Freelance Design Director
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 16, 2026. First seen by Alion on Aug 24, 2026. Complex scores A on the Alion truth index.
Company And Culture
Complex is the definitive platform for global youth culture and music lifestyle, seamlessly integrating cutting-edge content, commerce and live experiences with unparalleled scale. Through innovative content, Complex tells stories of music, streetwear and style, sports, art and beyond. Its content engages in a dynamic conversation with the audience, reflecting and shaping the zeitgeist of convergence culture. A powerful media juggernaut paired with a curated marketplace, Complex is redefining the way fans interact with their favorite brands and artists and reshaping the future of digital culture and commerce.
Why We're Hiring
Our team is growing and looking for a freelance Design Director to raise the bar within the Complex Brand Partnerships team. You’ll work within the Branded Art and Design team cross functionally with branded content (editorial and video), account management, product and experiential to ideate and execute deliverables. We offer a full range of products-from digital content to live events-to our clients and need someone with a strong technical skillset and ability to work from concept ideation to finished execution bringing a wide range of deliverables to life.
We’re seeking a well rounded utility player with a multi-disciplinary approach and deep expertise within innovative graphic design, social design, display media, printed collateral, merch and experiential concepting. This role is ideal for a creative visionary who understands how to transform cultural insights and partner brand guidelines into iconic visual expressions across mediums-from digital to physical. This individual is self-motivated, highly collaborative, and relentlessly curious, consistently sparking new ideas, pushing boundaries, and elevating design and creative across a range of platforms.
What You'll Do
- Mentor and Lead: Concept and pitch work to internal and external teams. Work with designers bringing concepts and campaign objectives to life
- Collaborate: Working with design leaders, account managers, experiential and product to create a visual roadmap for a variety of deliverables
- Executing projects: Taking projects from concept to launch, creating within existing workflow systems while marrying brand guidelines and the Complex visual ID
- Presenting: You’ll pitch and sell your work in to senior leadership and brand clients as necessary
- Display and Social Design: Ability to translate larger campaign initiatives and creative into display and social deliverables
- Experiential and Event Design: Work with design leadership on conceptualizing and executing physical brand experiences-from bespoke pop-up activations to large-scale experiences like ComplexCon
- Apparel: Design of limited-edition merch drops, and collabs bringing fashion sensibility to product storytelling
- Researching: Conducting research to identify problems and validate designs
- Expert in latest Mac software: Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects), Google Slides, Figma, ReadyMag, SketchUp or other experiential 3D render software
Impressive, wide-ranging portfolio (brand, print, event, editorial and product is a plus)
- Working knowledge of current AI render platforms
You’ll work cross-functionally with the Branded Production and Publishing teams, Experiential Producers, Product, Web Development and Account Managers to craft thoughtful executions from forward-thinking video, photo, and social campaigns to immersive events.
You’ll report into design and branded content leadership elevating content on a variety of platforms and you’re adept at being a player-coach who can both do the work and guide partnering designers towards better visual outputs.
You’ll demonstrate an ability to listen and receive internal and external creative feedback with a high level of urgency, professionalism, and attention to detail. You’ll consistently create engaging designs with a strong focus on Art Direction. An ability to composite in 2D is a must and a background in 3D rendering is a major plus.
You can execute within design and production workstreams in a fast paced environment and you have a strong understanding of the Complex brand, the different IP within our world, and how to maintain our tone of voice in branded work.
The Specifics
Who You Are
- Minimum 6-8 years of graphic design experience and art direction experience within the last 3-4 years at an agency, culturally-adjacent media publisher, or in-house brand
- Passion for forward-thinking design across digital, print, experiential, and product
- Voracious consumer of pop culture and working knowledge of trends in music, events, streetwear, and fashion at large
- Well-organized, with strict attention to detail and a proactive approach to problem solving
- Excellent communication skills: written, verbal, interpersonal
- Able to support design decisions using industry insight, best practices, and tried and true execution approaches
- Obsess about the details and push the creative until its reached the best execution
- Highly responsible, self-motivated, and able to thrive in an energetic, fast-paced, high growth, entrepreneurial environment
- Must have strong time management skills and the ability to pivot from project to project juggling multiple at a time
- Passion for materials within tangible design for apparel, packaging, print, and experiential builds