47 Artistic Design jobs in South Africa

Role Overview

The Art Director at SPC is a creative leader responsible for shaping the visual language of campaigns, guiding design teams and ensuring the highest standards of creative excellence across all projects. This role demands a strong mix of hands-on design ability, conceptual thinking, leadership, and the ability to collaborate across teams to deliver work that is innovative, on-brand, and culturally relevant.

Key Responsibilities

Creative Leadership

Conceptualize and oversee creative direction for campaigns, ensuring alignment with client objectives and creative standards.

Translate strategy and briefs into compelling, visually engaging concepts.

Push creative boundaries while maintaining brand consistency.

Team Collaboration & Management

Mentor, guide and inspire the Creative Team (Senior Graphic Designers, Multimedia Designer)

Partner with Editorial, Social Media and Strategy Teams to ensure cohesive storytelling.

Provide constructive feedback and set clear expectations for deliverables.

Client Engagement

Present concepts and creative ideas confidently to clients.

Build trust through creative problem-solving and delivering high-quality outputs.

Adapt creative solutions to client feedback without compromising on quality.

Execution & Quality Control

Oversee design execution from concept to final delivery (digital, social, multimedia, print where applicable).

Ensure projects meet deadlines, budgets and quality benchmarks.

Keep up to date with design, tech and cultural trends to inspire innovative solutions.

REQUIREMENTS

Proven experience (5–7 years) in art direction, design, or creative leadership within an agency environment.

Strong portfolio showcasing conceptual campaigns, digital-first design, and culturally resonant work.

Expertise in Adobe Creative Suite and familiarity with motion graphics/video tools.

Excellent visual, verbal and written communication skills.

Strong leadership and mentoring skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.

Understanding of African pop culture, youth trends and digital platforms is a strong advantage.

Key Attributes

Creative Visionary: Constantly pushing boundaries and bringing bold ideas to life.

Collaborator: Works seamlessly across departments and builds strong team energy.

Detail-Oriented: Ensures all outputs meet the highest standard of craft.

Culturally Connected: Draws inspiration from African and global trends to create meaningful work.

Resilient & Accountable: Thrives under pressure, meets deadlines, and owns responsibilities fully.

Role objective

The Art Director is responsible for leading and inspiring Lumico's team of creatives to deliver exceptional visual campaigns that align with strategic goals and client expectations. With a strong grasp of both creative vision and practical execution, the Art Director ensures that all work, whether ATL, digital, or integrated, meets the highest quality standards while fostering a collaborative, growth-oriented team culture.

The role blends hands-on art direction with strategic thinking, ensuring that concepts are not only visually compelling but also aligned with brand objectives, campaign strategies, and platform best practices.

Key responsibilities

Creative direction and execution

• Provide day-to-day creative guidance to the design team, ensuring high-quality concepts, layouts, and final artwork.

• Interpret and respond to creative briefs with strategic, design-led solutions.

• Oversee the visual direction of campaigns from concept through to final delivery.

• Ensure all creative outputs meet Lumico's standards for quality, brand consistency, and attention to detail.

• Work with the strategy, media buying, and account teams to align creative execution with campaign objectives and audience insights.

• Present and defend creative concepts internally and externally with clarity and professionalism.

Team leadership and development

• Lead, mentor, and inspire a team of creatives, providing constructive feedback and career development guidance.

• Oversee performance reviews, growth plans, and skills development initiatives.

• Foster a collaborative environment where designers feel supported, empowered, and encouraged to experiment and innovate.

• Encourage peer-to-peer feedback and regular creative critique sessions.

Collaboration and workflow management

• Partner with traffic, production, and account management to ensure project timelines are met without compromising quality.

• Work with other departments to translate strategic insights into compelling visual narratives.

• Manage external creative resources (freelancers, illustrators, photographers) as required.

• Contribute to new business pitches with visual concepts and creative proposals.

Innovation and trends

• Stay up to date on design trends, emerging technologies, and industry best practices.

• Introduce new tools, techniques, and approaches to enhance the team's creative capabilities.

• Encourage a culture of continuous improvement in design craft and creative thinking.

Key requirements

• Minimum three–five years in a senior design or art direction role, preferably within a marketing agency or integrated creative environment.

• Proven ability to lead a design team and guide the development of campaigns from concept to delivery.

