SENIOR CREATIVE / ASSOCIATE DESIGN DIRECTOR

Sports & Fashion Retail Environments

Salary: £60,000 – £75,000, dependent on experience

Location: East London

Working Pattern: Hybrid

Software: Vectorworks, SketchUp

Sector: Sports & Fashion Retail, Brand Environments, Experiential

About the Studio

This is a design-led studio with a strong reputation for delivering thoughtful, high-quality work across sports, fashion, and retail environments.

The business has reached an important stage in its evolution. The work is strong, demand continues to grow, and the foundations are firmly in place for the next chapter. Rather than scaling quickly for the sake of it, the studio is focused on building carefully, protecting the quality of the work while creating a more sustainable structure for the future.

The culture is collaborative, ambitious, and deeply invested in craft. Ideas are challenged, standards are high, and creative thinking carries equal weight to delivery. This is a team that cares about what it produces and how it produces it.

About the Role

This role exists because the studio needs a second senior creative voice.

Not a support function. Not a layer beneath leadership. A genuine creative partner who can share responsibility for concept development, client relationships, project delivery, and creative standards across the business.

You'll operate as a senior creative presence within the studio, leading projects independently while contributing to broader conversations around creative direction, culture, and growth. You'll help shape ideas from early concept through to delivery, challenge thinking where needed, and ensure the quality of the work remains consistently high.

The role combines hands-on design involvement with leadership responsibilities. You'll influence projects directly, build trusted client relationships, support future team growth, and help create the conditions for the studio to scale successfully without compromising what makes it special.

For the right person, this is an opportunity to help build something lasting rather than simply joining an established structure.

Your days will look something like this...

• Lead creative development across sports, fashion, and retail environment projects
• Run projects independently from concept through to delivery
• Collaborate closely with studio leadership to shape creative direction and project strategy
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with clients and project stakeholders
• Challenge ideas constructively and contribute to raising creative standards across the studio
• Develop concepts, presentations, and design solutions that balance creativity with commercial thinking
• Support project planning, resourcing, and delivery alongside wider project teams
• Help shape future team growth, studio culture, and creative processes

You might be our perfect match if...

• You have extensive experience designing retail environments, branded spaces, or experiential projects
• Your portfolio demonstrates both strong creative thinking and exceptional execution
• You are highly proficient in Vectorworks and SketchUp
• You are confident leading projects and making creative decisions independently
• You have experience managing client relationships and presenting work at a senior level
• You understand the commercial realities of running creative projects and balancing quality with delivery
• You enjoy mentoring others and contributing to the growth of a creative team
• You're motivated by ownership, responsibility, and helping build something long-term

Why this one

• Salary of £60,000 – £75,000, dependent on experience
• A rare opportunity to become a genuine creative partner within a growing studio
• Significant influence over creative standards, culture, and future direction
• Sports and fashion retail projects for ambitious, culturally relevant brands
• Hybrid working with flexibility and autonomy built into the role
• A leadership opportunity that remains deeply connected to the craft of design