PlayMonster Group LLC, an award-winning toy and game company, is seeking a Creative Design Manager to join our team. This position will concept, generate, execute, and produce great ideas and creative solutions across our portfolio of brands and play an important role in designing the retail packaging and visual materials for a wide variety of family products.

JOB SUMMARY:

This Manager should possess a strong point of view on design, is creative, and organized, with strong conceptual as well as technical skills. They demonstrate the ability to create retail packaging solutions that meet merchandising needs and excelling at creating compelling packaging and collateral materials that drive product sales.

This Manager is energetic, motivated, and wants to be part of a collaborative team. Someone who is driven to succeed in a fast-paced environment and has the ability to communicate their perspective to our teams and outside partners with clarity and conviction. A person that is a natural storyteller, both visually and verbally.

This Manager has the ability to create retail packaging solutions that meet merchandising needs and excel at creating compelling packaging and collateral materials that drives product sales. They have an exceptional sense of design, typography, package/brand architecture and technical skills necessary to create finished solutions.
This Manager has a passion for design, a positive attitude, a good sense of humor and takes direction and criticism well. We want someone who works well with a team, as well as meeting individual design goals, who can work in a fast-paced, highly creative environment and who is always seeking to grow and learn as a leader.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Innovate and present new and creative packaging that maintains but also pushes current brand standards and expectations.
• Work closely with the Creative Director on creating high quality, competitive packaging, for ecommerce and retail distribution.
• Continue to learn new tools and techniques that can be applied to your design, typography, composition and storytelling abilities.
• Create bespoke brand worlds, combining marks, typography, color palettes, photography direction, patterns, and textures to create a robust visual identity.
• Apply the visual identity to design a wide variety of collateral objects to express the brand’s perspective and experience, and to achieve the client’s aims.
• Assist in overseeing quality control of all packaging and print materials.
• Be aware of developing design/packaging trends with our category.
• Develop package comps for retail sales presentations.
• Provide guidance and advice to staff with less experience.
• Have no problem rolling up your sleeves and hustling in order to get the job done.
• Be comfortable working in a rapidly changing environment where ambiguity and short turnaround schedules are the standard.
• Excel in managing multiple projects, priorities and people concurrently.
• Exhibit a high degree of ownership and accountability.

QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor's degree (B.A.) in Design or equivalent combination of education and experience. 8+ years of previous packaging experience and strong sense of consumer goods design. Experience with licensed properties a plus.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite and MS Office applications on Mac Platform
• Knowledge of visual design principals: graphic design, layout, typography, color, icon & logo development, branding, messaging.
• Working knowledge of structural design and dieline creation.
• Familiarity with briefing & casting photo shoots.
• Familiarity with trade show preparation.
• Strong foundational skills including composition, design, and color theory.
• Well-versed in both print and digital production and experience managing external vendors.
• Ability to collaborate and work effectively with cross-functional team members, freelancers and outside partners.
• Ability to take and give constructive criticism and maintain a professional attitude.
• High level of quality while working with design and deadline constraints.
• Problem solving and troubleshooting capabilities, execution skills.
• Exceptional attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
• Professionalism in all communications and exchanges.
• Ability to travel if necessary.