Art Director

MERIT is seeking an Art Director to help lead the visual tone and direction of campaigns, ecommerce, and product photography. This role requires impeccable taste, deep knowledge of beauty and fashion, and a strong eye for design and image-making. The ideal candidate has experience developing creative concepts, leading pre-production, directing model and still-life photography on set, and overseeing work through post-production.

Reporting to the VP, Creative, this person will help ensure everything we make feels elevated, cohesive, and distinctly MERIT.

Role & Responsibilities

You will work closely with the rest of the Creative team, Brand Marketing, Digital, and Production to ensure work feels elevated, cohesive, and distinctly MERIT. This person will also mentor and manage junior creatives.

• Develop visual concepts that translate the MERIT brand into model photography, product photography, and video across social, digital, retail, and other brand touchpoints, leading projects from initial idea through final execution.
• Lead creative pre-production, including visual research, references, shot lists, casting direction, styling direction, locations, sets, lighting, and overall visual approach.
• Direct model and still-life photography on set, communicating a clear creative point of view to photographers, talent, stylists, hair and makeup artists, set designers, and production partners.
• Lead creative through post-production, including image selects, retouching, color, crops, sequencing, and final asset delivery.
• Partner closely with Production to identify and assemble the right creative teams and collaborators for each brief.
• Maintain a deep and current knowledge of photographers, models, stylists, set designers, retouchers, and other creative talent.
• Bring a strong fashion sensibility to the work, with a nuanced understanding of contemporary imagery, styling, casting, photography, and cultural references.
• Stay deeply immersed in the beauty industry, with a strong understanding of the brands, campaigns, talent, image-makers, and creative shifts shaping the category.
• Create and oversee design across campaign and brand expressions, ensuring a high level of craft across typography, layout, composition, and image selection.
• Mentor and support junior and mid-level creatives, fostering a collaborative, ambitious, and highly creative team culture.
• Balance multiple projects and priorities while maintaining exceptional attention to detail and a consistently high creative bar.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience in art direction, ideally within beauty, fashion, or a highly image-driven consumer brand.
• A portfolio demonstrating exceptional art direction across both model and still-life photography, as well as a strong eye for design.
• Deep knowledge of the beauty industry, with strong familiarity with brands, campaigns, and emerging trends.
• Deep knowledge of fashion, with a strong understanding of fashion photography, models, styling, and contemporary visual culture.
• A strong understanding of the MERIT brand and what makes it distinctive.
• Strong graphic design, typography, typesetting, and layout skills, with an exceptional eye for composition, hierarchy, proportion, and detail.
• Significant experience directing both model and still-life photography on set.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to clearly articulate a creative point of view and give thoughtful feedback.
• Comfortable working autonomously and owning projects end-to-end.
• Highly detail-oriented, culturally curious, and deeply engaged with beauty, fashion, design, photography, art, and culture.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite.

MERIT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status, disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.