Head of Creative

About Cleens

Cleens is a distinct footwear and lifestyle brand known for its direct-to-consumer approach as well as partnerships with top-tier wholesale retailers. Initially focusing on footwear, the brand's portfolio has expanded to include apparel, positioned at the intersection of design and lifestyle with a unique tone and identity beyond just a logo.

Role Overview

As the Head of Creative, you will be the custodian of Cleens' visual and sensory identity across all touchpoints. Your responsibility is to craft and uphold a unified creative vision applied consistently over product displays, photography, film, digital presence, packaging, retail environments, and wholesale channels. We seek a candidate with a distinctive, refined aesthetic that signals brand identity instantly, emphasizing craftsmanship and consistency over trends or volume. The role requires transforming an expanding product line into a cohesive brand ecosystem and leading a creative team to match the pace of global scaling.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain a singular, cohesive visual language encompassing art direction, color palette, typography, photographic style, tone, and layout.
• Create a unique, elevated, minimalist, and premium yet accessible brand aesthetic that is difficult for competitors to mimic.
• Ensure all outputs—products, content, campaigns, web, packaging, retail, and wholesale partners—align seamlessly with the brand identity.
• Lead end-to-end campaign development including concept generation, art direction, photography/film shoots, editing, and final delivery for launches, seasonal stories, and ongoing content.
• Elevate content quality, directing photographic and film work that is aspirational yet approachable, lifestyle-focused, and consistent in tone.
• Implement systems, templates, and creative tools (including strategic AI imagery use) to maintain high-quality and on-brand creative output at commercial speed.
• Build and manage an internal team of designers and content creators while coordinating with external photographers, studios, agencies, and freelancers.
• Set strong briefs, establish review procedures and brand guidelines, and mentor team members to consistently produce excellent aesthetic work.
• Collaborate with commercial, social marketing, product design, and CRM teams to ensure creative efforts enhance performance metrics such as conversion, cross-selling, average order value, and brand equity.
• Support wholesale and retail partners by providing premium creative assets and standards to uphold brand consistency within partner platforms.
• Manage production scheduling, budgets, and timelines to reliably deliver creative content aligned with the company’s trading calendar.

Candidate Profile

• Demonstrated creative leadership in footwear, apparel, fashion, or premium lifestyle brands with a portfolio showcasing a distinctive and consistent aesthetic.
• Strong visual sensibility with a proven track record in establishing recognizable brand identities across multiple channels.
• Expertise in full-cycle campaign creation including conception, art direction, and directing photo and film production to deliver on-brand final assets.
• Strong command of art direction principles including typography, layout, color theory, composition, and styling.
• Experience in leading, scaling, and mentoring internal creative teams as well as directing external creative partners.
• Commercial acumen to connect creativity with business outcomes and teamwork with social marketing, product design, and CRM.
• Ability to deliver consistently high-quality creative assets quickly within a demanding commercial schedule.
• Affinity for lifestyle, culture, and music, embedding these elements into the brand's world.
• Understanding of e-commerce and D2C channels, appreciating how creative influences web, paid social, and email performance (desirable).
• Experience creating assets and guidelines suitable for premium wholesale partners (desirable).
• Proficiency with current creative technologies including responsible use of AI-generated imagery (desirable).
• Detail-oriented, maintaining high standards and rarely allowing lapses in quality.
• Confident decision-making and ability to advocate and defend creative choices effectively.
• Collaborative leadership style fostering growth and elevating the entire team.
• Hands-on leader capable of contributing directly when necessary.

Additional Information

This position is based onsite in Wakefield, England, and demands close interaction with multiple departments and external creative stakeholders. The focus is on sustaining an unmistakable, premium brand presence across all media while supporting rapid company growth globally.