Associate Creative Director- Print / Packaging

Who We Are

WHY Brands Inc., a parent company of Munchkin, Inc. and Curio Home Goods, focuses on creating, incubating, and growing the next generation of consumer lifestyle brands.

Founded in 1990, Munchkin is the leading consumer product company and most loved baby lifestyle brand behind the innovative gear and products for children, mothers, and caregivers. Munchkin has sold billions of dollars of products through our key retail partners: Target, Walmart, and Amazon and has global distribution in over 50 countries. Curio, a premium brand of curated collections of home goods, launched in 2023. WHY’s vision is to establish an expanding portfolio of innovative businesses that align with its commitment to inventive product design.

With over 320+ patents under our belt, we continue to create solutions that leave our customers asking, "how did I ever live without this?" Recognized as #8 on America’s Most Innovative Companies list by Fortune Magazine, innovation is the core of our company DNA and has been driving our designs for 30 years!

We lead with our core values and believe that investing in the community is our responsibility. We create opportunities for every child’s potential and well-being through the Radiant Colors program, work to create a sustainable future, and in partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare have committed to animal conservation.

There is no better time than now to join WHY Brands as we embark on our next and biggest growth journey, and you could be the next influential leader to play a key role in driving enormous customer-centered value and rapid growth.

What You’ll Do

We are searching for an Associate Creative Director to be the right hand, a trusted and confident partner, to the CBO/Creative Director. This full time, on-site role oversees international print, production, packaging, and photo and video art direction as well managing an in-house team of graphic designers and production designers in the US and a team of production designers in Hong Kong and China.

The ACD for Print and Packaging needs to be a mature, creative problem solver with a strong managerial and international packaging experience in CPG. We’re a scrappy team, so we expect this ACD not just to provide direction to designers, but also to execute your own ideas. You are capable of taking an idea from the conceptual phase and bring it all the way to market. You have strong experience in working with epic story creators, from copy writers to video directors, and have outstanding writing skills yourself.

If you’re looking to create ideas that win every award from GDUSA to The Red Dot, we humbly do this on a regular basis. Munchkin’s Brand Design Department has won over 60 of the most acclaimed global awards in design and branding across all platforms, packaging to TV and everything in between, in 6 short years.

• In collaboration with the CBO/Creative Director, you will help lead the US, Hong Kong and China graphic design and production design teams in alignment with marketing, product development, digital strategies and business objectives.
• Concept, design, and produce engaging strategic content and creative assets across a range of brand projects and touchpoints, including packaging, multi-language instruction manuals, marketing and promotional, email, print, branding and logo designs, media and PR programs, and whatever comes next.
• In collaboration with the CBO/Creative Director, provide the vision for photography and direct all photography efforts for use in packaging, social media, and Ecommerce.
• Ensure a high level of excellence in concept, design, photo and video art direction, supervision of retouching and production.
• Communicate and interact well with team members and supervisors across multiple departments. Work closely and build relationships with Brand Marketing, Global Marketing, Product Development, Ecommerce, and Social Media teams to drive the creative strategy across the Company.
• Ensure that brand and visual identity is consistently applied to all collateral and marketing materials across the company. Drive creative consistency into global markets in packaging and digital platforms. Ensure consistent application and governance of the brand style guides, internally and externally.
• Direct team’s activities involving development and qualification of commercial package designs including artwork for regulatory submissions such as FDA labeling.
• Manage a team of graphic and production designers by demonstrating enthusiasm for the creative landscape and new technologies; and contributing strong, inspirational, and relevant creative thinking. Ensure the Creative Team delivers on business objectives.
• Other duties as assigned.

You will have:

• 10+ years industry or related creative process experience combining creative strategy, content, and messaging with significant emphasis in packaging, print, and photo/video art direction. Must have in-house CPG experience, FDA packaging experience preferred.
• 7+ years of experience in a managerial role over international (US, Hong Kong and China) design teams and proven success managing teams in scope of 4-10+ and ability to lead, motivate and inspire both internal and external international creative teams.
• Extensive experience managing all phases of design workflow from concept development, packaging development, print and production, instruction manuals, and photo and video art production.
• Must have experience with China print production teams and vendors.
• Expert knowledge in the graphic production process including multi-language instruction manuals and translations needed for international commerce.
• Experience with FDA compliant labels, typography, and packaging experience is highly preferred.
• A strong portfolio that demonstrates your ability to come up with modern, playful, original ideas and innovative approaches across channels, along with the visual skills and attention to detail to execute superbly in a variety of mediums.
• Strong communication design sensibilities and an understanding of how composition, information hierarchy, color theory and typography work together to drive home a message.
• Understanding of all dimensions of communication: business strategy and experience design, with the ability to translate this into effective innovative, but integrated marketing programs.
• Proven experience allocating and managing budgets.
• Ability to prioritize and manage work, adhering to critical project timelines in a fast-paced environment.
• Advanced Adobe Creative Suite skills, including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Keynote, etc., and ability to evaluate future tools for team productivity. You have familiarity with Word, Excel and embrace the reality that Power-Point is a necessary and powerful design tool.
• Ability to travel periodically based on business needs.

To give our people flexibility, we offer hybrid work environment. Munchkin’s Hybrid Schedule is where an employee works in the office on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and remotely from home on Tuesday and Friday.
We also provide annual weeklong global office closures giving our people a chance to recharge.

Salary range: $165,000 - $200,000, DOE

To learn more, visit us at www.munchkin.com.

Munchkin welcomes and values what makes everyone unique. We’re proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All hires to our team are based on qualifications, merit and business needs. We recruit, employ, train and promote regardless of race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, genetic characteristic or any other protected status.

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