Art Director

Who We Are

GTB, part of WPP, is a global precision-marketing agency, creating ideas that inspire people to act. Founded in 2007 to accelerate performance for the world's most iconic brands, GTB is part of WPP's industry-leading network of companies driving creative transformation. GTB works across six continents with offices worldwide.
About WPP

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company - powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit

THE OPPORTUNITY

Art Director

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE

• A bachelor's degree
• Portfolio showcasing conceptual skills
• One-plus years of experience in an agency setting, solid creative art direction skills and digital landscape expertise
• Proficiency with Microsoft, Adobe Creative Suites and other relevant graphic design tools
• Demonstrated business acumen, ability to be a team player, establish an information hierarchy, work independently under guidance from Creative Director and other senior team members

CORE SKILLS

A conceptual Art Director for the Retail Team must possess an essential set of core skills that distinguish themselves for the unique needs of Automotive Retail art directing. An overview follows:

IDEATOR

Like the Retail Copywriter, the Retail Art Director must be an ideator first and foremost, with the added and requisite skills to visually render ideas to life. A visual thinker that can work quickly and efficiently under duress of deadlines. One that can also pivot ideation on request under extreme time-constraints [before & after regular business hours]. Strategic direction can quickly change, and is often subjected to market conditions, and global/current events.

CREATE VISUAL IMPACT

On many levels, visual impact is the fundamental job of a Retail Art Director. Matching images with copy. Nowhere is this skill more practiced than in creating layouts, key frames, concept-boards, storyboards, and all things to do with Creative Presentation Decks. As such, industry-required skills within the Adobe Creative Suite of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign are required. Skills in PowerPoint & Keynote are also needed.

IMAGE RESOURCE EXPERT

Image resourcing skills for all needed layouts & boards are also at a premium. From internal and proprietary image sourcing, to 3rd party stock vendors, to custom-curated methods of collecting approved-for-use image-swipe, the Retail Art Director should possess an active and rabid proficiency in obtaining & implementing images. Decks and boards of various lengths and finish [key-frames to concept boards to full storyboards] are often needed on deadline.

CONCEPTING-TO-BUDGET

Both the Retail Art Director & Copywriter need to think big. This is especially true of the former, as the Retail Art Director also needs to think on budget. Matching visuals with copy requires an awareness grounded in the reality of budget-per-project. Not to mention a general idea of how much things cost, especially since the Retail Art Director is typically involved in several projects, each with budget differences, pending scope/scale of project, and source of Retail Client funding.

As a result, achieving visual impact with less, is just as an important as achieving similar impact with all the money desired. At times, Retail Automotive Advertising budgets can be austere. The unique challenge of the Retail Art Director is to always impart visuals as if the project were fully flush with cash.

PERSISTENCE/STAYING POWER

The Retail Art Director must possess staying power, the ability to keep digging in the well for ideas and solutions to ever-changing directions. The Retail Art Director must have the fortitude to remain committed to the project for the long haul, to endure not only unexpected direction changes, but the multiple expected "tweaks & revisions" from the multiple layers of internal agency & client…