Akcelo is an award-winning, independent brand experience agency founded in 2019, with 200+ staff across Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia. Our agency builds brands for the experience era with in house capabilities to drive unique experiences across the entire customer journey.
We’re looking for a Design Lead to lead world-class design and craft across our global clients spanning all brand touchpoints. As a key creative leader, you’ll set the vision for design excellence, push creative boundaries, and elevate the standard of work across campaigns, brand identities, digital experiences, and activations. You’ll be responsible for ensuring every project is executed with the highest level of craft, innovation, and strategic thinking—shaping unforgettable brand experiences that captivate and inspire.
This role requires a naturally creative, highly motivated design leader who is passionate about both print and digital. You’ll drive the creative direction of projects from concept to production, applying expertise in typography, layout, digital design, and brand storytelling. As part of a dynamic, fast-moving agency, you’ll collaborate with a team of top-tier designers and creatives, fostering innovation while delivering exceptional results. And most importantly, you’ll have fun along the way.
If you’re a visionary design leader ready to make an impact, let’s create something extraordinary together.
Key Responsibilities
- Creative Leadership & Craft
- Lead the development of world-class design concepts, campaigns, systems, and brand identities from ideation to execution.
- Champion best-in-class design principles to create visually compelling, engaging, and strategically impactful work.
- Push the boundaries of design craft across digital, print, experiential, and emerging platforms.
- Experiment with and utilize AI and emerging technologies to enhance creative innovation such as Midjourney.
- Stay ahead of design and cultural trends, continuously evolving the agency’s creative approach.
- Team & Project Leadership
- Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of designers, fostering a collaborative and high-performing creative environment.
- Oversee multiple projects, ensuring creative excellence, efficiency, and timely delivery within approved timelines, schedules, and budgets.
- Work cross-functionally with creative directors, strategists, and producers to ensure seamless execution of projects.
- Establish and refine design processes, workflows, and best practices to drive efficiency and elevate creative output.
- Strategic & Client Engagement
- Collaborate with clients to develop bold, visually compelling solutions that enhance their brand experience.
- Present and articulate design rationale and creative thinking with confidence to both internal and external stakeholders.
- Proactively explore emerging creative and media platforms (digital, multimedia, internet, mobile) to unlock new opportunities for brand storytelling.
The Must-Haves
- Proven leadership experience in design, with a degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field.
- Expert-level proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) and Figma, with a deep understanding of typography, layout, and brand identity development.
- Extensive experience across print, digital, and experiential design, with a strong grasp of pre-press, web standards, user experience, and color management. Motion design experience would be a bonus.
- Exceptional eye for design craft and visual storytelling, ensuring every execution is polished, impactful, and aligned with strategic objectives.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple high-profile projects in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.
- Proven ability to lead, mentor, and inspire design teams, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- A strategic thinker and problem-solver who pushes creative boundaries while ensuring business and brand alignment.
- Open-minded, adaptable, and future-focused, leveraging emerging technologies, AI, and design innovations to elevate creative output.
- Confident and articulate communicator, skilled in presenting creative vision and rationale to clients, internal teams, and stakeholders.
- This role requires a visionary leader with the experience, expertise, and passion to set new standards in design and drive impactful, world-class creative work.
But Why Apply?
Over the last five years we smashed the ceilings created by established agencies and created some larger than life campaigns, innovative retail-tech solutions, threw some epic events, and besides happy clients, we took home the B&T Emerging Agency of the Year, Mumbrella’s Experiential Agency of the Year, and a number of APAC Effies. And we are just getting started. You see, we believe in magic, and value the genuine, the experimental, the limitless, and the imaginative. We make, break and build things, without the fear of failure, and we share our time and our talents. If that is something that excites you too, we want to hear from you!
Our team works collaboratively in office 4 days/week, work from anywhere wednesdays, and travel within the US and Canada. We offer a competitive benefits package, including 4 weeks vacation, personal/sick days, and a global advantage where after your workplace anniversary, we provide opportunities to work for a week from our Sydney, Australia office; Vancouver, Canada office; or from wherever you want to tack on to your personal travel plans!
Akcelo is committed to nurturing, creating and building a diverse environment. We encourage all applications from diverse backgrounds, identities, beliefs and abilities to apply for this or any role with us. If you resonate with the above, send in your CV, and let’s explore this journey together!