Creative Design Manager

**Position Overview**:
Wilfrid Laurier University is looking for a new Creative Design Manager as part of the central Marketing team in External Relations. The Creative Design Manager should be a creative leader with a passion for brand building and a proven track record of developing impactful marketing creative that delivers results. We are looking for a strong relationship-builder that is collaborative, solution-oriented, and passionate about developing creative team talent and morale.

The Creative Design Manager is responsible for leading the LAURIER brand’s creative and design strategic direction. This includes leading and mentoring a team of talented design and multimedia professionals to develop creative concepts, ideas and recommendations - and ensuring delivery of exceptional work that brings the brand to life to meet organizational goals. As a master of design, the Creative Design Manager will both help create and execute impactful design materials - and will inspire, coach, collaborate with and oversee the team’s work to ensure a consistent and cohesive brand experience for our audiences. And as the lead brand champion for the university, the Manager will guide and enable the campus communities to strengthen the brand (and its distinctive brand assets) through consistency.

**Responsibilities**:
**Brand Expert & Champion**:

- Work closely with the Marketing Manager and wider Marketing team to contribute to strategic marketing plans, brand positioning, marketing campaigns, content, and support through creative leadership and execution
- Responsible for setting the standard for and being a champion of the LAURIER brand’s visual identity across the organization and with partners
- Ensure our brand promise resonates in a clear, compelling manner across content - to deliver a consistent and cohesive brand experience and visual identity across the organization and its channels
- Elevate the LAURIER brand in design quality with the team of talented designers and producers, spending dedicated time specifically on the overarching university design strategy
- Develop and present communication materials to educate and empower campus partners with the LAURIER brand visual identity, design best practices, and available tools/templates/processes/resources to support their needs
- Build relationships and tools/processes with agency and vendor partners to communicate the LAURIER brand visual identity to ensure consistency across all executions
- Work with team members to develop on-brand tools and templates to share with campus partners to enable consistent marketing execution across the university

**Creative Direction, Development and Concepting**:

- Develop/enhance the creative vision for all LAURIER marketing and brand projects through a strategic approach that is designed to achieve business objectives, starts with an audience-first lens to engage our target audience(s) across key channels, and builds the Laurier brand
- Lead the ideation, creation, and production of eye-catching/thumb-stopping design solutions, from initial concepts through to production of final assets that generate interest and drive results - across digital, video and print
- Work with team members to create or spearhead the initial concepts of a project (via storyboards, illustrations, descriptions, etc.); conceptualize and pitch fresh approaches that connect our creative and content to our strategy and will deliver results - and ensure collaboration and buy-in of concepts by stakeholders
- Lead with an audience-first approach to developing materials; leveraging research, data and stakeholder-insights to build positive audience brand experiences
- Leverage current and emerging industry best practices and trends to develop creative products that will breakthrough, attract attention and drive action, including best in class digital-first solutions
- Work closely with internal team and external agency partners as needed to develop desired creative direction and execution
- Help direct photo and video shoots - including ideation, developing creative concepts and providing on-site direction; support excellent execution via preparing pre-production direction of shot lists, casting talent, prop management, defining and staying within budget, etc.
- Provide a high level of brand review and quality assurance on all assets - and share and consult with Director via regular updates

**Creative Team Leadership**:

- The Creative Design Manager is responsible for leading a team of talented creatives (designers, videographer and multimedia producer), including mentoring, coaching, inspiring, and developing the team’s talents, morale and successes.
- As an experienced creative leader, the Manager will help create a positive creative culture that is conducive to creating excellent work, and supports the team to ensure every project they’re working on reaches its potential
- Accountable for the team’s output and high quality of work
- Enc