Design Director - 3D & Motion

We are looking for an artist who:

Design & Art Direction

• Develop distinctive visual languages across brand, CGI, motion and image-making.
• Translate brand strategy and identity into compelling three-dimensional and kinetic experiences.
• Take existing brand systems and find new ways for them to live, move and behave.
• Create and direct everything from typography, composition, colour and graphic systems through to materials, lighting, environments, objects and motion.
• Develop concepts, treatments, design systems, styleframes, storyboards and creative presentations.
• Establish clear creative principles that can scale across films, campaigns, digital experiences, social content and physical spaces.
• Bring strong design thinking to product-focused CGI, ensuring the work is driven by an idea rather than technique alone.
• Present creative thinking clearly and confidently to clients.

3D & Motion

• Bring a sophisticated understanding of CGI and motion into the design process from the beginning.
• Understand the possibilities and limitations of modern 3D production and use that knowledge creatively.
• Be comfortable developing ideas directly in 3D as well as directing specialist artists.
• Establish the visual direction for lighting, materiality, composition, animation and image-making.
• Work closely with artists across Cinema 4D, Houdini, Unreal, After Effects and emerging creative technologies.
• Guide projects from early experimentation and look development through to beautifully crafted final execution.

You don't need to be the best technical artist in the room.

You do need to understand the medium deeply enough to direct the people who are.

R&D & Visual Culture

Experimentation is a fundamental part of how we work.

We want someone who is relentlessly curious about what visual communication can become next.

You’ll help lead creative R&D within the studio - exploring new aesthetics, techniques, technologies and ways of making images before there is necessarily a client brief asking for them.

That might mean experimenting with an emerging piece of technology, developing a new material language, investigating an unusual production technique, exploring generative systems or simply finding a visual idea we haven't seen before.

The purpose isn't experimentation for experimentation's sake.

It is about developing ideas, tools and visual languages that can eventually influence real projects and give our clients something they couldn't have simply asked for.

You should have a strong point of view on contemporary visual culture and be actively interested in the worlds surrounding our own — graphic design, identity, fashion, architecture, photography, industrial design, technology, art and moving image.

We want Inertia to contribute to visual culture, not simply follow it.

Creative Leadership

As a Design Director, your impact should extend beyond the projects you're directly working on.

You’ll:

• Set a high creative bar and help teams understand how to reach it.
• Lead designers and artists through creative development and production.
• Give clear, constructive and inspiring creative direction.
• Challenge predictable solutions and encourage teams to explore further.
• Identify when an idea has potential and help push it beyond its first iteration.
• Work closely with Creative Directors to shape the overall creative direction of projects.
• Mentor junior and midweight creatives and help develop their design thinking, taste and craft.
• Review work across the studio and contribute to maintaining a consistently high creative standard.
• Help identify new talent, collaborators and creative voices that can strengthen our work.

Key Skills and Requirements:

• Significant experience at Design Director, Art Director, Associate Design Director or senior multidisciplinary designer level.
• Excellent graphic design and art-direction fundamentals.
• Strong understanding of brand identity and design systems.
• Advanced understanding of CGI, 3D and motion-design workflows.
• Strong working knowledge of Cinema 4D and/or comparable 3D tools.
• Strong understanding of After Effects and Adobe Creative Suite.
• Experience with Houdini, Unreal, generative design, creative coding or emerging AI workflows is advantageous, but not essential.
• Experience directing designers, motion designers, 3D artists and external creative talent.
• Strong written, verbal and visual communication skills.
• Comfortable leading creative presentations and presenting work directly to senior clients.
  

What Being a Director Means at Inertia

Being a Director at Inertia isn't simply about having more experience.

It means taking responsibility for the quality of the work around you.

We expect our Directors to have a point of view. To recognise when something is good but could be exceptional. To challenge the obvious answer. To make other creatives better. And to create an environment where experimentation and ambitious thinking can happen.

You’ll have the autonomy to initiate R&D, influence how we approach briefs and help shape the creative direction of the studio itself.Significant experience at Design Director, Art Director, Associate Design Director or senior multidisciplinary designer level.

How We Support You:

Inertia  is only ever as good as the talented people that choose to call it ‘home’. We are committed to providing the support needed for people to do their best work and have fun doing it. 

These are some of the things we have in place for our employees:

• We offer 22 days paid holiday.
• No one should have to work on their birthday, so you get that off too and if work permits, we also allow the week off between Christmas and New Year.
• We operate a day for a day TOIL policy, should you be asked to work weekends and/ or bank holidays.
• Regular team and studio socials, including trips to key industry events and festivals.

Additional Info

• Role type: full-time and on-site. While we do have WFH days, this role is not remote.
• Reports to: Executive Creative Director
• Team size: Internal team of 9 largely working out of our London office.