Graphic Designer

Summary of Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Creative Lead: Using your creative judgement and communication skills to help graphic designers maximise their own creative output and deliver first-class creative work; reviewing briefs and setting the creative direction for projects where necessary, taking into account direction from Head of Marketing
• Traffic & Workflow Management: Maintain high levels of production and traffic management to ensure internal client briefs are processed to agreed timescales and budgets, prioritising and reallocating tasks as necessary. This will involve using project/task/workflow delivery tools such as Slack, MS Teams, Monday.com and Trello.
• Supplier Management:Lead external supplier agreements and contracts for specialist media and print services, utilising suppliers and freelancers when necessary
• Digital-First: Adopting a digital-first approach to projects and constantly improving the creative output to ensure innovative digital solutions are adopted in client briefs
• Senior Stakeholder Engagement: Key stakeholder engagement at all levels of the University to take briefs and working with team members on delivering response to briefs professionally. Developing strong working relationships with Heads of/Directors
• Brand Stewardship & Management: To act as the key decision-maker on brand related matters for Dubai, escalating to Head of Marketing when necessary
• Global Coordination: Providing creative support for projects delivered by Malaysia and UK teams, ensuring briefs can be delivered that meet local market needs.
• Reporting: Providing regular monthly reporting on process efficiency in project delivery and also cost management
• Customer Service Evaluation: Continually evaluating client satisfaction and ensuring highest levels of customer service. This involves gathering feedback and identifying areas for improvement in effectiveness or efficiency, which can support our strategic objective to be a Globally Connected University
• Brand tone of voice guidelines and quality monitoring: Brand lead on the development of tone of voice and brand guidelines to ensure these are clear, consistent and up to date. This will enable our brand to be communicated externally and internally through the ongoing work of the design studio, external suppliers/agencies and professional service colleagues in the University.

Education, Qualifications & Experience:

Essential

1. At least 5 years’ experience in a graphic design or creative role, with a strong background in client delivery
2. Knowledge of video production/editing
3. Proven experience managing and delivering multiple projects successfully for internal or external clients
4. A strong entrepreneurial mind-set
5. Significant experience managing a team of graphic or digital designers
6. Experience managing internal and external print delivery and services.
7. Must have exceptional communication skills and be able to bridge the gap between the operational and creative demands of the team
8. Experience of developing or delivering brand guidelines and championing this through all areas.
9. Passion for brand building with strong commercial awareness
10. Proficiency in a variety of rapid prototyping and design tools – Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat) within a Mac environment.
11. Ability to work effectively, both independently and as part of a team

Desirable

1. Creative agency or design studio background
2. Experience of working in Higher Education
3. Technical knowledge of print production.
4. An appreciation of other cultures, the global reach of the university and its international agenda.