Senior Art Director / Designer

Company Overview

FMS is a niche branding firm specializing in work for companies in the banking and financial services space. Based in Franklin, Tennessee, we’re a full-service firm that provides branding, strategic marketing, media and consulting services. Visit us at theFMSagency.com to see our work, get to know our close-knit team, and gather additional insights into our purpose, beliefs and culture.

Position Summary

The Senior Art Director/Designer is pivotal to the pulse of our creative universe. Insatiable curiosity, with a love of idea, design, detail and the creative process infuse every part of this job. The right candidate will lead the entire gamut of creative initiatives for our clients, from concepting to the development of client presentations to production of complete rebranding initiatives, as well as mentorship to our burgeoning internal creative team. Ensuring the delivery of awesome creative solutions, nurturing client relations, and fostering our team’s growth lie at the heart of this position.

While many agencies separate Senior Designers and Senior Art Directors, we believe that those skills are complimentary and, in many cases, the same. We are looking for someone who has the love of craft most often associated with a designer, but who also has a love for bringing brands and big ideas to life across multiple mediums, all under the banner of a strategy that solves our client’s business problems.

Key Responsibilities

• Stewardship of Creative Excellence: Direct oversight of all creative output for clients, including the critique and refinement of works conceived by our in-house creatives and freelancers. Continual collaboration with the Executive Creative Director.

• Team & Client Relationships: You’ll work closely with Account Executive(s) to allocate creative resources for designated projects and engage directly with clients to unlock insights, articulate compelling concepts, and lead the creative direction of your team’s clients.

• Leadership: You’ll lead the creative development for the clients your team manages. Regularly rendezvous with the Account Executive to make sure client requirements, timelines, and overall progress are on track for our clients.

• Concepts!: Ideas drive our work. A big part of this job is driving conceptual development, in collaboration with the team, ensuring innovation and originality at every turn. You’ll need to be able to craft and present visual work with strong conceptual thinking and strategic rationale.

• Identity: Create boundary-pushing identity systems and brand applications (digital, print, environmental, packaging, experiential) in a collaborative environment; you will often lead these projects and will hold responsibility for the executed design deliverables, including art direction of other designers.

• Brand Guidelines: You’ll need to understand and execute usable brand guidelines for our clients.

• Design: Use and expand your design skills across a wide range of aesthetic styles, undestanding how brands are built over time.

• Raising the Bar: We believe everyone who works at FMS should make us better.

Must Haves

Hard Skills: Mastery of Adobe Creative Suite, with a keen focus on Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. Signifcant experience in Figma. Enough mastery of PowerPoint to make a beautiful presentation. Understanding of video production and motion design.

• A thorough knowledge of print production.

• An understanding of how to connect creativity and strategy, how to build effective brands.

• Experience collaborating with web developers.

• Commitment to knowing and understanding our clients and our industry.

• Ability to successfully manage multiple projects at the same time in a fast-paced environment.

• Experience building brand identity systems and the ability to work well within already established brand standards.

• The ability to teach yourself new things and learn new programs never goes out of style.

Soft Skills: A dynamic blend of dedication, self-motivation, leadership prowess, eloquent

communication, professionalism, creativity, and the confidence to present and defend

creative concepts.

Nice to Haves:

• Illustration

• UI design experience

• Motion / Animation

• Copywriting

Experience:

At least 5 years in graphic design and/or art direction, preferably within a fast-paced agency environment.

Working Hours & Travel:

While this role gravitates towards an in-office presence to facilitate spontaneous creative magic, FMS embraces flexibility. Both scheduled and unscheduled remote stints are welcomed.

Expect to travel at least 6-8 times a year, as this role will include journeys to on board new clients and captain video shoots, among other things.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary

• Health, dental and vision insurance

• Paid time off

• Paid Maternity and Paternity Leave

• Company-provided equipment (laptop, monitor, software, etc)

• 401K benefits after 30 days of employment

Job Type: Full-time

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• 401(k) matching
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Work Location: In person