Creative Director, Design

Guru Studio, a creative-driven entertainment company and industry leader in animated storytelling, is seeking a Creative Director, Design. This role involves directing in-house artists, ensuring high visual production quality, mentoring art directors, and leading design-related presentations. The Creative Director will also collaborate on visual development across projects, troubleshoot creative problems, and contribute to recruitment, ensuring design teams meet production deadlines and quality standards.

Must Have

• Review and direct in-house artists (character/location design, backgrounds, colour palettes, pitch packages)
• Ensure art directors are selected and onboarded to elevate quality and production efficiency
• Provide feedback for performance improvement and recommend talent upgrades
• Bring creative best and strategy expertise for animated tests and debriefs
• Collaborate with other Creative Directors on visual development and vision
• Serve as Art Director in critical development phase of new projects and bids
• Lead design-related presentations with new and existing clients
• Review and provide guidance for production artwork
• Communicate best practices across all teams
• Identify and troubleshoot creative problems, escalate and resolve issues
• Proactively identify areas for design process correction and improvement
• Hold regular design meetings to critique, review and resolve concerns
• Research, propose and pitch new software/hardware and innovative ideas
• Contribute to the recruitment process by interviewing talent and presenting in schools/tradeshows
• Collaborate with Producers to ensure Designers meet production deadlines and quotas
• Produce and organize presentation-ready artwork and development materials

Perks & Benefits

• Collaborative and creatively fulfilling work environment
• High standard of quality and creativity in work
• Learning opportunities for skill development and growth
• Support philanthropic initiatives through Guru Gives charity committee
• Health and wellness support through an extensive benefits plan
• Extended mental health services and initiatives
• Flexibility to work remotely
• Downtown studio available for in-person team building and collaboration

Guru Studio is a creative-driven entertainment company and an industry leader in animated storytelling. For over twenty years, our studio has brought to life some of the most recognizable and beloved children’s properties in the world.

Guru Studio's dedicated team is passionate about bringing inspired character driven stories to screens around the world. Our award winning and internationally renowned Toronto animated entertainment company is looking for a Creative Director, Design to join our dynamic team!

Core Duties & Responsibilities include but will not be limited to:

• Reporting directly to Frank Falcone, President & Executive Creative Director (Your “Supervisor”).
• Reviewing and directing in-house artists (i.e. character/location design, backgrounds, colour palettes, pitch packages) to create and maintain the highest level of visual production quality on the studio’s animated projects including providing feedback where performance improvement is needed;
• Ensuring art directors are selected and onboarded to successfully elevate the quality and production efficiency of a series and providing support and mentoring to enable art directors to independently take over the series art direction;
• Providing feedback to the appropriate parties should a team member not meet performance expectation and recommending where a talent upgrade is necessary;
• Bringing creative best and strategy expertise to ensure successful wins of our animated tests and post debriefs on future improvements;
• Collaborating with other Creative Directors and others involved with visual development and design to provide overall direction and vision across all projects at Guru;
• Serving as Art Director and taking ownership in the critical development phase of new projects and bids and lead design-related presentations with new and existing clients;
• Reviewing and providing guidance while delivering artwork for production work as needed;
• Communicating best practices across all teams to ensure processes are carried out consistently;
• Identifying and troubleshooting any creative problems, escalate and resolve creative issues when needed;
• Proactively identifying areas of the design process that require correction and improvement;
• Holding regular design meetings to critique, review and resolve concerns held by the team;
• Researching, proposing and pitching new software/hardware and innovative ideas that can improve the design team workflow and creativity;
• Contributing to the recruitment process by interviewing talent and presenting in schools or at tradeshows, as well as working closely with Talent team to ensure artists are best matched to meet the creative targets of each property;
• Collaborating with Producers to ensure Designers are meeting production deadlines and quotas at the necessary quality standard; and
• Producing and organizing presentation-ready artwork when needed, as well as other materials for development work in consultation with project creators/stakeholders.

Leadership/Management Responsibilities:

• Creating and communicating a compelling and inspired vision or sense of core purpose for visual development at the studio;
• Actively building and maintaining a network of top talent, internally and externally;
• Nurturing an environment that supports bold thinking, innovation, experimentation and learning and communicating and leading change initiatives;
• Collaborating and partnering with department heads and creative leaders across the studio; seeking and incorporating a wide spectrum of input and perspective into planning and decision-making;
• Identifying, evaluating and selecting high caliber talent and provide ongoing mentorship and development to the team and studio;
• Setting expectations for performance and deliverables for the team, monitoring progress and providing ongoing feedback and guidance; and
• Anticipating and planning for the development of new skills, techniques and technologies and their impact on talent acquisition, training and retention practices.

Qualifications:

• The ability to design, art direct, and articulate conceptual design decisions with a critical and creative eye for detail;
• The capacity to translate creative brief into impactful designs that advance internal/external strategies and achieve marketing goals while maintaining brand standards, budgets, and timelines;
• The capability to think outside the box and be solution oriented and thrive in a fast paced entrepreneurial environment;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills;
• Talent in presenting information concisely and accurately and building team consensus;
• Proven proficiency and understanding of Google Suite; and
• Excellent leadership skills with a love for all things animation!

Why Join Guru?

• We create a collaborative and creatively fulfilling work environment by promoting courage, purpose, inspiration, integrity, transparency, and empowerment as our core values
• We take great pride in our work and we always ensure it reflects a high standard of quality and creativity
• We encourage individuals to grow with us by offering learning opportunities that encourage skill development and growth
• We are proud to support philanthropic initiatives that support our local and global community through our charity committee Guru Gives
• We offer health and wellness support through an extensive benefits plan and extended mental health services and initiatives
• We allow the flexibility to work remotely while making our downtown studio available for in-person team building and collaboration

Guru is committed to providing an inclusive work environment that celebrates the diversity of its employees. We are dedicated to employment equity and welcome applications from people from all Indigenous groups, races, religions, genders and people with disabilities.

We are committed to providing an accessible candidate experience during our recruitment process and are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible ‎environment where candidates and ‎employees feel valued and respected. Guru strives to respect the dignity and ‎‎independence of people with disabilities and is committed to giving them the same ‎‎opportunity to succeed in the recruitment process as all other candidates. If you have a disability, you may request ‎to be accommodated at any time. Guru will work with all candidates to ‎‎accommodate individual accessibility needs to the point of undue hardship.

Guru Studio would like to thank all applicants for your interest, however only those who qualify for an interview will be contacted.

Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process. Guru Studio is an equal opportunity employer.

Please note this is an In-Studio/ Hybrid position.