Creative Director

The Overview

Consumer Reports has almost 90 years of experience guiding consumers to the best product choices and championing marketplace change. To nurture its position as one of the country’s most trusted brands, CR is looking for a creative director who can convey the organization’s powerful mission in an evocative, visually compelling style across its flagship publications (CR.org and Consumer Reports magazine) and its channels (marketing, fundraising, social media, consumer impact). This individual will play a key role in engaging existing members but also introducing CR to a new generation of consumers.

As Creative Director, you will report directly to the head of CR’s 100-plus member content team and lead a team of 15 talented designers, visual editors, and photographers. You will set CR’s design strategy, working closely with stakeholders across the organization. 

We are looking for a dynamic, creative, innovative leader, skilled in audience engagement and design strategy, who can integrate their passion for mission-led work with their design know-how to help consumers. 

This is a hybrid position, and the candidate needs to be located in the tri-state area (NY, CT, NJ) with the ability to come to our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters at least twice a month and our New York City office with some regularity. This position is not eligible for sponsorship. 

How You’ll Make an Impact

The role ensures that the CR brand has a consistent, distinct, vibrant, modern look and feel across all our products and platforms. Key to this is a deep understanding of how to engage audiences through compelling visual storytelling, whether it’s for an award-winning investigation or a branding awareness campaign conveying CR’s deep history and relevance today. 

In this role, you will:

• Lead execution of design strategy, including the creation of visual content across platforms (print and digital) and channels (social media, video, marketing, email newsletters, advertising, and out-of-home).
• Work with key members of CR’s senior leadership team, including the Chief Marketing Officer and the Chief Experience Officer, on the evolution and execution of CR’s brand, ensuring that the visual brand aligns with CR’s mission and strategic and business goals.
• Manage a design team of 15 designers, visual editors, and photographers and ensure the team is cross-trained across platforms and current in the latest emerging design trends, tools, and technologies. 
• Provide hands-on leadership and support to create a highly communicative and collaborative work environment both within the design team and across the organization.
• Maintain a comprehensive knowledge of the organization's business and enterprise objectives to understand how design integrates with the whole.
• Understand how evolving consumer behaviors and the changing marketplace affect how information is consumed.
• Build and maintain relationships with freelance designers and external agencies.
• Oversee and manage budgets, ensuring design assets are maximized across platforms while maintaining what makes each platform unique. 
• Lead the development, evolution, and governance of visual style standards of accuracy and brand consistency.
• Be responsible for visual brand guidelines across all platforms, ensuring consistency, evolution, and execution on new platforms and channels.
• Uphold the highest standards of accuracy in all visual content produced by the team.
• Complete training and professional development requirements in a timely manner.
• Perform all duties in accordance with CRValues, Compliance Program, and other policies and procedures.
• Perform other related duties and special projects as required. 

About You

You’ll Be Highly Rated If:

• You have the experience. At least 10 years of experience in design (media, brand, agency), preferably with experience in a leadership/vision-setting role.
• You are a gifted storyteller. You have excellent visual and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey even the most complex information in a clear, evocative, and compelling visual manner to diverse audiences.
• You understand the design space. You understand the trends, opportunities, and challenges reaching consumers with visual messaging. You have experience leveraging this knowledge to position CR competitively in this space. 
• You use data to drive your decisions. Your strong data orientation allows you to make evidence-based decisions. 
• You value collaboration. You have excellent skills in the areas of presentation, negotiation, and influencing, and you’ve worked closely with stakeholders in areas such as Content, Product, Marketing, and Engineering. 
• You excel at working with both internal and external partners to deliver practical solutions and deliver on business objectives.

You’ll Be One of Our Top Picks If:

• You have experience as a multiplatform designer (print, digital, social, mobile, and video) and understand how to leverage the unique capabilities of each while maintaining an overall clear, compelling, and consistent brand look and feel.
• You have worked in content and understand how to tell complex stories through powerful multimedia storytelling.
• You have successfully led a design team through a multiplatform transformation. 
• You have familiarity with SEO best practices and how design must evolve in parallel.
• You have worked closely with developers and UX designers and know some front-end code yourself.
• You have knowledge of user experience principles and user-centered design.

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Fair Pay & A Just WorkPlace

At Consumer Reports, we are committed to fair, transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive, market-informed compensation. The target salary range for this position is $200K-$225K. This posted range is reflective of the NY/CA market. It is anticipated that most qualified candidates will fall near the middle of this range. Compensation for the successful candidate will be informed by the candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience.