Motion Designer in Manchester

This position sits in our Marketing & Technology service based in either London or Manchester. You’ll be working on one of our key tech clients in a lead role. We combine data, technology, creative content, and paid media to crack brands’ business problems & drive revenue through a variety of digital marketing solutions like ad campaigns, augmented reality, and chatbots. Our clients include ASOS, Just Eat Takeaway, Twitch, TikTok, and The White Company.

As a Motion Art Director, you will shape art direction through ideas, motion, and design systems across both moving and static outputs. You bring strong art direction thinking and high‑level craft together to develop concepts from early thinking to final execution. You care about story, composition, pacing, and how visuals communicate both over time and in a single frame. You push ideas forward while actively involved in the work.

Responsibilities

• Shape the art direction across motion and static outputs from concept to delivery.
• Develop strong creative ideas rooted in narrative, pacing, composition, and visual structure.
• Create and direct high‑quality motion and design work across campaigns and formats.
• Define look and feel, styleframes, and motion language for projects.
• Collaborate closely with designers, creatives, and other disciplines.
• Guide execution across motion and static deliverables to keep work aligned with the original creative intent.
• Stay curious of new tools, references, and techniques across art direction, motion, and visual design.
• Lead more junior designers in their work, by setting the art direction and QC of their work.

Qualifications

• Strong visual judgement and confidence contributing to concepts and creative direction.
• Art direction experience showing how you’ve helped crafted the visual story of your work.
• Experience as a motion designer with a clear art direction mindset across both motion and design.
• Solid motion design skills with a good sense of timing, composition, framing, and storytelling.
• Experience creating styleframes, visual systems, and narrative driven motion.
• Curiosity around AI tools and interest in learning how they can support creative work.
• A strong portfolio or showreel showing concept, craft, and high‑quality motion and design work.

Benefits

• A flexible, hybrid working policy (2 days from the office, depending on location).
• An excellent salary based on experience and equal pay policies.
• Pension, free private healthcare, mental health support, and company sick pay scheme.
• 26 days paid holiday (plus UK Bank Holidays).
• Refreshments are provided in the office all week, as well as drinks at 4 pm on a Thursday.
• Help getting you to work with a season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme.
• Enhanced family friendly policies to support new parents.
• Social and Cultural Events, plenty of opportunities to connect with colleagues through organised activities and celebrations.
• Inspirational Talks, bringing the outside in with regular guest speakers and events.
• Learning and Development, supporting your growth with continuous opportunities to learn and advance.
• Buddy Programme: You will be paired with a ‘Buddy’ to help you through your first weeks’ at DEPT®.
• A reputation for doing good. DEPT® has been a Certified B Corp® since 2021 and named ‘Agency of the Year’ at both The Lovies and The Webby Awards.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

At DEPT®, we take pride in creating an inclusive workplace where everyone has an equal opportunity to thrive. We actively seek to recruit, develop, nurture, and retain talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with varying skills and perspectives. We also encourage you to reach out to us and discuss any reasonable adjustments we can make to support you throughout the recruitment process and your time with us.