Design Director

The Role

You are equal parts designer and leader. If Creative Directors own the idea, you own how it looks, feels, and works. You set the standard for design craft at Koto LA, leading teams and shaping exceptional brand work through equal parts creative direction and hands-on execution.

Your Responsibilities

1. Own the craft and design execution across 4–5 projects, ensuring every piece of work meets Koto's standard for excellence.

2. Spend your time leading and designing in equal measure, balancing hands-on craft with team leadership.

3. Partner with Creative Directors to identify, refine, and realize exceptional creative ideas, and teach your team to do the same.

4. Champion exceptional brand identities, making confident design decisions across typography, layout, systems, motion and visual expression.

5. Lead photographers, illustrators, animators, and other creative collaborators to produce outstanding work.

6. Act as the bridge between Creative Directors and Designers, creating clarity, momentum and alignment across projects.

7. Mentor designers through thoughtful direction, actionable feedback and day-to-day coaching, helping raise the craft across the studio.

8. Build compelling narratives, craft presentations, and lead workshops, becoming a trusted creative partner for clients throughout the engagement.

9. Collaborate closely with Strategy from immersion through execution, ensuring design thinking informs the work from the very beginning.

10. Demonstrate an exceptional understanding of branding and the creative disciplines that bring brands to life, delivering work for today's most impactful companies and tomorrow's defining founders.

11. Champion design quality and consistency across projects, setting the benchmark for what "well-designed" means at Koto.

12. Build and evolve design systems, templates and creative processes that strengthen the studio and improve how we work.

13. Balance creative ambition with practical delivery by managing time, scope, and team resources to consistently deliver exceptional work.

14. Embrace feedback with curiosity and provide thoughtful, actionable feedback that helps others grow.

15. Work from our Culver City studio and travel as required.

16. Be highly proficient in Figma, Adobe Creative Suite and Pitch.

Our Responsibilities

1. We will ensure you have meaningful and regular access to your manager to support your personal development and career trajectory.

2. We will actively reward performance with promotions, pay increases, and a discretionary annual bonus of up to 10% of salary to all employees.

3. We ensure Koto is an equal environment for all its employees.

4. We will support you in taking family leave and offer significant paid maternity and paternity leave.

5. We will actively encourage you to take 25 vacation days per year, in addition to US bank holidays, and a studio closure between Christmas and New Year.

6. We offer a 401(k) that you can contribute to, and Koto matches contributions up to 4%.

7. We deploy a monthly ‘employee wellness’ benefits package of $100 via Juno.

8. We offer access to YCN and fund relevant training opportunities to any employee looking to develop themselves and career.

9. We reward five years of service with $5,000 and five days holiday. We reward ten years of service with $10,000 and four weeks holiday.

10. We will give you the opportunity to work from any of the five Koto studios globally, with appropriate planning and application.

Our Culture

• At Koto, we encourage our team to be ‘rationally optimistic’ about the potential of our work, our clients, their businesses, and the power of brand.

• We pursue the best briefs, want to inspire meaningful work, and for those interested provide an opportunity to make the work of their lives. We are actively cultivating leadership, culture and spaces to encourage this.

• We work in person, with an optional WFH day on Friday and an additional 2 weeks of remote work per year. We believe this produces the best work, mentoring opportunities, collective learning and culture.

• We encourage autonomy in each member of our team, allowing them to manage their own time, hours and personal commitments appropriately to complete work.