As a Design Director at Seen Studios, you’ll partner closely with our Creative Director to shape the strategic vision and elevate execution across our flagship retail projects (permanent, seasonal, pop ups, windows, and fixture deisgn). You’ll lead multidisciplinary design teams, nurture emerging talent, and be the pivotal link between creative strategy, client services, and production teams—ensuring every environment we craft is deeply human-centred, on-brand, and commercially impactful.
This role is suited to a confident, collaborative, and conceptually driven designer who is not only technically experienced, but able to balance confident creative execution with the realities of the project goals and brief, managing a growing multidisciplinary team, and delivering on the vision statement of the agency .
The Design Director must thrive in fast-paced, multidisciplinary environment and take on leadership of a growing team, project quoting and scoping and client-facing responsibilities.
Your Role & Responsibilities
The Design Director must demonstrate strong industry knowledge and relevant expertise. They will work closely with our Creative Director to deliver our human-centric proposition. They will maintain consistent, high-quality design standards on all projects and ensure the team is meeting the expectations of the agency on every project with passion, precision and personability.
They will join the Design Directors in weekly meetings, across resourcing and team management. They will receive briefs and delegate tasks to project teams and use their multi-faceted experience to inspire and develop team members in design principles across all tasks. They will support the team by creating design estimates for Project Managers to share back with clients and closely manage project deliverables against scope and project quotes and flags and recommends external support when required.
Works closely with Creative Director to ensure clear design direction on leading projects while supporting more junior members of the team to maintain a consistent standard of design. They will manage external creative resources i.e freelance designers to match agency standard.
The Design Director will proactively provide recommendations to further enhance creative output across projects and the creative expression of the agency.
Creative Leadership & Direction
Project Ownership & Delivery
Team Development & Mentorship
Mentor and support senior, mid-weight and junior designers — providing constructive feedback, direction, and encouragement to grow creative confidence and craft.
Client Engagement & Communication
Act as a senior creative contact for key clients, confidently navigating briefs, feedback, and creative conversations.
Studio Strategy & Process
Desired skills and experience
Fluent in Cinema 4D (with Corona Renderer), SketchUp, and Vectorworks, and the ability to translate this knowledge to junior members of the team to guide and mentor them in best practise.
Excellent understanding of build methods, materials, and technical drawings, with on site experience during the construction and hand over stages.
In addition, the candidate must be:
Candidate will operate from the London, Shoreditch office
We are currently operating 3 days in the office minimum and 2 days WFH.