• Expert knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite and familiarity with digital platforms, including Meta Business Suite.

• Strong understanding of branding, typography, layout, and visual storytelling.

• Ability to balance creativity with commercial objectives and client expectations.

• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Title:
Art Director / Graphic Designer

Location:
Head Office

Department:
Marketing

Reports to:
Marketing Executive

Purpose of the Role

The Art Director / Graphic Designer is responsible for conceptualising, designing, and directing the creative execution of digital marketing campaigns across all digital platforms and in-store environments. The role includes art direction for photo and video shoots, the design of social media content, newsletters, and in-store collateral, while ensuring brand consistency across all creative output.

Key Requirements

·   Tertiary qualification in Graphic Design, Visual Communication, or related field.

·   Minimum 5+ years of graphic design experience, including art direction responsibilities.

·   Advanced proficiency in Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, with working knowledge of Canva for rapid content creation.

·   Proven portfolio of fashion/retail campaigns demonstrating both design and art direction.

·   Strong background in creating digital content and social media campaigns in the fashion/retail space.

·   Confident in directing stills, video, and content creators on set.

·   Certification in recognised design software.

·   Passion for fashion and creative arts

Key Responsibilities

·   Concept Development & Art Direction.

·   Conceptualise seasonal advertising campaigns in line with brand requirements and briefs.

·   Oversee creative execution from brief through to final design, including finished artwork.

·   Provide clear art direction for photography and video campaigns.

·   Collaborate with stylists, photographers, videographers, and retouches' to ensure high-quality outputs.

·   Collaborate with Buying, E-Commerce, and Visual Merchandising teams to deliver on campaign objectives.

·   Contribute to cross-functional discussions with professionalism and integrity.

·   Act as custodian of Queenspark's brand and visual identity.

·   Brief manager, and liaise with stylists, photographers, videographers, editors, digital agencies, retouching specialists, and content creators.

·   Design artwork for social media platforms, newsletters, in-store collateral, window displays, and paid digital campaigns.

·   Prepare final artwork, ensuring accuracy of formats, sizes, and colours.

·   Create designs in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Canva, and relevant platforms.

·   Ensure consistent application of brand guidelines across all outputs.

Skills & Behavioural Competencies

·   Strong conceptual and graphic design skills.

·   Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

·   Detail-oriented, quality-driven, and deadline-focused.

·   Promote collaboration, innovation, and knowledge-sharing across departments.

·   Actively embody the company values of Passion, Professionalism, Integrity, and Customer Focus.

At Queenspark, we value passion, professionalism, integrity, and customer focus. You'll be part of a team that thrives on solving problems, supporting colleagues, and creating great experiences for both staff and customers.

About the job

At
NUMERAL XII
, we blend the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products, and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and applications that capture the imagination and deliver impressive returns for our clients.

Creatives at
NUMERAL XII
are translators. Translators of big ideas into functional content for the everyday person to see. They apply artistry and craftsmanship to strategic insight to create and bring to life beautiful ideas that move the world.

As an Art Director, you bring strategic insight and exceptional craft to storytelling, developing ideas that move the world. You own the brand voice, ensuring consistency, clarity, and emotional resonance across every touchpoint.

Pretoria-based while frequently collaborating with our global studios, you will enjoy working in a team of highly skilled people, all with strong opinions about various technologies, frameworks, and approaches to media, creativity, and communications. You will articulate your ideas to your colleagues effectively while also taking on board the ideas of others. You will thrive when faced with new challenges, view them as opportunities, and constantly look to improve client deliverables. You will work in a progressive environment that fosters a meritocratic culture, surrounded by some of the brightest minds in their fields.

Role Requirements

• Conceptualize and craft compelling, strategically driven visual ideas that are clear, persuasive, and beautifully executed for various clients and audiences.
• Collaborate closely with the Strategic team, ensuring that concepts are strong, well-articulated, and executed with exceptional visual storytelling and craft.
• Lead projects and clients autonomously, fully owning creative direction, execution, and design excellence.
• Design across various formats, including brand identity, campaign visuals, social content, motion, editorial layouts, experience design, and presentation materials. Web design would help your cause.
• Deliver creative work with speed, consistency, accuracy, and flair, ensuring visuals are on-brand, innovative, and impactful across platforms.
• Be a proactive team player, managing multiple projects with exceptional time management, attention to detail, and the ability to juggle competing priorities.
• Stay ahead of industry trends and design best practices, continuously pushing creative boundaries and keeping work at the forefront of innovation.
• Ask the right questions, clarify objectives, and structure work effectively to align with strategic goals and creative vision.
• Lead brainstorming and workshop sessions with senior stakeholders, shaping the creative direction and fostering collaboration between disciplines.
• Own the visual narrative and storytelling in presentations, ensuring the work is engaging, persuasive, and strategically sound.
• Build consensus around creative approaches, integrating feedback while maintaining the integrity and impact of the work.
• Present confidently, clearly articulating creative rationale and vision to internal teams and clients, inspiring and influencing decision-making.

