Multimedia Design Director (12 month FTC)

• The Multimedia Design Director will lead the visual direction for Gardeners’ World
• This is a role for a craft-obsessed, systems-minded creative who can bridge the brand’s celebrated legacy and its digital future — preserving the warmth, authority and distinctiveness that have made it a household name, while building the frameworks, templates and guardrails that let great design happen at scale
• You’ll see the whole picture: what each format is for, who it serves and how it should look
• And you’ll define how the brand presents itself across every touchpoint — magazine, web, social, motion and beyond — putting the tools, asset libraries and production culture in place to deliver it consistently
• This is also a role for someone with a genuine love of gardening, which gives you an instinct for what the audience wants and what feels true to the brand
• Above all, you’ll be a leader who brings the design team with them, building digital skills and raising ambition
• You’ll be uncompromising on quality, knowing the difference between on-brand and merely acceptable and pushing for on-brand every time
• And you’ll be a natural collaborator who earns trust quickly, explains decisions clearly, and has the confidence to hold the line when it matters
• Own and evolve the GW visual identity across all touchpoints — print, digital, social, motion and experiential
• Define and maintain the brand design system: typography, colour, iconography, grid and motion principles
• Set and document the guardrails that let the wider team produce on-brand work independently and at pace, acting as the final checkpoint on consistency
• Build and manage a library of templates, components and reusable assets in Figma, In Design and After Effects, designed to speed up turnaround without sacrificing quality
• Champion intelligent reuse of the GW archive — photography, illustration, typography and footage — with workflows to surface and adapt it for new contexts
• Keep asset infrastructure well‑organised, version‑controlled and accessible to the team
• Lead the design of Gardeners’ World Magazine and brand marketing collateral, working closely with the editorial team
• Direct visual output across GW digital platforms — website, newsletter and app
• Ensure design reflects audience segmentation, adapting the visual register for Established Gardeners, New Gardeners and Hobbyists
• Bring genuine fluency in social formats — knowing what lands on Instagram, You Tube, Tik Tok and Apple News versus what belongs in a print spread — and translate editorial and seasonal moments into social‑first creative that feels native, not repurposed
• Oversee motion graphics, animated social content and short‑form video in After Effects
• Work with the social and editorial teams on visual content calendars, deploying design resource where it has most impact
• Line manage a team of designers and motion artists, providing creative direction, mentoring and performance support
• Brief and quality‑control work from freelance designers and retouchers
• Foster a culture of creative ambition, craft pride and brand coherence
• Represent design in cross‑disciplinary planning and contribute to the wider creative strategy

Benefits

• Contributory pension
• Life assurance
• Extra day off for your birthday
• Extra day off around Christmas
• 25 days annual leave,
• Holiday purchase and sale scheme
• Recruitment referral scheme
• Employee assistance programme
• Flexible/Hybrid Working
• Gym Discount
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
• Retail and restaurant discounts
• Child‑care vouchers

Demonstrable experience leading design output across both print and digital channels Deep understanding of social media platforms and their distinct visual grammars Highly organised with a systematic approach to file management, asset libraries and production pipelines Excellent eye for typographic detail and image quality Expert‑level proficiency across the full Adobe Creative Suite, particularly In Design, Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects Strong working knowledge of Figma, including component libraries, design tokens and collaborative workflows Experience managing or mentoring junior designers and briefing freelancers A track record of building and maintaining design systems or brand guardianship frameworks Experience working on a media brand with a strong heritage identity Familiarity with video editing tools (Premiere Pro or similar)Understanding of accessibility standards in digital design Experience with DAM (Digital Asset Management) systems A personal interest in gardening, horticulture or the natural world

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