Creative Director/Head Graphic Designer

Marlin Australia is a well-established Australian 55 plus years manufacturer of life jackets, marine apparel, marine goods and high visibility safety/ corporate clothing. We are a family-owned business located in St. Peter's, Sydney.

We are currently looking for a Creative Director/Head of Graphic Design to join our team in St Peter’s, designing water sports safety and wet weather apparel and accessories. We are looking for someone who eats, sleeps and breathes design, and is has a passion for innovation and a strong background in product development to lead and inspire our creative team, every day is a new day to create something new!

Think cool, contemporary, sporty, youthful, urban, colourful, street, surf culture design! We are openminded and always looking for new ideas covering a variety of styles for our local and international clients. Knowledge of water sports and industry aesthetics is a plus.

The Candidate

We're looking for someone with at least 7 year’s experience and a strong aptitude for visual identities / graphic design. This role will sometimes also have a slight cross-over into product development working alongside the production team giving you the freedom to design clever product ideas! In addition, the role will require creative strategy for marketing, social media and web related material, liaising with a digital marketing team. Wearing a creative hat will allow this candidate to dabble in a multitude of creative spheres positioning themselves to make high-level creative decisions.

As a Creative Director/Head of Graphic Design you will ultimately be the go-to design person for all the company’s needs. If you are used to working in large teams with other designers, this might not be the role for you. We are a small and supportive, growing team, and you will be leading the creative department, managing a junior graphic designer.

They must be fiercely passionate about what they do and a talented self-starter. Someone who can hit the ground running and settle in quickly. Ideally you have plenty of experience working in multi-tasking environments and have a strong portfolio.

We are seeking someone who is passionate about their work, is a proactive and highly competent individual with a can-do attitude seeking long term employment in a fast-growing company.

Skills the successful candidate will possess:

· Lead and develop the creative vision across all products, campaigns, and brand initiatives.

· Partner with the product development team to conceptualize, design, and bring to market new products that are innovative, user-centric, and brand-aligned.

· Guide the creative team in executing compelling visual and messaging strategies.

· Collaborate with production managers and R&D to influence product features, user experience, packaging, and positioning from a creative perspective.

· Oversee the end-to-end creative process, from ideation to execution, ensuring consistency and excellence across all touchpoints.

· Conduct market and trend research to inform product aesthetics, brand evolution, and customer engagement strategies.

· Ensure all creative work meets high standards of brand integrity, innovation, and business goals.

· Manage timelines, budgets, and resources across creative projects in collaboration with project managers and other stakeholders.

· Mentor and grow the internal creative team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and high performance.

· Ability to generate strong, original ideas and innovative concepts. Someone with a confident, fully-formed design sense.

· The ability to work autonomously and proactively within a small team

· Strong interpersonal skills with motivation and self-drive.

· Exceptional attention to detail and an excellent eye for aesthetic design and customer appeal, someone who can think strategically and not just aesthetically.

· Friendly disposition and a team player.

· A positive attitude that is solution focused.

· An understanding of the Marlin brand image and its consumers.

· Must be able to multi-task and manage various projects at once.

· Flexible and adaptable with excellent time management skills.

· Must demonstrate good organisation and communication.

The role will involve:

· The complete graphic design of garments and products from start to finish. You require an adaptable mindset and happy to roll up your sleeves and work from concept to roll out through to final stages.

· High level proficiency and in-depth knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite is a must (specifically Photoshop and Illustrator) as well as In Design

· Responsible for researching, identifying/forecasting trends and translating them into exciting designs/graphics for our product ranges.

· Responsible for graphic design of web graphics, presentations, catalogues, packaging, manuals, swing tags and insert cards.

· Responsible for creative strategy behind marketing, social media and web campaigns, liaising with digital marketing team.

· Design of new logos where needed and any other ad hoc graphic design tasks.

· Reviewing and renewing the design of existing products.

· Liaising with laboratory on compliance related graphic work.

· This candidate, upon starting, will be required to learn about the standards of the lifejackets in Australia and overseas, as adhering to these standards affects the design process.