Creative Director

Interested in joining Blue State's Creative Director team? Submit your application here to ensure you're first in line for future opportunities. Please note: this is an "evergreen" job post (i.e. not an active job post), but your expression of interest matters to us. While interviews aren't ongoing, we're excited to connect with talented individuals who share our commitment to Blue State's mission. 

If you came across this job via LinkedIn, please note that it is an evergreen role; Linked In does not differentiate, but we prefer to.

What to know

Create compelling campaigns, brands and experiences for causes that matter. In this role, you will work closely with account directors, strategists, designers, writers and analysts to ensure that we’re delivering innovative, beautiful and flawless work that exceeds the expectations of the organisations we work with. You will bring creative vision and impactful leadership to nonprofits, advocacy campaigns and brands’ social impact teams. 

We believe great creative is data and strategy driven, not ego-driven. We’re looking for you to collaborate closely with our teams to shape test-worthy ideas that will let the numbers do the talking.

We’re interested in the originality, honesty and proven success of your concepts and appeals.

The company

Blue State is a purpose-driven agency. We partner with leading causes, brands, and campaigns and create real change. From AARP and Doctors Without Borders to Amnesty International and Oxfam, we transform how brands and causes raise money, influence policy, build platforms, and grow communities of supporters. Led by the most creative and analytical minds from the political, nonprofit, and brand worlds, Blue State is an independent agency in the US and London.

A day in the life

• Lead and inspire: Working closely with your colleagues, you’ll develop a vision for our client’s creative success. You’ll guide the development and implementation of campaigns, appeals and creative platforms, from initial presentations through final delivery.  
• Create with purpose: Organisations come to us with big questions and for direction on how to be more meaningful, relevant and human - your conceptual thinking and messaging will help make that a reality.
• Accountability: Assess and ensure the quality of creative process and product on an ongoing basis. Attend internal critiques, and provide creative solutions to team. Final sign-off on design, copy, and UX work for key projects.
• Foster a culture of collaboration and creativity: Stay on top of developments in the field, industry, and culture. Help identify, hire and retain designers, copywriters, and other creatives. Mentor junior members of the project team.

What we offer

• Unlimited time off (inclusive of sick, personal and vacation days)
• $1,000 annual in professional development funds (local equivalent)
• Fully subsidised health and dental insurance for employees (subject to tax)
• Generous pension match via salary sacrifice 
• Generous paid holiday schedule 
• Parental leave policy for up to 32.5 week of coverage at full pay, inclusive of all genders and supporting a range of family structures
• Group Income Protection (GIP)
• Group Life Assurance (GLA)
• Optional holiday travel insurance
• Pre-tax season ticket loans
• Cycle to work (up to £2000)
• Remote work flexibility

We approach in-office working with a hybrid model, with presence in our office required at two days per week.

The team

You’ll be a senior member of the London team bringing in new clients and, as a leader, defining and improving the work we’re creating. You will also be a part of our global creative director team who meet regularly for creative inspiration.

Some things we're looking for

1. 6+ years in senior creative role, ideally with hands-on designing experience. At least some of this experience working on fundraising and mobilisation campaigns.
2. Experience in leading and collaborating with teams of designers, copywriters, strategists and creatives - taking insight that has been shaped and developing compelling, digitally-driven ideas and products.
3. Strategy-led: able to clearly articulate design or strategy related dilemmas, and offer multiple solutions with a clear link back to the strategy and insights. 
4. Comfort and passion for creative testing, co-creation with clients and audiences, and constructively consolidating feedback from global stakeholders to improve the work. 
5. Impeccable presentation skills: able to explain the reasons behind a particular design or creative strategy, and guide clients through difficult decision points. Experience in pitching a strong advantage.
6. Deep knowledge of persuasion strategies & tools: copywriting, social influence, brand advocacy, fundraising, UX and experience design.
7. Strong sense of communications and its operating model: how impactful messages are created, journeys constructed and users driven on a journey from awareness to advocacy. 
8. An area of expertise or passion in the design world (be it fundraising, design, UX, communications or social change) that you can harness and upskill wider team members with as a thought leader within the wider company.
9. Industry-leading quality of work: you produce inspiring work that stands out, is flawless in execution, and innovative in thought. You are both a doer and a thinker, and your work reflects that. 
10. Patient with your colleagues and clients, able to make key decisions when and where required.
11. Ability to adapt to new situations, solve problems on the fly, and communicate with those around you. Teamwork and scrappiness required, alongside respect to our clients and their expertise.
12. A shared passion and curiosity for making change. This includes comfort with ambiguity, a restlessness that resists the status quo, and a commitment to quality that ensures we’re always making progress.
13. A firm grasp on the latest AI tools, the creative and  ethical considerations they demand, and a healthy disrelish for written and visual slop.
14. Empathy, communication, respect, and the ability to act as a role model at Blue State.

At Blue State, diversity is a necessity, not a nice-to-have. We encourage those from underrepresented communities — women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, those with disabilities and people at all the intersections in between — to apply. Even if you don’t think your current skill set checks every box, but this role seems to align with your strengths, we want to hear from you.

Blue State is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible application and interview process. If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation for a disability, including the use of AI tools throughout the hiring process, please contact us at recruiting@bluestate.co with the subject line: Accommodation Request to get started.

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