About Brains
Brains is an independent creative agency and proud B-Corp. We're a group of no-a**hole, roll-up-our-sleeves creatives, united by a mission to spark market and cultural impact and connect people around shared values and passions. We partner with mission-driven brands looking to rethink and rewrite industry norms.

Art Director

​​As an Art Director at Brains, you will lead the creative vision for projects, ensuring design solutions align with client goals, brand identity, and strategic objectives. Initially, you’ll play a key role in our studio team, developing ongoing content—primarily for social—across our client portfolio. You’ll work closely with designers, Creative Directors, copywriters, and strategists to craft visually compelling, high-quality creative that resonates in digital-first spaces.

Beyond social content, this role will evolve to include a broader mix of brand, campaign, and production work, requiring the ability to move fluidly between them. The ideal candidate has experience developing integrated campaign creative, bringing holistic thinking to executions. You have a strong foundation in design fundamentals and conceptual thinking, with a portfolio that demonstrates both craft and big idea generation for client brands. You’ll be involved in every phase of a project, from initial concepting through execution and production, ensuring the integrity of the creative vision.

We are currently only seeking AD applicants located in Los Angeles, CA.

Key Responsibilities:

Creative Leadership & Execution

• Set the creative vision for projects, ensuring design excellence across all work.
• Lead the artistic development of marketing, branding, advertising, and promotional assets.
• Balance high-level conceptual thinking with hands-on design execution.
• Maintain a deep understanding of brand identity, ensuring all work is visually compelling and strategically aligned.
• Provide thoughtful direction and feedback to creative teams, pushing for innovative, high-quality output.
• Translate client goals and objectives into compelling creative solutions that guide designers effectively.
• Translate creative strategy into compelling ideas, demonstrating a deep understanding of the client’s brand narrative, cultural landscape, marketing objectives, and competitive context.
• Get hands-on—concepting, designing, making decks, pulling moodboards, and crafting visuals that bring ideas to life.
• Stay ahead of design trends, tools, and techniques, integrating new approaches into our work.

Team Mentorship & Collaboration

• Lead, mentor, and inspire the design and creative team, fostering growth and skill development.
• Create an environment of collaboration, innovation, and high creative standards.
• Lead brainstorming sessions, critique meetings, and creative reviews with clarity and vision.
• Work closely with copywriters, strategists, and account leads to ensure cohesive storytelling and execution.
• Distill and communicate feedback from Creative Leadership and clients to the creative team, ensuring alignment and clarity.

Studio & Production

• Play a key role in our studio team, developing ongoing content—primarily for social—for our clients while ensuring brand consistency and creative excellence.
• Concept and execute visually compelling work that resonates across digital and social platforms.
• Collaborate with writers, designers, and strategists to develop engaging content that aligns with client goals.
• Develop creative concepts for production, ensuring ideas translate effectively from pre-production through final execution.
• Be comfortable on set, providing art direction and ensuring creative integrity during shoots.
• Oversee post-production, ensuring final assets align with the original concept and meet quality standards.

Client Engagement & Workload 

• Partner with clients to understand their needs and translate objectives into powerful design solutions.
• Present creative concepts with confidence, articulating the thinking behind design decisions and advocating for bold, strategic creative.
• Support teams through all phases of a project, from ideation through the production process, including shoots.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring deadlines and expectations are met without compromising creative integrity.

Who You Are: 

• Experienced: You have 5+ years of design experience in an agency setting or equivalent, with a strong portfolio showcasing conceptual depth, craft, and versatility. You have past experience—or proven potential—for leading teams.
• A Strong Leader: You have a track record of guiding successful creative projects from concept to execution.
• Highly Collaborative: You excel in teamwork, communication, and facilitation, working fluidly across disciplines.
• A Strategic Problem-Solver: You can quickly distill client objectives and set out clear, distinct paths for designers to solve them.
• Detail-Oriented & High Craft: You have a sharp eye for detail, ensuring all work is polished and strategically sound.
• Creatively Bold: You push boundaries, challenge convention, and bring fresh, breakthrough ideas to the table.
• Adaptable & Resilient: You manage multiple projects with ease, staying resourceful and focused under tight deadlines.
• Curious by Nature: You ask the right questions, seek deeper understanding, and embrace learning as part of the creative process.

Brains on Inclusion:
We hire great people from a wide breadth of backgrounds, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it makes our work, our company and our communities stronger. Brains is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, national origin or any other federal, state or local protected class.