Design Manager

I’m currently recruiting for an exciting opportunity for an experienced Design Manager to join a leading international law firm, taking ownership of its visual brand identity and leading a talented design team.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a creative and commercially minded design professional to shape and maintain a high-profile brand across multiple international offices. You’ll play a pivotal role in ensuring brand consistency across all marketing and communications, while driving creative innovation and delivering visually compelling content that supports wider business development and client engagement objectives.

Working closely with senior stakeholders, partners and marketing teams, you’ll have the opportunity to influence creative direction, champion best practice and make a tangible impact on the organisation’s global brand presence.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Design team, overseeing workloads, prioritising projects and ensuring all deliverables meet high standards of quality, consistency and timeliness.
• Act as the custodian of the organisation’s visual identity, ensuring brand guidelines are understood, maintained and consistently applied across all internal and external communications.
• Develop and communicate creative concepts, presenting design solutions and visual strategies to senior stakeholders, partners and business development teams.
• Lead on high-profile design projects, including pitches, strategic initiatives, corporate brochures and practice area marketing materials.
• Maintain and develop brand templates, image libraries and visual guidelines, ensuring all materials align with the organisation’s brand standards.
• Create engaging digital assets for websites, social media, internal platforms and thought leadership campaigns.
• Oversee the production of multimedia content, including photography, video, animation, storyboards and interactive digital publications.
• Manage design quality control, proofing, version control and approval processes to ensure accuracy and consistency across all outputs.
• Build and maintain relationships with external creative agencies, printers, photographers, videographers and other suppliers.
• Manage the design budget, oversee supplier relationships and identify opportunities to improve creative processes and introduce innovative technologies.
• Work collaboratively with marketing and business development teams across international offices to promote brand compliance and elevate the organisation’s visual communications.

About You

To be successful in this role, you’ll be an experienced design professional with a strong background in graphic design, brand management and team leadership, ideally gained within a professional services environment, corporate organisation or design agency.

You’ll bring a combination of creative flair, technical expertise and stakeholder management skills, alongside the confidence to influence senior decision-makers and champion a consistent visual identity across a complex organisation.

Essential experience and skills include:

• Significant experience in a design role within a design agency, corporate environment or professional services firm.
• Proven experience managing a design team, allocating resources and overseeing multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong expertise in visual brand management, including developing, maintaining and implementing brand guidelines.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and communicating the commercial value of consistent visual branding.
• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, particularly InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft Office applications, particularly PowerPoint.
• Experience with typesetting, page layout and the production of high-quality marketing collateral.
• Experience in video editing and animation, or the ability to manage these activities through internal teams or external suppliers.
• Knowledge of HTML and email build processes.
• Excellent attention to detail, organisational skills and a commitment to delivering consistently high-quality work.
• Strong communication and presentation skills, with the credibility to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels.

Desirable experience:

• A degree or equivalent higher qualification in Graphic Design.
• Familiarity with tools and platforms such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, Figma and Foleon, or similar interactive content platforms.
• Experience introducing new creative technologies, digital formats and innovative approaches to design delivery.

You’ll be a proactive, creative and commercially aware design leader who can balance innovative thinking with strong brand governance. You’ll be confident presenting ideas, influencing senior stakeholders and building collaborative relationships across teams and locations.

With a passion for design excellence and a commitment to continuous improvement, you’ll be comfortable operating strategically while remaining hands-on with key projects where your creative expertise can make the greatest difference.