Creative Director Freelancer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

USA - New York HQ, United States · Permanent · Hybrid

Shoptalk, producer of the world's most important retail and commerce events and a global pioneer in event design, is looking for a Global Creative Director to bring fresh thinking and new perspectives to our global brand. We produce four events a year in Las Vegas, Nashville and Barcelona that bring together tens of thousands of retailers, brands and the people shaping the future of commerce. Our brand has to feel unmistakable everywhere it appears, from the registration email a guest opens to the entrance they walk through on arrival and the stages they watch content on. This role oversees our creative vision end to end, including leading the team responsible for defining and shaping how Shoptalk looks and feels. It spans the full creative arc and impacts our event lifecycle, online and offline. Core creative focus spans concept and theme, look and feel across every channel, social and content that carries the brand between events, on-site signage and wayfinding, event stage sets and on-site experiential moments and activations. You will manage our in-house design team and work closely with operations and marketing.

• Direct the creative look, feel and themes for our events.
• Work hand in hand with operations, marketing, content and leadership so ideas are shared rather than imposed.
• Set the visual that brings Shoptalk to life: the big ideas, the narrative, typography, colors, overall experience and visuals.
• Present and defend that vision to operations and senior leadership, then evolve it year over year so the portfolio stays unmistakable.

• Create a design system that makes marketing, web, social, email, app, signage, stage and activations read as one event, online and offline.
• Evolve scalable standards, templates and guidelines that hold up whether the canvas is a social tile or a 40-foot wall, and that all teams, general contractors and freelancers can run with.
• Act as the steward of brand consistency.

• Visualize and connect marketing design, social media visuals and content marketing for the brand.
• Shape the look of social, new content properties and campaign creative that drives registrations.
• Keep audiences close year-round with always-on creative between events.

• Oversee the anchor creative output of the team that our operations team manages: site signage and wayfinding assets, entrance and registration moments, hanging and aerial signage, stages, lounges, directional systems and sponsor recognition builds.
• Manage production of graphic files that hold up at scale, with real command of substrates, color and typography at distance.
• Execute to lead times and deadlines.
• Design to spec and partner with operations teams on builds, staying on brand and on time.

• Collaborate on art direction for session stages, partnering with operations teams and design agencies on scenic, lighting and structure.
• Partner on on-site experience elements that make the event feel like Shoptalk: the immersive and sensorial moments that make guests stop and post.

• Bring the same creative bar to the commercial side of the business: sponsor recognition, branded sponsor activations and co-branded partner moments.
• Provide creative support for the sponsorship sales team.
• Help partners show up in a way that feels native to Shoptalk rather than bolted on.

• Work within creative and production budgets, build scopes and production calendars set by operations teams, working back from load-in.
• Set the ways of working that keep a small team and a busy bench moving.
• Balance creative ambition against what can be built and installed on time and on budget.

• Lead, hire, grow and develop a small in-house design team, and direct freelancers, set design studios and specialists.
• Brief clearly and give direct, actionable feedback that raises the work.
• Build and direct the external bench, since much of the output runs through external partners.
• Measure the job as much by the growth of our people as by the polish of the work.

• Fresh event thinking and an outside perspective that steers clear of the default trade show look and brings in new references from retail, fashion, culture and experiential marketing.
• Prior management of a creative team and freelancers, and experience collaborating with general contractors, agencies and partners.
• Branding and design systems for event companies or live events.
• A collaborative creative vision for an events brand and theme that lives online and offline, across the full event lifecycle, from pre-event build-up through the show itself to the post-event recap.
• Experience with marketing thematics and visuals, the always-on creative that keeps an audience engaged between events.
• Hands-on, on-site work designing and directing the physical experience elements of live events, from signage and wayfinding to stages and activations.
• Background developing environmental graphics and signage: substrates, file prep, color at scale, wayfinding and a working knowledge of fabrication and install.
• A design-led portfolio, not an event production reel, that shows a concept carried across channels and built at environmental scale as one connected system.
• Experience directing freelancers and partners to a higher bar than they would reach alone.
• Ability to work from our Midtown Manhattan office three days per week (Tuesday to Thursday).
• Availability to be on-site at all four Shoptalk events, in the building during build and throughout show days, with travel and the longer hours that show week brings, plus pre-event travel to venues to plan out visuals.

• Experience in Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, ideally with After Effects for motion.
• Expert in Figma for design systems and digital handoff.
• Fluent in 3D or spatial tools such as SketchUp, Cinema 4D or Vectorworks, enough to visualize a space and art-direct the specialists who build it.
• Using AI and other tools that can raise the work and move it faster.
• Command of typography, color and substrates at environmental scale.
• Production instincts strong enough to protect good work all the way to the show floor.

• Cares as much about the installation as the idea.
• Can zoom out to set the vision and give precise, actionable feedback.
• Original thinker with an outside perspective.
• Generous with the teams they direct.
• Collaborative, bringing operations, marketing, content and leadership along rather than imposing ideas.

• The salary band for this position ranges from $125,000 to $135,000 USD based on experience
• This position will be eligible for a competitive bonus structure
• Full medical, dental, and vision package to fit your needs
• Retirement plan with company match (401K)
• Competitive vacation policy
• Hybrid work

Shoptalk sits at the center of retail and commerce, producing four events a year in Las Vegas, Nashville and Barcelona that bring together tens of thousands of retailers, brands and the people shaping the future of the industry. As Global Creative Director, you'll own the creative vision for one of Hyve's flagship brands, lead an in-house design team, and shape how Shoptalk looks and feels everywhere it appears, from the first email to the show floor.

125000 - 135000 USD (yearly)