Freelance Performance Testing Jobs in Chicago, IL

At Shinesty, our mission is to force the world to take itself less seriously. We make people laugh first and sell second. Our mothers don’t always approve of what we do, but the millions of people we’ve entertained over the years do.

We're looking for an Art Director to lead our marketing visual identity and the team that brings it to life: someone with strong taste, a clear point of view, and the ability to translate the Shinesty look and feel across every channel.

This isn’t a “design what you’re told” role. This is a creative visionary player/coach role that is responsible for conveying Shinesty’s brand ethos to millions of customers, through literally billions of impressions and touch points every year, across every single channel.

THE ROLE

This is a hands-on visual leadership role. You will manage designers and creative production while remaining deeply involved in design direction, concepting, and visual execution.

You set the visual look and feel for Shinesty’s marketing – concepting, directing, critiquing, finalizing creative, etc.. You go to shoots because you know exactly what you need to walk away with.

You understand the little quirks and details that make the us, us. You know exactly what’s needed give a creative brief life, and you can lead a team to achieve the brand or campaign's vision.

Requirements

WHAT YOU'LL CRUSH

Visual Direction

- Lead, oversee, and execute art direction and production art for Shinesty’s marketing channels and brand touch points

Actively contribute to the creation of marketing design assets while reviewing and providing feedback to the design team

- Collaborate with CDs and other C-level execs to evolve marketing brand guidelines, design systems, and best practices that establish clear rules, improve productivity, and most of all improve our performance

- Craft and refine smart style guides, brand guidelines, ad/email and other templates that provide a usable sandbox for junior production artists to be successful working. These should help artists be more creative within logical constraints and ensure final creatives are better and more consistent over time

- Hop in and execute on your vision for high-impact campaigns

- Build and deliver mood boards, creative decks, shot lists, and direction documents that guide photographers, production teams, and graphic designers

- Stay close to the work at every stage: reviewing, refining, and sending it back when it's not ready, as well as executing.

Creative Production

- Art direct photo and video shoots with a clear picture of the final deliverable before you're ever on set. You know what’s needed to balance brand/entertainment needs against conversion-driven deliverables.

- Oversee the development of creative and post-production assets, working with designers to ensure the agreed-upon vision is accomplished

- Work with creatives aligning on production logistics to achieve the set campaign strategy

Lead + Manage

- Hold weekly design check-ins

- Clearly communicate what's on-brand and what isn't

- Directly manage Graphic Designers, Videographer/Photographer, and Creative Production Coordinator

- Set a high bar and help the people around you clear it

- Build process where the team needs it

- Use AI when it makes the work better. Know when it doesn't.

WHO YOU ARE

• First and foremost: a storyteller that knows how visuals + copy can be greater than the sum of their individual parts.
• An absolute savant in Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, and other relevant tools
• (Probably) Creatively repressed when it comes to the use of comedy in your current role
• A strong creative who knows when to be clever—and when to pipe down and sell.
• Comfortable testing ideas, learning fast, and knowing to dive deeper into an idea or move on.
• Curious why something worked or didn’t—and excited to try again tomorrow.
• Have 6+ years of experience in an art direction field, at an ad agency and/or other internal brand team
• A master project manager and communicator

We don’t care if your background is agency, in-house, freelance, or “I accidentally became really good at this.”

We care if you:

• Make us laugh
• Get the Shinesty brand
• Can explain why your approach to art direction will make Shinesty better
• Want to build something original—even if that means failing along the way
• Have a tenacious attitude for entertaining and know when to champion an idea all the way to launch

HOW TO APPLY

Fill out the application and show us a portfolio that makes it clear you get the brand visually. That could be:

- Published work

- Personal projects

- Something you made for a brand you love (or hate)

- A deck that shows how you think about a visual problem

- Or something else we haven't thought of

Benefits

THE GOOD STUFF

• Denver/Boulder, CO (Relocation required) - Relocation budget available.
• Mixed WFH. 3 days in office (Boulder/Denver), 2 days work from wherever.
• Competitive salary ($90k-$100k) plus bonus potential
• Laptop and whatever other equipment you need to entertain the people
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Dog-friendly office
• Flexible PTO, no need to accrue time, take as much as you'd like
• Flexible working hours, just get your stuff done and generate results
• All the tools and resources you need to be successful in this role