Associate Creative Director

About The Role:

Vokal, a boutique digital agency, is seeking a powerful and dynamic Associate Creative Director with a Design background for our fast‑growing team, based in our Chicago office. As an Associate Creative Director, you will play a pivotal role in developing compelling and effective brand experiences. The role will be split approximately 50/50 between leading teams and delivering work through hands‑on design execution.

You will collaborate with cross‑functional teams to translate business objectives and brand values into compelling brand experiences that resonate with our clients and their audiences. Our unique team blends experienced digital athletes from high‑growth start‑ups with experienced agency/marketing leaders to create a powerful blend of digital transformation capabilities.

• Creative Leadership: Share ownership of holistic project delivery and independently run smaller projects with little to no additional creative oversight. Provide creative direction and leadership to the design, copywriting, and multimedia teams to ensure the development of innovative, high‑quality brand experiences.
• Design Execution: Approximately half of the ACD’s time will be spent delivering work through hands‑on design execution. This requires proven experience executing across three holistic areas of design: evolving brands through brand strategy and visual identity, developing actionable, flexible brand toolkits/guidelines; concepting and delivering digital campaigns with a focus on paid social/performance creative (including experience editing videos and delivering light motion graphics through animating logo bumpers, text and other visual elements);
  
  concepting and delivering digital experiences with a focus on optimizing conversion on commerce and lead‑gen websites (requiring proven experience in Figma and, ideally, building within platforms like Shopify).
• Concepting: Lead brainstorming sessions and ideation processes to generate brand experience concepts that resonate with target audiences.
• Client
  
  Collaboration:
  
  Participate in collaboration with clients to understand their goals, vision, and brand identity, translating these insights into creative strategies and concepts.
• Team Development: Mentor and inspire the creative team, fostering their professional growth and ensuring a high level of creativity and collaboration.
• Quality Assurance: Maintain rigorous quality control, ensuring that all creative assets meet our agency's standards and client expectations.
• Market Trends: Stay up‑to‑date with industry trends, emerging technologies, and creative best practices to ensure our work remains innovative and competitive.

• 6‑10 years experience
• Expertise with Adobe Creative Suite and design tools such as Figma
• Degree in design or agency experience as an ACD or experienced senior designer

Vokal is a digital agency and advisory purpose‑built to grow EBITDA, drive revenue and reduce risk for mid‑market brands and private‑equity portfolios. We help brands acquire, convert and retain customers through digital value creation plans that drive key business metrics. Our full‑stack capabilities are designed to revitalize brands and enhance digital fitness across the entire customer journey. Our list of clients includes Weber, Red Bull, Culligan Water, Employ Bridge, Berlin Packaging, Bosch & Dremel, Ace Hardware, The American Medical Association and more.

• Relentless Ambition:
  Nothing is impossible
• All For One:
  Team first
• A Founder’s Mentality:
  Move like an owner
• Fighting For World‑Class:
  Keep raising the bar
• Diversity of Thought:
  All are welcome

Vokal is an Equal Opportunity Employer; we believe that diversity is vital to Vokal’s ability to provide our clients with game‑changing digital ideas and are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. Your race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions.