Art Director

Campus Ink is hiring a hands-on Art Director to lead apparel and merchandise artwork production onsite in Chicago.

Responsibilities

• Oversee apparel design work from concept through final production, aligning creative decisions with brand standards and manufacturing capabilities.
• Direct creation and refinement of graphic assets across product lines, keeping visual consistency and craft quality through final production files.
• Support concept-to-tech-pack workflows for jersey and private label products, collaborating with the executive team and manufacturers to maintain design accuracy and product quality.
• Lead designers and illustrators, delegating projects based on team strengths, managing workload, and providing day-to-day mentorship and craft feedback.
• Own and continuously improve the creative production pipeline, including intake, revisions, approvals, and handoff to production to reduce bottlenecks and turnaround time.
• Perform strict quality control on artwork output, identifying issues before files move to production.
• Partner with business development and account management to keep creative timelines aligned with partner and licensing deadlines.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field (Graphic Design, Apparel Design, or similar) preferred; not required with sufficient portfolio strength.
• Proficiency in apparel design.
• Preferred: experience with screen printing, embroidery, and digital decoration techniques.
• 5+ years of experience in art direction or senior design roles, including 1–2 years managing designers or a creative team.
• Portfolio featuring production-ready apparel, merchandise, or licensed product artwork.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator) and production file prep for print/embroidery.
• Strong project management skills for multiple concurrent projects and hard deadlines.
• Excellent communication, especially providing clear creative feedback to a team.
• Self-motivated, highly organized, and detail-oriented.
• Lives in the Chicagoland area and can be in the office 3 days per week.

Technologies

• Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator)

Salary

• USD 80,000–110,000 per year

Benefits

• 401(k) matching
• Paid time off
• Paid training
• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Life insurance

Location: Chicago, IL (onsite)

Start date: As soon as possible