Job Description
2D Design Director - Brand / Campaign / Environments
Salary: £80,000 +
Location: East London
Working pattern: Hybrid (minimum 3 days in studio)
Software: Cinema 4D and SketchUp (Vectorworks and Adobe Creative Suite useful too)
Sector: Retail Interiors, Brand Environments, and Experiential Activations
About the studio
This is a B Corp certified design and production agency that builds brand environments people actually remember. They work with some of the most culturally significant names in fashion, footwear, sport, and technology, and they treat retail as something closer to architecture than decoration. The spaces they make are meant to connect a brand with the people who care about it, not just move stock off shelves.
What sets them apart is how seriously they take the craft. The work is grounded in proper research, built on circular design principles from the very first sketch, and delivered to a standard the rest of the industry is still trying to reach. Sustainability here is not a line in a deck. It is baked into how they think.
The studio is growing, the culture is collaborative and quietly obsessive about quality, and the briefs are the kind that pull the best out of everyone in the room. There is a London base and a New York presence, which tells you something about where this is all heading.
About the role
This is a genuinely senior hire, and the studio knows it. As Design Director, you will take creative leadership of the retail interiors output, steering projects from first concept through to built completion and setting the bar for everything that sits beneath you.
The focus is firmly on permanent retail: store design, retail environments, and the kind of physically resolved, consumer-journey-led thinking that separates great retail architecture from window dressing. You will stay hands-on with the pinnacle projects, the flagships and the headline commissions, but your real value is in the quality and direction of the work across the board. You will also work closely with the strategy leads, turning briefs that span culture, fashion, sport, and technology into ideas that are commercially sharp and genuinely original.
There is a line report to develop too, with a real expectation that you grow that person's career as thoughtfully as you grow the work. The studio is at the point where this role shapes how the whole creative offer evolves. They want someone who is after that responsibility, not just the business card.
Your days will look something like this...
- Lead the creative direction of retail interior and brand environment projects, from concept through to built completion, holding the standard at every stage
- Stay hands-on across the pinnacle projects (flagship stores, major commissions, key activations) while overseeing the team's output on concurrent briefs
- Direct the production of design intent packs, making sure architectural drawings are read accurately and elevated creatively
- Work alongside strategy leads to shape responses to briefs, bringing strong conceptual thinking and a real grasp of retail consumer behaviour
- Lead client presentations and pitches with authority, holding the creative narrative from first idea to final sign-off
- Scope and quote projects with the project managers, contributing to honest timelines and sensible resourcing
- Manage, mentor, and develop a team of senior, mid-weight, and junior designers, with one direct report to nurture properly
- Drive the studio's creative standards and culture, shaping how the agency approaches retail and grows its offer
You might be our perfect match if…
- You have 10+ years designing 3D spaces and interiors, with most of that time spent on permanent retail rather than purely event or experiential work
- Your portfolio shows real depth in retail store design: consumer journey thinking, spatial resolution, design intent documentation, and end-to-end delivery
- You are highly proficient in Cinema 4D and SketchUp (Vectorworks and Adobe Creative Suite are a welcome bonus)
- You have led teams across multiple briefs at once, managing seniors as well as juniors, and you make the people around you better
- You can quote and scope projects, and hold an intelligent conversation about timelines, resourcing, and creative fees
- You lead pitches with confidence and can win a room as comfortably as you can hold one
- You are properly strategic: genuinely curious about industry trends, consumer insight, and the shifting relationship between brand and physical space
Why this one
- A senior role with real creative authority, in a studio that wants you to shape its direction rather than just manage its output
- A client list of culturally significant names across fashion, sport, and technology, at a scale that makes the work worth doing
- B Corp certified and sustainability-led, with circular design thinking that is real, embedded, and genuinely interesting to work within
- A growing studio at an inflection point, with a London base and a New York presence that hints at what comes next
- A hybrid model that respects both studio time and head-down independent working