind decisions, question assumptions (including your own), and share your perspectives with conviction. And you understand that achieving great outcomes requires inspiring and empowering teams to do their best work. 

In today’s environment there is an underlying requirement for creative leaders to have fluency in AI-powered tools and workflows, with a demonstrated ability to harness generative technologies to accelerate concept development, explore design variations, and augment storytelling processes. The ideal candidate has a proven ability to guide teams in integrating AI into ideation, prototyping, and production without compromising craft, ethics, or originality.

This client-facing role is based in San Francisco.

Key responsibilities include:

• Define and lead projects from concept to delivery in a wide range of formats: brand identity systems, digital and print editorial, live-action and documentary video, motion graphics and animation, social media, experiential, paid media, and more.
• Oversee the creation of creative briefs, with a comfort level in directing artists toward final illustrations that effectively communicate the story being told. 
• Mentor, motivate, and manage a group of creatives with a diverse range of backgrounds and skill sets. Foster an inspiring and inclusive work culture, and empower all team members to have a voice.
• Possess a deep understanding of the evolving role of AI in the creative process, with the ability to evaluate and integrate new tools that enhance productivity, ideation, and storytelling.
• A demonstrated use of AI tools in recent work (e.g., image generation, design mockups, or automated content generation).
• Develop client relationships built around trust and dialog to enable creative teams to deliver work that pushes beyond the expected.
• Shape and deliver presentations that tell a compelling story—that effectively articulate the concept and convey the strategy or system underlying a proposed design.
• Advise on project scopes and resourcing, always seeking to derive value and excellence.
• Collaborate with the CEO and COO to determine strategic hiring needs, interview candidates, and train new hires to integrate into a healthy and motivating team dynamic.
• Work closely with studio leadership to design business and communications systems for, by, and about the GDP studio, including owned, social, and physical platforms.

Qualifications include:

• 10-plus years’ experience working in a design, journalism, or advertising environment.
• A demonstrated understanding of how to establish, market, grow, and evolve brands through design, from startups and nonprofits to large-scale global organizations.
• Experience in a people management role on design teams, with the ability to coordinate and provide creative direction to contractors, external partners, and in-house multidisciplinary creatives.
• Excellent presentation, interpersonal, and communication skills, with the ability to communicate complex, sometimes abstract, concepts clearly and persuasively to both client and internal partners.
• A highly collaborative, organized, and resourceful approach. A self-starter who proactively sets benchmarks, builds trust, and aligns expectations.
• A strong knowledge of design principles and best practices related to a combination of marketing, branding, product, and/or editorial, with a keen eye for typography, grids, and technical craft.
• A passion for bringing ideas to life in digital environments, with a demonstrated understanding of current best practices for digital design, including accessibility, motion design, and prototyping. 
• Have an understanding of art direction for editorial and experience with the artist commission process. 
• A high-level understanding of digital experience design with a demonstrated ability to work with expert freelancers in web and product design capacities.
• A demonstrated fluency with design tools, including the full suite of Adobe Creative Cloud and Figma, as well as competency in Keynote and G Suite products. An understanding of animation, film production, and/or development process is a plus.

About Godfrey Dadich Partners

GDP engineers strategies to define organizational purpose, creates designs for world-changing experiences, and authors content that drives immersive, action-oriented engagement. Our services include brand strategy, identity, and architecture; human interface design for desktop, mobile web, iOS, and Android; motion graphics and animation; editorial and print design; content strategy and development.

The salary range for this role is $170,000 - $195,000.

Our salary offers take into consideration the skills and experience a candidate brings, pay equity across similar roles within GDP, and the market rate for similar roles outside of GDP. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant, along with the requirements of the position. The company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. GDP is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment, and also offers comprehensive health and wellbeing benefits, personal and professional development, and career growth opportunities.