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Senior Art Director

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Senior Art Director

If you’re reading this, you’re probably scrolling on your phone. Perfect. Let’s talk. 

The Weber Shandwick Collective (TWSC) is looking for a Senior Art Director who lives and breathes the internet to join our team in Chicago. If you have a running theory about the next big TikTok trend or can spot a meme format before it’s viral, you might just have found your calling. 

This isn’t a role for someone who dips their toes into media trends; it’s for someone who dives headfirst. Imagine yourself crafting groundbreaking campaigns that spark joy, ignite shares, and earn a permanent spot in people’s lives. We want the kind of ideas that don’t just ride the wave, but that create the wave. 

Let’s be clear: this is not the job where you’re cranking out uninspired visuals and the same old rinse-and-repeat ideas. This is the job, and the agency, where ideas meet cultural currency. Where you’ll create the campaign that everyone shares before lunch. Where ideas become award-winning work that’s discussed around the country. 

So, let’s talk specifics. 

What You’ll Do (Other than Make Everyone Wish They’d Come Up With That Idea) 

  • Be a builder: You’ll drive ideation of attention-grabbing ideas. You’ll work alongside various disciplines from strategy to account to media relations and analytics (to name a few), co-building to ensure your ideas transcend platforms and break the internet. All the while, mentoring and fostering junior creative talent. 
  • Own the voice: Be a guardian of the visual identity of the brand and for each campaign you work on. 
  • Balance art and strategy: Stay playful, but always purposeful. Your visuals and ideas don’t just entertain, they deliver results. 
  • Be the pulse of culture: You need to know before anyone else what Gens Alpha and Z are doing on social channels, why brands are jumping all over a meme, what conversations are capturing the attention of journalists (and why) and who is poised to become the next big thing in the cultural conversation. These inputs will shape the ideas you develop and bring to teams and clients.  
  • Monitor the Zeitgeist: Research platforms, subcultures, emerging media, and niche communities to unearth untapped opportunities. 

 What You’ll Bring (Besides a Hypothetical Prize for Best) 

  • Obsessive curiosity: About trends, people, platforms, memes, and the mechanics of why certain things just work. 
  • A social media sixth sense: You know which platforms matter most, what kind of content works where, and how to surprise people within the context of their scroll. 
  • Pop culture proficiency: From mainstream moments to niche internet corners, you stay plugged into what everyone’s talking about, and what they’re about to. 
  • Experience: 5 years art direction and/or design experience, especially if you’ve worked on social-first campaigns or for culturally relevant brands. You’ll of course need to work quickly and accurately within all aspects of Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) as well as presentation software (PowerPoint). Bonus points for illustration, After Effects, photography, retouching, filmmaking, videography, editorial, animation, HTML. 
  • A sense of humor: If you can’t laugh at yourself (or at least at the internet), we’re not the place for you. 

Why You’ll Love It Here (Other than the Snacks) 

  • You’ll work with some of the best creatives in the business, a team fueled by bold ideas, cultural insights, and enough caffeine to power a small city. 
  • You’ll have the freedom to experiment, fail forward, and redefine what “earned-first creativity” means. 
  • You’ll create work that matters to brands, to audiences, and to culture at large. 

Final Thought (Because We’re Big on Storytelling) 

This job isn’t just about understanding what makes good images. It’s about being the creative who reshapes how brands communicate in this endlessly scrolling, algorithm-ruled world. It’s about showing up every day with fresh ideas and a love for the craft. And maybe, just maybe, it’s about finally justifying all the hours you spend on TikTok. 

If this sounds like you, let’s create something worth bookmarking.

Send us your portfolio, résumé, and a list of the accounts and trends you’re loving right now. Because if we’re going to shape culture, we want to know you’re already in it. 

Cue the end slate. Let’s make some magic. 

Salary range: $80,000 - $110,000

Where an employee or prospective employee is paid within this range will depend on, among other factors, actual ranges for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure and standing with the company (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s background, pertinent experience, and qualifications.

Weber Shandwick is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. Weber Shandwick recruits qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, ethnic or national origin, protected veteran status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or citizenship status.

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