Qualifications And Characteristics

• A portfolio showcasing high-quality, globally recognised work, including brand, campaign, and experience pieces with measurable business impact.
• Proven experience in design and cross-channel storytelling.
• Confident in presenting and articulating ideas both internally and to clients.
• A degree in Design, Visual Studies, or a related field is preferred.
• Proficiency in design tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, and Keynote.
• A natural curiosity and passion for finding inspiration from diverse sources, with a keen interest in the future of media and technology.
• Driven to push creative boundaries and craft groundbreaking ideas that stand out.
• Craft-focused in your approach to work, presentations, and creative execution.

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. This is a fulltime, on-site position from Monday – Friday from 08h00 to 17h00 in Die Wilgers Pretoria.

NUMERAL XII
is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

If you love everything Advertising

WE ARE HIRING

Art Director

The position of Art Director is required to produce effective creation and delivery of a range of cross-platform print and digital work and ads.

The individual will work closely with Account Executives as well as the rest of the creative team to convey a specific message. They need to be comfortable using type, photography, illustration and colour across different ad media, including web and print media, as well as cross-platform design. The Art Director must research and stay up to date with trends to see what works for the customer. They must have a keen eye for detail together with a highly creative mind. This position requires strict adherence to deadlines.

The Art Director must edit and manipulate ad layouts according to clients specifications. They must be able to communicate with management to determine the appropriate direction of a project.

The Art Director must be able to conceptualise, completely understand the brand and approve on selected campaign rollouts. The art director must be strongly conceptual and be good at managing a team.

Work experience requirements:

• 3 to 5 years previous experience

• Hands-on experience with software like Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects and Premier Pro

• Established aesthetic skills with the ability to combine various colors, fonts and layouts

• Exceptionally conceptual

• Bias towards accuracy and attention to detail

• Ability to work under pressure

• Professional approach to time, costs and deadlines

• Demonstrated innovation

• A reasonable understanding of the latest trends and their role within a commercial retail environment

Education requirements:

• Grade 12 matric certificate

• Certificate/Diploma/BA Degree specializing in Multimedia Design

If you think you would be suitable for this position, please email your CV to Lisa at by 15 October 2025.

Please note that of you do not hear from us within 2 weeks, your application has unfortunately not been successful.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: R30 000,00 - R35 000,00 per month

Work Location: In person

Are you a visual thinker with a thorough understanding and love of motion and static design, typography and layout? You might be who we're looking for.

Who's asking? Imagine a traditional content marketing agency. We're not that. Think smaller, with way more flex appeal – but with big-agency experience. We speak, write, strategise, conceptualise, plan, direct and produce content-led marketing fluently.
2Stories
works with a network of talented advertising and content specialists of all shapes, sizes, races and genders. No matter which solar system you're from, we aspire to offer you flexibility, balance and the opportunity to create awesomeness.

We're looking for an Art Director with a proven track record (and impressive portfolio) to join our team.

Essential skills

• Creativity
  – obviously. But not just the kind that finds or creates pretty pictures or videos. Also the kind that will come up with clever, on-strategy content solutions for clients. A knowledge of typography, image manipulation, motion design and animation is key. UX/UI experience would be a bonus.
• Design
  – excelling at InDesign, Photoshop, Figma, Mailchimp and the likes, and being able to create anything from social media posts, newsletters and ad banners, to white papers, magazines and basic corporate identities. Curious about and experience using AI tools. Video editing experience is a bonus.
• Picture editing
• the ability to source high-quality, conceptual and visually engaging images that suit the brief and are brand-relevant.
• Attention to detail
  – guarding leading and kerning and all those things that words people don't know to look out for.
• Time management
  – being focused and effective when juggling multiple briefs. With the ability to work efficiently and prioritise tasks.
• Agility
  – being able to pivot quickly to deliver excellent work in tight turnaround times.
• Cool head
  – keeping calm under pressure.
• Strong communication game
  – We're a distributed team, so the ability to communicate clearly and timeously is vital. The confidence to explain and support your thinking, both internally and externally, is also important.
• Emotional intelligence
  – having empathy for clients and team members.
• Up to date
  – being aware of design trends in general and on social media platforms specifically

