Art Director

About the role

The Art Director is the visual creative leader of Playboy's brand universe. Reporting to the Chief Brand Officer & Editor-in-Chief, this role translates the aesthetic direction and visual identity of the brand across all platforms — print, digital, social, video, and experiential.

Responsibilities

• Iterate upon and translate Playboy's visual identity across editorial, digital, social, video, and experiential platforms.
• Communicate and maintain comprehensive Brand Guidelines covering design, typography, color, photography, and imagery standards.
• Translate the brand's editorial voice into compelling visual storytelling across all consumer touchpoints.
• Serve as the creative arbiter for all visual output — ensuring quality, consistency, and brand integrity across every channel.
• Lead art direction for the print magazine, including layout, typography, cover design, and photo selection and sequencing.
• Direct digital content design across the website, newsletters, and editorial packages.
• Develop and maintain visual templates and design systems that enable scalable, high-quality content production across the team and with external partners.
• Lead casting, briefing, and on-set oversight of photographers, directors, stylists, hair and makeup artists, set designers, and other creative collaborators for all editorial and brand shoots.
• Manage all phases of shoot production — from pre-production through final retouching and delivery — maintaining creative vision and financial discipline, and in partnership with the Playboy Operations Team or production agencies as required.
• Cultivate and grow a robust network of photographers, directors, illustrators, and creative collaborators aligned with Playboy's evolving identity.
• Provide art direction and creative oversight for social media content across all platforms (Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, and beyond).
• Collaborate with the video production team on visual direction for Playboy's video content and video-forward editorial.
• Ensure visual consistency and brand coherence across all digital channels and formats.
• Partner with the CBO/EIC and licensing team to maintain Brand Guidelines that reflect Playboy's evolving visual identity.
• Provide creative input and oversight on licensing initiatives, ensuring visual standards are upheld across all licensed product categories.
• Support experiential and brand partnership activations with creative direction, from concept through execution.
• Lead and mentor a small in-house creative and design team, setting a high bar for craft and creative ambition.
• Manage an active network of external creative agencies, freelance designers, retouchers, and production vendors.
• Oversee art direction and design budgets, ensuring quality output within resource constraints.
• Build scalable, efficient workflows for visual asset delivery across platforms and deadlines.
• Foster a culture of creative excellence, collaboration, and accountability.

Qualifications

• Exceptional design sensibility with a bold, confident, and distinctive visual point of view.
• Deep expertise in typography, layout, photography direction, color theory, and visual storytelling.
• Proven track record directing high-profile editorial and brand shoots across a range of formats, contexts, and budgets.
• A rich network of creative relationships across photography, illustration, styling, hair and makeup, and production.
• Demonstrated experience working within prestige media, fashion, entertainment, or lifestyle brand environments.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and shoots simultaneously with strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Fluency and comfort operating in a fast-moving, multiplatform content environment.
• Strong collaborator and communicator — able to articulate and defend creative vision to diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience building and evolving visual identity systems and brand guidelines.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and familiarity with digital design tools (Figma, etc.).
• A genuine passion for Playboy's history, mission, and creative legacy — and equal excitement about its next chapter.

Skills / Abilities / Competencies

• Exceptional design sensibility with a bold, confident, and distinctive visual point of view.
• Deep expertise in typography, layout, photography direction, color theory, and visual storytelling.
• Proven track record directing high-profile editorial and brand shoots across a range of formats, contexts, and budgets.
• A rich network of creative relationships across photography, illustration, styling, hair and makeup, and production.
• Demonstrated experience working within prestige media, fashion, entertainment, or lifestyle brand environments.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and shoots simultaneously with strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Fluency and comfort operating in a fast-moving, multiplatform content environment.
• Strong collaborator and communicator — able to articulate and defend creative vision to diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience building and evolving visual identity systems and brand guidelines.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and familiarity with digital design tools (Figma, etc.).
• A genuine passion for Playboy's history, mission, and creative legacy — and equal excitement about its next chapter.