Design Director Job Description

Updated on: August 29, 2019

Position Overview

Companies that provide design solutions to customers must hire the services of a design director to smooth out its design processes.

Typically, a design director is responsible for heading and leading a team of designers and drafters to make sure that each design project reaches fruition promptly.

 

Design directors develop and implement a company’s design strategy and ensure that all aspects related to a specific project are handled efficiently.

The foremost responsibility of a design director is to ensure that his team understands what each design project requires of them. Once this is ensured, it is essential for design directors to make sure that designs and drawings are completed and are following the clients’ needs.

As a design director, you will not only be leading a team of designers, but you will also need to be physically involved in the designing processes. Employers generally prefer hiring design directors who have an agile mind and can balance a multitude of designing projects and overseeing duties simultaneously.

A design director usually reports to a creative director and must possess a great ability to communicate with the upper management.

 

If you have a degree in art or design and are somewhat experienced in leading design processes and teams, this may be the job for you. Have a look at the following list of duties that a design director is expected to perform:

See also: Industrial Designer Resume

Design Director Job Description and Duties

• Take charge of the company’s artwork keeping in mindset product or service promotion goals

• Mentally sketch ideas and reproduce them using technology

• Reproduce artwork by ensuring that proper permissions have been obtained

• Provide design and drafting teams with information on design projects and set guidelines for them

• Lead designing and drafting activities to make sure that they conform to the established guidelines

• Confer with clients to determine their design and layout needs

• Ensure that any new project design layouts are developed according to the client’s instructions

• Ensure that design consistency is maintained by continually reviewing team efforts

• Make sure that internal projects are coordinated with outside resources with a view to facilitate deliverables

• Ensure that all correspondence, materials, presentations, and proposals are error-free and are communicated to clients in a high quality

• Partner with all relevant departments to ensure on-time delivery of design projects

• Assist designers and drafters with their work in times of tight deadlines and / or creative limitations

• Conduct workshops on drawing, sketching and research to providing creative teams with support and information on conceptual exploration