LEAD CREATIVE / ART DIRECTOR in City of London

MG Empower is a global integrated marketing agency.

With our heritage in influencer marketing, we have evolved over the last decade to build a truly integrated creative offering for brands around the world. We work with global clients from Persil to Bumble, Sol de Janeiro to Tangle Teezer, Crocs and more. We create campaigns that live across culture, social, influencer, experiential and the real world.

We're growing, and we're looking for an ambitious, highly creative and visually driven Lead Creative / Art Director to join our in-house Creative team.

This is a senior, highly hands-on role for someone who combines big conceptual thinking with exceptional visual craft. You'll work directly alongside our Creative Director, taking a leading role in the day-to-day creative output of the agency and helping develop integrated campaigns across experiential, events, influencer, social, content and IRL experiences for global brands.

This isn't a traditional Art Director role. We're looking for someone who can take ownership of a brief from strategy and initial concept through pitch, design, client presentation, art direction and final execution.

You need to be someone who loves both having the idea and making the idea brilliant.

A strong background in design and/or art direction is essential. You should be as comfortable opening a blank deck and crafting a pitch from scratch as you are leading a brainstorm, presenting an idea to a client, art directing a shoot or working with production teams to turn a creative concept into a physical experience.

We're looking for someone with at least 5 years' experience within a creative agency or similarly fast-paced creative environment, with a strong portfolio of work that has made it out into the world.

The Role

You'll work closely with our Creative Director, supporting the overall creative vision while taking ownership of much of the agency's day-to-day creative development.

The role sits somewhere between lead creative, art director, designer and strategist.

One week you might be developing the creative platform for a global integrated campaign. The next, designing the world of an influencer trip or conceptualising an experiential activation in New York, developing a social campaign, crafting a pitch deck or working with production teams and fabricators to turn a 3D concept into a physical space.

You'll need to move comfortably between big-picture thinking and detailed craft.

This is a role for someone who wants creative ownership, but still wants to make things.

Core Responsibilities

Creative concepting & integrated campaigns

Develop original, culturally relevant creative ideas across experiential, events, influencer, social, content, PR, OOH and wider integrated campaigns.

Pitch leadership

Take ownership of creative pitches from brief through to presentation. Understand the brief, identifying the creative opportunity, developing the core idea and creative platform, building the narrative and crafting visually exceptional pitch decks.

Design & visual craft

Personally bring ideas to life through strong design, art direction, visualisation, references, layouts and storytelling. This is a hands-on role and you'll regularly be working directly in creative tools rather than simply briefing others.

Creative strategy

Work closely with the strategy team while bringing your own strategic thinking to briefs. You'll need to understand audiences, brands, behaviours and culture and translate these insights into compelling creative ideas.

Campaign delivery

Stay involved throughout the entire creative process, ensuring the original idea and quality of execution are protected from pitch through production and launch.

Experiential & physical design

Concept and art direct experiences, events, influencer trips, pop-ups, installations and other IRL activations, working closely with producers, 3D designers, fabricators and suppliers to translate creative ideas into physical environments.

Art direction

Establish and protect the visual world of campaigns across design, photography, film, social content, environments and physical production.

Client presentation

Confidently present and sell creative thinking to senior clients and stakeholders, responding constructively to feedback while protecting the strength of the creative idea.

Creative leadership

Act as a day-to-day creative lead within the studio, working closely with the Creative Director to maintain a consistently high standard of thinking, design and craft across our output.

Team development

Line manage and mentor our Junior Designer, providing clear creative direction, constructive feedback and opportunities for development.

Agency branding

Help oversee MG Empower's own creative identity and marketing output, including credentials, pitch templates, case studies, whitepapers, website, awards materials and branded agency communications.

What you should be great at

• Developing genuinely strong ideas rather than simply making things look good.
• Translating strategy and cultural insight into simple, compelling creative platforms.
• Thinking across channels and understanding how one central idea can live across experiential, influencer, social, content, PR and OOH.
• Exceptional visual communication, art direction and design.
• Personally crafting beautifully designed pitch decks with strong narrative, pacing and visual storytelling.
• Taking ownership of briefs and pitches with a high level of autonomy.
• Presenting and selling creative ideas confidently to senior clients.
• Moving between multiple clients, pitches and live projects while maintaining creative quality.
• Adobe Creative Suite and contemporary design and visualisation workflows.
• Using AI creatively and intelligently throughout the creative process, particularly for ideation, visualisation, art direction, rendering and moving image.
• Understanding photography and film, including developing treatments, shot direction and visual references.
• Understanding experiential production, materials, fabrication and the realities of turning ambitious ideas into physical experiences.
• Understanding working budgets, costs and production realities when developing creative ideas.
• Collaborating with strategists, producers, client services, designers, creators, photographers, directors, editors and external production partners.
• Art direction across typography, colour, composition, photography, film, materials and physical environments.
• Understanding social platforms, formats, behaviours and emerging trends.
• Leading creative brainstorms and turning early thinking into stronger, more ownable ideas.
• Giving clear and constructive creative feedback and developing junior talent.
• Staying culturally curious and plugged into design, fashion, beauty, entertainment, social, technology and the wider creative industry.

About you

You'll probably come from a design, art direction or multidisciplinary creative background, but your thinking has developed beyond any single discipline.

You're highly visual, but you're not just a designer.

You're conceptual, but you're not someone who hands an idea over and walks away.

You're strategically minded, but you want to make things.

You're senior enough to lead a pitch, challenge a brief and confidently present to a room of clients, but you're still excited to open Illustrator, Photoshop or an AI visualisation tool and start creating.

You can take a loosely defined brief, find the opportunity within it, create the idea, build the deck, sell it to the client and then work with the team to make sure the finished experience is as good as the original vision.

You're comfortable taking ownership of the day-to-day creative work while collaborating closely with the Creative Director on the wider creative vision.

Most importantly, you care deeply about ideas and craft and have the ambition to create work that people genuinely want to experience, share and talk about.

Bonus points

It would be great if you also have:

• Experience art directing or directing stills and moving-image shoots.
• Experience within beauty, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment or culturally driven consumer brands.
• Experience delivering campaigns internationally, particularly across the UK, Europe and US.
• Experience with 3D visualisation or directing 3D designers.
• A strong understanding of influencer and creator culture.