Art Director

Role:
Art Director, Hale Tori Brands:
Tori Richard, Kahala, Birdwell

Reports to:

Vice President of Marketing, Hale Tori Partners with:
Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, Hale Tori

Location:

In office Honolulu, HI or San Clemente, CA

Employment Type:

Full-Time The Opportunity

Do you want to be a part of one of the world’s leading heritage resort and lifestyle apparel groups? Hale Tori, home to iconic brands including Tori Richard, Kahala, and Birdwell, is hiring an Art Director to define, elevate, and protect the visual language of all three brands. Combined, these brands are leaders in their space with 225 years of heritage.

Founded in 1956, Tori Richard is known for exceptionally crafted, art forward apparel defined by signature prints, lightweight technical fabrics, and a deep connection to Honolulu’s history of art, travel, leisure, and community. Kahala brings a timeless approach to aloha wear rooted in authenticity and tradition, while Birdwell represents the spirit of the ocean through durable, purpose built surfwear with a legacy that spans generations.

Together, these brands share a commitment to quality, craftsmanship, and meaningful design.

This is the group’s senior creative craft role. As Art Director, you will set the aesthetic standard for Hale Tori and then go build it yourself. You will own the look of seasonal campaigns, lead photo and video shoots, design across digital advertising, email, web, print, and retail, and write the guidelines that keep three distinct brands distinct. You will also lead the work of other designers, raising the level of the whole team through direction, critique, and mentorship rather than approval alone.

You will report to the Vice President of Marketing and work directly with the Chief Brand and Marketing Officer to build out the aesthetic for each brand, so that Tori Richard, Kahala, and Birdwell each hold their own individual distinction and brand promise while the group as a whole reads as deliberate and well made.

We are looking for someone who has come up through the ranks of design and earned the seat: a student of aesthetics and design history with real technical skill, a live read on what is current in fashion, art, photography, and culture, and the judgment to know the difference between what is merely of the moment and what is right for these brands.

You will join a small, passionate, in-house creative team that values craft, clarity, and collaboration.

• Define, evolve, and protect the visual identity of Tori Richard, Kahala, and Birdwell, ensuring each brand holds a distinct point of view and delivers on its own brand promise
• Partner with the Chief Brand and Marketing Officer to translate each brand’s positioning into a working aesthetic across typography, color, photography, styling, and composition
• Bring a clear and differentiated point of view to every project, knowing the difference between work that is on trend and work that is unmistakably ours
• Present concepts, campaign looks, and creative rationale to brand and executive leadership with clarity and conviction

• Lead seasonal campaign concepting for each brand, from brief and mood board through casting, location, styling, and final selects
• Develop the seasonal campaign look and the art direction guides, shot lists, and storyboards the wider team executes against
• Lead photo and video shoots on set, directing photographers, stylists, and talent, and making live calls on lighting, composition, and wardrobe
• Own image selection, retouching standards, and post production direction, including direction of external retouchers and editors

• Design and produce work yourself…