Art Direction Manager

Who We Are:

At Brooks, we believe movement is the key to feeling more alive. That’s why we’re driven to create gear and experiences that take people to the place that makes them feel more alive — whether it’s a headspace, a feeling, or a finish line.

Everyone who works at Brooks is propelled by a company culture that sparks excitement, fuels collaboration, inspires creativity, and ignites innovation.

Our brand values help bond us together and drive our success:

• Runner First

• We act in the best interest of the runner

• Word is Bond

• We do what we say we’ll do

• Champion Heart

• We give our all in everything we do

• There is no “I” in Run

• We stay generous with our humanity

• Keep Moving

• We find ways to move every day, because joy is kinetic!

We welcome everyone from every walk of life looking to inspire others through the power of movement - because we’re all moving towards something. Let’s run there.

Your Job:

The Brooks Global Creative team is dedicated to imagining, designing, curating, and manifesting creative concepts, campaigns, and assets that define and express the Brooks brand. As the Art Direction Manager at Brooks, you will own complex productions and projects while developing and providing guidance to other Art Directors on the team creating photography and video assets to be used across the breadth of marketing assets (i.e., print, retail, packaging, social media, events).

Your creative vision, energy, and insights into runners will equip you to drive projects from concept development, video and photo art direction, and story board planning to on-set creative leadership and collaboration with partners in retouching, video editing, color, and motion graphics. You are a highly motivated self-starter who is detail- and quality-oriented with the ability to handle multiple competing priorities. You are comfortable working in the gray and trust your years of experience to anticipate outcomes, continually raising the creative bar for Brooks and its audience.

Your Responsibilities::
• Lead art direction for image and video from concept pre-production to final video and images postproduction, including concept and art direction, story boards, location and talent choices, story themes, on-set lead, image and footage selects, crop recommendations, final cuts, cut downs, music, application of motion graphics, and final color.

• Lead, conceptualize, and develop the creative playbook for editorial, lifestyle, and ambient projects.

• Own and define image art direction for brand expression collaborating with senior managers and creative directors to evolve seasonally as appropriate.

• Work hand-in-hand with the Styling Manager and team to ensure strong collaboration and unified vision for each production that comes through the Lab.

• Partner with Copywriting to develop story concepts for video that are both breakthrough and on brief.

• Partner with Image and Video stylists to define casting choices and outfit selection for each image and video production assigned.

• Partner with Video and Photo Production to develop a production plan and lead art direction for image and video productions assigned.

• Partner with project partners across Marketing, Creative, and other business teams for video and image projects to develop and refine production planning and processes that will create efficiencies but not impede quality of final assets.

• Select final image assets, provide retouch notes, and review with creative leadership and stakeholders.

• Lead, collaborate, and prepare concepts, storyboards, and visual art direction and present to stakeholders and senior leaders.

• Be the on-set lead for creative and ensure that image and video assets are captured as planned while staying within production time limits.

• Direct freelance creative partners (i.e., photographers, videographers, retouchers, production agencies, motion graphic designer, and producers).

• Lead and mentor designers and art direction leads in image and video art direction.

Your Qualifications::
• Creative portfolio demonstrating best in class image and video excellence with major consumer brands; please add your online portfolio link at the top of your resume when applying

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing or related field; equivalent combination of education and years of experience can be considered in lieu of degree(s)

• 7+ years of experience as an art director for image and video

• 5+ years of experience art directing photographers, video directors, and creative production agencies

• Lead creative role within an agency or with an in-house creative team preferred

• Expert knowledge in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, CaptureOne, and Figma

• Excellent interpersonal skills that inspire and build trust resulting in effective working relationships across the company

• Keen attention to detail in planning, organization, and execution of tasks, while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all the pieces fit together and affect one another

• Ability to anticipate how a decision made can affect our customers, our partners, our products, or other departments’ operations and/or morale, “connecting the dots”

• Ability to change the status quo – always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details

• Ability to understand and empathize with the runner to develop loyal, engaging relationships with our customers and the Brooks community

• Travel 40% - domestically and internationally

• Embraces and lives the Brooks values!

Compensation: The pay range for this position, based out of the Brooks Seattle HQ, is $Z3 Bottom - $Z3 Top per year. Base pay offered will vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Other:

Brooks is proud to offer a robust benefits package to our employees and their families!

Benefits- including medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance, HSA and employer contribution, FSA, family & fertility assistance, 401K Savings Plan and match, employee assistance program, and transportation assistance.

Paid Time Off- Brooks offers generous time off including five weeks of paid time off, eleven paid holidays, paid sick and parental leave.

Bonus- in addition to base pay, Brooks employees may also be offered an annual bonus based on company performance.

Perks- including product discounts, employee recognition, fitness discounts, volunteer and donation benefits.

Location- You will spend 4 days per week in our Seattle offices, as we believe our organization flourishes when connections, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and celebrations happen in person.

At Brooks, we celebrate diversity & equity. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment, and encourage people of all backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, and skills to apply. Brooks is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, two-spirit identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, the presence of a physical, mental, or sensory disability, marital status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), caste, citizenship or immigration status, honorably discharged veteran or military status, actual or perceived victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking, HIV or Hepatitis C infection, political ideology, use of a trained service animal by a person with a disability, or on any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law, or any other non-merit based factors.