Brobston Group is managing the hiring process. Our team screens all applicants and coaches you through the interview process.
Overview
Our client is seeking a Design Director to serve as a close creative partner to the founder and lead the execution of ideas across product, packaging, gifting, visual merchandising, and special projects. Based in Los Angeles, this full-time, on-site role is ideal for a multidisciplinary design leader who can take an initial concept from an open, collaborative conversation and carry it through to a finished, produced outcome. This is a high-visibility opportunity to shape a growing luxury business, build a design function, and define how the company expresses itself across objects, spaces, and partnerships.
Responsibilities
Partner closely with the founder to translate early-stage creative concepts into fully realized design outcomes.
Lead design across multiple touchpoints, including:
Product and collection concepts
Packaging development
VIP gifting and merchandise
Visual merchandising and store presentation
Partner and collaboration projects
Own the design process after initial concept discussions, driving work from idea through prototyping, vendor development, production, and final execution.
Develop packaging and object solutions that go beyond standard vendor offerings, identifying new materials, fabrication methods, and manufacturing partners as needed.
Respond to both long-range seasonal initiatives and fast-turn requests, balancing planned work with urgent business needs.
Collaborate cross-functionally with product development, marketing, retail, and sales to ensure design solutions support broader business goals.
Evaluate in-store presentation and customer-facing environments, identifying opportunities to improve how product and collections are experienced.
Support external collaborations by working directly with partner design teams and adapting to outside timelines and processes.
Manage and develop junior creative talent, beginning with one direct report, while helping define the future structure of the team.
Build systems, workflows, and standards for a growing design function within a fast-moving luxury organization.
Requirements
10+ years of design experience, with a multidisciplinary portfolio spanning physical product, packaging, and spatial, retail, or environmental expression.
Experience in luxury, fashion, jewelry, beauty, lifestyle, or adjacent consumer categories where product, packaging, and brand experience intersect.
Proven ability to take a rough or partially formed concept and turn it into a finished, produced object or experience.
Strong three-dimensional design sensibility, with fluency in materials, form, fabrication, and production.
Experience sourcing, developing, and negotiating with vendors, including manufacturers outside traditional category norms.
Ability to manage multiple timelines at once, from seasonal planning to short-deadline projects with quick turnaround.
People management experience, with the ability to mentor emerging talent and help build a team over time.
Comfort working in an entrepreneurial, founder-led environment where ideas may begin collaboratively and evolve quickly.
A practical, solutions-oriented approach, with the judgment to assess what it will take to deliver an idea and how to make it happen.
Portfolio required, including examples of product, packaging, and any spatial or retail-related work.
Preferred qualifications include:
Experience running an independent studio, practice, or brand before moving in-house
Background in art, architecture, sculpture, industrial design, or fabrication
Experience partnering directly with a founder or creative principal
Exposure to brand collaborations or capsule projects with external partners
Experience building a small design team from an early stage
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