Creative Director – Retail Fixtures & Environments

Location: Bartlett, Illinois
Company: Colony Display
Department: Design / Creative
Reports To: Executive Leadership

Position Overview

Colony Display is seeking a Creative Director to lead the creative development of
custom retail fixtures, displays and branded environments for national retailers
and consumer brands.

This is not a traditional advertising or graphic-design Creative Director role.
The ideal candidate understands physical retail – how products are merchandised,
how shoppers interact with a space, how brands translate into three-dimensional
environments, and how creative concepts ultimately become manufacturable fixtures
that can be produced and deployed at scale.

The Creative Director will work closely with Sales, Account Management, Project
Management, Engineering, Estimating, Prototyping and Production to turn customer
objectives into compelling retail solutions. This person will be involved from
early concept development through prototype refinement and production handoff.

The role requires the ability to balance creative vision, shopper experience,
manufacturability, cost and speed to market.

Key Responsibilities

Creative Leadership & Concept Development

Assist Sales in meeting with clients to ascertain their needs and lead the discussion around their current and future needs.
Lead the creative direction for custom retail fixtures, displays, merchandising systems and branded retail environments.
Translate customer briefs, merchandising objectives, brand standards and business challenges into strong physical retail concepts.
Develop and guide concepts for applications including freestanding displays, endcaps, perimeter merchandising, wall systems, counters, shop-in-shops, product presentation systems and digitally enabled fixtures.
Bring forward ideas that improve product visibility, shopper engagement, flexibility, durability and the overall retail experience.
Challenge the team to move beyond simply building what is requested and identify opportunities to create a better merchandising solution.

Retail & Shopper Experience

Understand how shoppers move through stores, discover products, compare options and interact with merchandise.
Consider facings, sightlines, product density, accessibility, replenishment, associate interaction, signage, digital content and changing merchandising requirements when developing concepts.
Stay current on developments in retail design, store formats, materials, digital integration and visual merchandising across the grocery, home improvement, furniture, specialty retail, consumer electronics, beverage and other retail channels.
Help Colony bring relevant ideas from one retail vertical into another when appropriate.
Help clients navigate the current and future retail environment, in effect, future-proofing their investment in fixtures and displays when possible.

Customer Collaboration & Presentations

Participate in customer discovery sessions and creative briefings to understand the business problem behind a fixture or display request.
Work with Sales and Account Management during strategic pitches, RFPs and new-business presentations.
Present creative concepts clearly and confidently to customers, explaining not only the design but the reasoning behind it.
Translate customer feedback into actionable creative direction while protecting the integrity, feasibility and intent of the solution.

Design Team Leadership

Provide creative direction, mentorship and feedback to designers and other creative resources.
Establish expectations for concept development, presentation quality, design reviews and creative documentation.
Help determine when a project requires exploratory concepts, dimensional renderings, photorealistic visualization, CAD development or physical prototyping.
Create a disciplined creative-development process that allows Colony to move quickly without sacrificing quality.

Design for Manufacturing

Partner closely with Engineering, Estimating, Procurement, Prototyping and Production to ensure concepts can be manufactured efficiently and at the appropriate cost.
Design with an understanding of materials and manufacturing processes including wood, metal, acrylic/plastics, graphics, lighting and integrated technology.
Consider value engineering, material utilization, assembly, packaging, freight, installation and field service during the creative process – not after the design has been completed.
Participate in prototype reviews and use testing and feedback to improve concepts before production rollout.

Digital & Technology Integration

Work with internal teams and external technology partners to incorporate digital signage, displays, lighting, interactive elements and other technologies into physical fixtures where they enhance the shopper experience.
Approach digital as part of the overall fixture and merchandising strategy rather than as an add-on screen.

Creative Process & Intellectual Property

Help establish standards for what level of creative development is appropriate at each stage of the sales process.
Partner with Sales and leadership to protect Colony’s design investment and intellectual property while providing customers with enough visualization to evaluate and approve concepts.
Maintain organized creative assets, presentations, concepts and design documentation.

Qualifications

The strongest candidate will have approximately 6–12+ years of experience in
retail fixture design, industrial design, retail environments, visual merchandising,
experiential design, POP/POS displays or a closely related field, including
experience leading creative work or teams.

A bachelor’s degree in industrial design, environmental design, interior
architecture, product design or a related discipline is preferred, although
significant relevant industry experience may substitute.

Candidates should demonstrate:

A strong portfolio of physical retail, fixture, display or branded-environment work.
Experience taking concepts from initial sketch or rendering through prototype and production.
Strong understanding of materials, fabrication methods and manufacturing constraints.
Experience designing for multi-location or national retail rollouts.
Ability to interpret brand standards and translate them into three-dimensional environments.
Strong presentation and customer-facing communication skills.
Experience collaborating with engineering and manufacturing teams.
Proficiency with relevant 2D and 3D design and visualization tools.
Ability to manage multiple fast-moving projects and competing priorities.
Current software: Adobe Creative Cloud, 3DS MAX, V-RAY 3D Rendering.

Experience with digital signage, interactive retail technology, lighting,
modular merchandising systems or value engineering is highly desirable.

What Success Looks Like

The Creative Director will help Colony become involved earlier in the customer’s
decision-making process – not simply as a manufacturer receiving completed
drawings, but as a retail solutions partner capable of helping customers determine
what should be built and why.

Success will be measured by the quality and originality of concepts, customer
response, speed of concept development, conversion of concepts into awarded
business, successful transition from design through engineering and production,
and the ability to create solutions that can be manufactured and deployed
profitably at scale.

At Colony Display, great design is not simply what looks good in a rendering.
It is what works for the shopper, works for the retailer, can be engineered and
manufactured intelligently, and performs successfully across hundreds or
thousands of stores.