Design Director

The role

Design touches almost everything we do, and we care about it deeply because it helps shape the experience of being part of Ffern.

We’re looking for a Design Director to work closely with our founders, bringing their creative direction to life, whilst maintaining the freedom and responsibility to shape how that work takes form and leading a team of deeply talented people who make it a reality.

You bring an instinctive understanding of our aesthetic and the judgement to decide how it takes shape. Our plans from here are significant, and design is central to them.

For this role you'll

• Have an eye close to ours - you look at what Ffern makes and see an aesthetic you could carry and develop.
• Bring senior design leadership, with experience line managing designers.
• Work with breadth across digital, print, packaging and physical product.
• Be exacting - a season holds dozens of variables, and you build a framework that keeps them all in order.
• Know paper stocks, finishes, texture and construction, and how to brief a maker.
• Have built a design function before: structure, specialisms, roadmap, design language.
• Be commercially aware, ideally from a subscription or direct-to-consumer business.
• Enjoy working with an established creative identity and finding new possibilities within it.

We don’t expect anyone to arrive with every experience on this list. What matters most is your judgement, your curiosity, the quality of your work and the way you work with others.

What you'll be doing

Bring each season to life

• Own the design of everything a season needs - the artists we commission, the print, the packaging and the website - so it all lands on time, on brief, and works as one season.
• Develop a bespoke gift for each season.
• Build and run the seasonal design schedule, keeping work moving and flagging risks early.
• Join up print and packaging, new product development, digital, content and campaigns, so the physical and digital work feel of a piece.

Creative direction into execution

• Take creative direction from our founders and carry it through to finished work, resolving the detail yourself.
• Be the single senior point of contact for the founders on design, passing feedback back clearly to the team.
• Build upon Ffern’s high standard across all of design.

Print, paper and packaging

• Work directly with printers and makers, briefing them and holding the work to standard.
• Bring deep knowledge of paper stocks, finishes, texture and construction.
• Manage production of the physical things we make: seasonal charms, the Ledger, packaging, enamel pieces and labels.
• Own product and packaging design, and work with new product development and operations on suppliers, timings and what is possible to make.
• Own the print, packaging and point-of-sale elements that support how Ffern shows up in physical spaces.

Lead and develop the team

• Lead the design team, giving direction and feedback on their work.
• Develop specialisms such as digital and print, with clear ownership and visible routes to grow.
• Own and develop the design roadmap.
• Build new product development into a function of its own.

Digital

• Direct the design of our website and digital experiences, including how each season shows up on the product pages.
• Review digital UI and content design in Figma, giving clear direction to the team.
• Keep the content systems behind the site clear and well structured.