Art Director in London

Monks is looking for an Art Director to join the team. Someone who brings together sharp thinking with strong visual craft. This role sits between concept and execution, shaping distinctive visual identities and campaigns across a mix of clients and platforms. You’ll work closely with a tight crew of designers, copywriters, producers, and motion teams building ideas that are culturally tuned and visually refined. This is a hands‑on role. You’ll need a proven eye for craft, with the ability to both direct and design across digital, motion, and integrated campaigns. Someone comfortable getting into the work, elevating it, and pushing it further. The role is hybrid, with 2-3 days in the studio and regular time on‑site with clients – so strong collaboration and the ability to build trust directly with client teams is just as important as the work itself.

Responsibilities

• Lead art direction for various projects, including pitches and agency clients for social media and print production.
• Collaborate with team members to take and interpret creative briefs.
• Present creative ideas and concepts to clients and stakeholders.
• Assist in implementing the creative ideas of the 360° team, ensuring visual identity authenticity.
• Create style proposals, sketches, and mockups to initiate new projects and pitches.
• Elevate the quality of design through collaboration, bringing storytelling to life via motion and interactive elements.
• Ensure designs align with client expectations and push the boundaries of creativity.
• Maintain and evolve a consistent visual language across campaigns, with meticulous attention to typography, hierarchy, colour, and composition.
• Champion design quality and craft across all deliverables, setting a high bar for execution and inspiring the broader team to do the same.
• Actively explore and integrate emerging AI tools into creative workflows, sharing learnings with the wider team and helping define how the studio uses AI responsibly and creatively.

About You

The essentials

• 5+ years of experience in advertising design or art direction, with a portfolio that demonstrates exceptional design craft - not just strong concepts, but polished, considered execution across a range of formats.
• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Fine Arts, or a related field.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator) and Figma, including prototyping and design systems.
• Strong working knowledge of AI tools (e.g., Nano Banana, Adobe Firefly, Runway, MidJourney, ChatGPT) and the ability to integrate them meaningfully into creative workflows; not just as novelty, but as a genuine part of the craft.
• Ability to critically evaluate AI-generated output; knowing when to use it, when to push it further, and when to set it aside in favour of human craft.
• Strong understanding of social media platforms and their visual communication codes.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with teams and clients.
• A sharp eye for detail, in typography, spacing, colour and consistency, with a commitment to delivering polished, pixel-perfect work.
• Strong typographic skills and a refined visual sensibility developed through years of intentional practice.

Not a must, but a plus

• Experience working within global brand guidelines, with an understanding of how to maintain visual consistency across a large-scale brand system.
• Exposure to multi‑market or multilingual campaigns, with an appreciation for how creative adapts across different cultural contexts.
• A background in volume production – managing or contributing to large batches of assets across multiple formats and channels.
• Spanish language skills, spoken or written, are a welcome bonus.

At Monks, we believe in fostering an environment where a diversity of perspectives can thrive. We proactively work to design hiring processes that promote equity and inclusion while mitigating bias. We celebrate diversity and are committed to building a team that reflects the communities we serve. We welcome and encourage qualified applicants from all backgrounds who are excited to contribute to our mission.

Monks does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.