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in a design role in an agency environment.
• A portfolio showcasing digital, social, print, motion design and newsletter design. Bonus points for financial services and website examples.
• Essential skills: excels in Figma, confident in After Effects.
• A working knowledge of the marketing landscape. Experience in content marketing is not crucial, but will be advantageous.

The details

Location:

While our headquarters are in Cape Town, we pride ourselves on being a distributed company, with team members and collaborators across the world. So feel free to apply, irrespective of where you are currently living. We hire the best talent for the role, not for your zip code or ability to come to the office from Monday to Friday.

Job description:

Job Description

• Create and manage the overall design and visual style for ad campaigns, photoshoots, websites and commercial film productions. 

• Supervise and mentor a group of mid-level and junior designers.

• Manage multiple briefs and projects for yourself and for your direct reports

• Study creative briefs and determine requirements

• Understand marketing initiatives, strategic positioning and target audience

• Generate clear ideas and concepts in tandem with the copywriters

• Conceptualize visuals based on requirements 
•Define the visual direction of a campaign and photoshoots 

• Produce sketches, storyboards, roughs to visualize ideas

• Develop illustrations, logos and other designs using software or by hand

• Use the appropriate colors and layouts for each graphic

• Cooperate with the rest of the creative team across different types of media

• Work with copywriters and creative director to produce final art works

• Test graphics across various media

• Take work from concept to final execution within deadlines

• Amend designs after feedback

• Ensure final graphics and layouts are visually appealing and on-brand

• Manage and delegate responsibilities to other designers and provide directions

• Present completed ideas to team members / project owners

• Stay on top of all trends and maintain best practices

Job Requirements - Experience and Education

•Extensive experience in art direction and graphic design (min. 6 years experience in a creative or inh-house agency)

• A strong portfolio of concepts, photo manipulation, graphics, and/or compelling layouts. 

•Familiarity with design software (such as InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop)

•A keen eye for aesthetics and details

•Strong conceptual and presentation skills 

•Technical knowledge of photography and film production

•Excellent communication skills

•Ability to work methodically and meet deadlines

•Degree in Design, Fine Arts or related field is expected

Role Description

This is a full-time on-site role for an Art Director - Agency & Retail located in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. The Art Director will be responsible for overseeing creative direction, art direction, and branding. They will work closely with graphic designers to create high-quality visuals and graphics for various campaigns and projects. Day-to-day tasks include managing creative projects, developing design concepts, and ensuring brand consistency across all media channels. The role requires collaboration with both internal teams and clients to deliver exceptional design solutions.

Qualifications

• Creative Direction and Art Direction skills
• Background in Retail and Agency
• Branding experience and proficiency in developing cohesive brand identities
• Graphics and Graphic Design skills, with a strong portfolio demonstrating expertise
• Excellent leadership and team management abilities
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design, Fine Arts, or related field
• Experience in agency or retail settings is a plus

Budget for this role is R40 000 per month - depending on experience.

We are looking for a talented
Art Director
who enjoys working in a fast paced environment and loves the challenge of discovering what makes consumers "click". You will cooperate with a design-savvy team to devise an overall concept.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the overall visual style and direction for campaigns, projects, or brands.
• Ensure projects are completed on time and within budget, managing timelines and deliverables.
• Maintain brand consistency and quality across all visual outputs.
• Present completed ideas to clients/team members.
• Develop comprehensive 2D and 3D artwork, including detailed illustrations, digital paintings, and specification sheets for production teams.
• Create storyboards, design motion graphics, and contribute to the animation process from concept to rendering.
• Stay on top of all trends and maintain best practices.

Qualifications

• Proven working experience as an Art Director.
• 4 years within an agency environment.
• Proficient use of Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Premiere, and Animate).
• Bachelor's degree in an art, fine arts or design.