Brand Design Lead

M&T Bank is looking for a highly skilled Brand Design Lead with a passion for transforming financial services into captivating visual stories. M&T Bank is one of the nation's leading and most respected financial services institutions and we’re looking for a talented and experienced design leader to help bring our brand to life.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the visual identity of a brand that impacts millions of lives. We're looking for a creative powerhouse who excels in all facets of design and branding, with a proven track record of developing and implementing robust brand standards.

Partner with the Creative Director, to oversee creative through ideation, execution and optimization of brand elements/standards. Help to build and support a governance framework that scales across all marketing and customer experience touchpoints. The Creative Lead helps to mentor a team of designers, writers and other creative professionals. Use your omni-channel creative talents to help inspire and shape creative concepts, evangelize brand standards and deliver on brand and business objectives. Works with the Creative Director to engage business stakeholders and agency partners to bring innovative creative strategies and solutions to market and scale brand consistency across all work.

If you thrive in a fast-paced corporate environment and are ready to take ownership of a major brand's visual integrity, we’d love to hear from you.

• Work with the Creative Director to manage the oversight, coordination, execution, and optimization of our brand standards.
• Work with the Creative Director to evangelize the brand standards, including how we engage colleagues and external partners to understand the brand, how to use our brand elements and what on-brand work looks like in practice. Create excellent and sound creative strategies and solutions for both the M&T Bank and Wilmington Trust brands.
• Work with partners in marketing to ensure campaigns are consistent with all brand standards and principles, while helping to influence strategic development.
• Organize and facilitate creative project kickoffs with various stakeholders.
• Stimulate and share input for creative concept development, guiding the team on development and presentation of ideas.
• Inspire the creative team to conceive and deliver innovative ideas and solutions that advance brand awareness and adoption among target audiences.
• Deliver clear tactical recommendations for creative design, copy/content and layout as needed.
• Collaborate and communicate with key stakeholders to ensure alignment to creative briefs and timelines as needed.
• Leverage technical and aesthetic expertise in evaluating design and visual assets.
• Review completed work and work in progress against all applicable standards, providing feedback, as needed.
• Help to lead and participate in collaborative brainstorming sessions.
• Assist the Creative Director in the staffing of the creative team and management of outside design resources.
• Work with the Creative Director to enable the growth and development of the creative team.
• Stay current with production standards, marketing channels and emerging formats.
• Demonstrate expert knowledge of brand, advertising, marketing and design trends and best practices.
• Complete other related duties as assigned.

The Creative Lead role is part of the Brand, Sponsorships and Creative Strategy team aligned to the Office of the Customer at M&T Bank and will report to the Creative Director.
Brand creative team mission:

The brand creative team’s mission is to develop a best-in-class brand and brand experience, upholding our brand standards to drive creative excellence across all brand touchpoints; media, messaging, experiences, products and markets, all while keeping the customer at the core of everything we do.

How do we do this:

As the “creative center of excellence” for all things brand, we create and manage our brand assets, create consistent brand experiences and educate and collaborate with internal and external partners.

Bachelor's Degree in graphic design, graphic communications, or related field

5 years of graphic design experience or art direction

(Or in Lieu of a degree, a combination of 9 years of higher education and relevant experience)

Minimum of 4 years of professional experience in brand design, developing and building brand elements and identity systems. Preferably within a large corporate environment, agency supporting corporate clients, or the financial services/fintech industry

Experience in creative management or leadership experience in a corporate or agency setting is a plus.

Demonstrable experience in designing, documenting, and implementing enterprise-wide brand style guides and governance processes.

Proven expertise in your craft with a strong portfolio showcasing a diverse range of design work, with a particular emphasis on corporate branding, visual identity systems, and complex information design.

Deep knowledge of all channels (e.g.: web, email, social, broadcast, video, print, outdoor, environmental, experiential, etc.)

Experience in hiring, training and managing other creative professionals

Comfortable in helping to manage and contribute to budget planning, project timelines and production schedules as needed.

Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously under tight deadlines.

Comfortable working with a wide range of stakeholders and personalities

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions and educate non-design stakeholders on brand best practices.

Exceptional creative problem-solving and creative presentation skills

Proactively bringing new ideas to the table that raise the bar and push mindsets.

Endlessly curious and always open to learning

Proactively identify opportunities and develop solutions

Understanding of data visualization

Expert-level proficiency in the Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), Adobe Express and Figma/Sketch.

Photography expertise (guiding and elevating photo direction)

Proficient with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

Education and Experience Preferred:

8 years of graphic design experience or art direction

Experience working in an agile environment and with agile project management tools (Jira and Confluence) is a plus

Experience working with a Fortune 100 brand is a plus