Creative Director

About Innovation Arts \& Entertainment

At Innovation Arts \& Entertainment, we offer audiences across North America exciting and critically successful live entertainment — producing and promoting over 400 engagements annually including concerts, symphony, theatrical, and renowned speakers. Our history includes work with notable artists and attractions such as David Sedaris, Anthony Bourdain, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Hillary Clinton, the Harry Potter Film Concert Series, The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight, Final Fantasy in Concert, Attack on Titan Beyond the Walls, Wild Kratts Live, The Book of Mormon, Cats, Blue Man Group, and Les Misérables. We are also the producers of the Martha’s Vineyard Concert Series and Beach Road Weekend Music Festival, which has featured artists including Mumford and Sons, Beck, The Avett Brothers, Wilco and much more. Our team both builds and protects brands, designs marketing campaigns, and crafts the audience experience for every production we bring to the stage.

Position Summary

The Creative Marketing Director leads the graphic creative vision across iAE’s growing portfolio of touring productions, concerts, Broadway series, and renowned speakers. This role owns the look and feel of every audience-facing marketing touchpoint including brand identity, key art, digital and print campaigns, OOH, in-venue, video, web, and email — and partners closely with marketing, booking, and production to take shows from concept to night of show. The Creative Marketing Director also manages and mentors the team of production designers, ensuring every project ships on-brand, on-time, and at the quality bar our audiences and clients expect.

Reports to:

CEO \& Directors of Marketing

Location:

Chicago, IL (in-office)

Department:

Design \& Creative Production

Key Responsibilities

1\. Department Leadership \& Operations

• Lead the iAE design and production team — recruiting, mentoring, performance management, and long-term development of in-house designers, freelancers, contractors, and junior team members.
• Manage creative workflows across design, social, video, and production teams to maintain consistency, drive innovation, and protect timelines.
• Own day-to-day operations of the design department — domains, web hosting, cloud storage, asset libraries, and software and tool subscriptions across Adobe Creative Suite, Wix, Squarespace, HubSpot, Figma, Canva, and related platforms.
• Contribute to broader iAE goals and initiatives as a senior member of the team — partnering with leadership on strategic planning, hiring, budgeting, and cross-departmental priorities.
• Champion creative standards across iAE; align evolving brand narratives across design, marketing, sales, and production teams.

2\. New Touring \& Festival Ventures

• Develop pitch decks and presentation materials that bring new touring productions, festivals, and brand extensions to life — translating early-stage concepts into investor- and partner-ready visuals.
• Build the brand worlds for new ventures launched from existing iAE IP and original concepts — logo system, identity, key art, naming and verbal direction, and the design ecosystem that supports an on-sale.
• Partner with iAE’s producing and marketing leadership from earliest concept conversations through tour or festival launch, helping shape the visual identity and audience experience of each new show.
• Help identify visual and brand opportunities to extend the life of existing IP — sequels, regional extensions, themed activations, and new audience formats — bringing a designer’s lens to growth conversations.

3\. Tour Art Creation \& Production Templates

• Lead creative direction across iAE’s portfolio of touring productions, concerts, and live events — concepting, developing, and stewarding key art from first sketch through final delivery.
• Define creative concepts, campaign identity, and visual strategy for each tour and brand, ensuring every audience touchpoint reinforces a single, unmistakable point of view.
• Translate key art into a complete brand toolkit and production-ready template system that scales across campaign moments — tour announce, on-sale, day-of-show, and in-venue — designed for clean handoff to production designers, regional partners, and freelancers so they can execute on-brand at speed.
• Direct creative concepting through final art delivery, partnering with photographers, illustrators, retouchers, and motion teams to bring tour art to life.

4\. Brand Stewardship \& Visual Systems

• Establish, maintain, and evolve brand identity packages and style guides for every iAE-owned IP and touring production — covering logo system, typography, color, photography, motion, and voice.
• Review and approve all designs, artwork, photography, illustration, and motion graphics before they go live, holding the creative bar across the organization.
• Maintain a living library of brand assets, master files, and templates so internal and external teams can find and use the right files quickly.
• Stay current with design trends, tools, and best practices through ongoing learning across Google, Meta, Wix, Adobe Creative Suite, and HubSpot platforms — and bring those learnings back into iAE’s systems.

5\. Multi-Channel Campaign Creative \& Production

• Direct multi-channel campaigns from concept through delivery, translating brand and show strategy into powerful visual narratives across content marketing, advertising, and audience-facing creative.
• Oversee creation of digital and print assets across the full campaign mix — OOH and large-format outdoor, in-venue and on-site signage, social, paid digital, websites, marketing emails, presentations, merch, on-sale graphics, and direct mail — delivering brand identity packages, motion graphics, animation, print production, logo systems, and infographics to a consistently high creative bar.
• Direct video creative for tour announces, trailers, sizzle reels, and social cutdowns — from concept through edit, motion graphics, and delivery in After Effects and Premiere.
• Build and maintain show and brand websites on Wix; design and build HTML emails for various email platforms.
• Partner with marketing, post-production, and artist/talent management teams to unify campaign messaging and audience engagement.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in design, fine arts, or a related field, and 5\+ years of professional design experience — including at least 2 years in a senior or lead capacity directing other designers.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating brand development, multi-channel creative marketing campaign work, and both digital and print execution.
• Expert command of Adobe Creative Suite — Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere, Dreamweaver, Lightroom, Bridge, and Audition.
• Hands-on proficiency with Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Figma, Canva, HubSpot, and HTML email design.
• Working knowledge of social and digital best practices across Meta, TikTok, YouTube, and Google platforms.
• Excellent project management skills with the ability to balance multiple projects, stakeholders, and tight deadlines.
• Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills, with the ability to work independently and complete assigned tasks within identified timeframes.
• Proactive, self-directed, and resourceful — able to thrive and lead in a small-company environment.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; comfortable presenting work and giving creative direction to a team.
• Experience in live entertainment, theatre, touring productions, or events is a plus.

What We Offer

• A collaborative team that ships high-visibility creative across national tours and live productions.
• Employer-contributed health insurance, accrued paid time off, and an IRA with company match (per plan eligibility).
• Ongoing professional development through Google, Meta, Wix, Adobe, HubSpot, and other AI learning platforms.
• A supportive culture that rewards initiative, quality of work, and the ability to grow into broader creative leadership.