Join The Crew - Creative Manager

Creative Manager

Location: In-Office, Chicago
Reports to: Associate Creative Director
Brands: Alice & Wonder & Mini Wonder

About the Role

Alice & Wonder is looking for an experienced Creative Manager to help bring Alice & Wonder and Mini Wonder to life across every customer touchpoint.

This is a highly hands-on design role with meaningful creative ownership, primarily focused on how our brands show up through marketing: from email campaigns and social graphics to website assets, event signage, retail materials and printed collateral.

Working closely with our Associate Creative Director and Marketing team, you’ll take broader creative concepts and translate them into thoughtful, cohesive campaigns across channels. You’ll be responsible not only for executing beautiful work, but for thinking through how an idea should come to life differently across email, social, web, retail and experiential moments.

We’re looking for someone with a highly developed visual eye, exceptional attention to detail and a strong understanding of brand. You’re an excellent designer yourself, but you also think beyond the individual asset, considering the entire campaign, customer journey and visual story.

You’ll work across both Alice & Wonder and Mini Wonder, two brands with distinct personalities and customers. The right person understands how to protect the visual identity of each while finding thoughtful ways to keep the creative fresh and evolving.

This is not a product or apparel design role. Your focus will be how our brands show up in the world through marketing, digital, retail and experiential creative.

What You’ll Do

Creative Execution & Campaign Development

  • Partner with the Associate Creative Director to bring seasonal campaigns, product launches, collaborations and brand initiatives to life across channels
  • Translate overarching creative direction into cohesive executions across email, social, web, retail, events and print
  • Own creative projects from initial direction through final execution, ensuring work is thoughtful, polished and delivered on time.
  • Think holistically about campaigns rather than designing individual assets in isolation.
  • Bring ideas, references and creative solutions to the table, not simply wait for a brief.
  • Maintain a consistently high creative bar across both Alice & Wonder and Mini Wonder.
  • Help evolve each brand’s visual language while protecting what makes it distinct and recognizable. 

Email & Digital

  • Design email campaigns that balance brand storytelling, product merchandising and conversion.
  • Create website graphics including homepage assets, collection graphics, landing-page creative and other digital touchpoints.
  • Design digital advertising and other performance-marketing assets as needed.
  • Partner with Marketing and E-commerce to ensure creative supports both brand and business goals.
  • Understand how design should adapt across desktop and mobile experiences.
  • Consider hierarchy, customer journey and functionality alongside visual design.

Social & Content

  • Create social-first graphics, typography treatments, Stories, launch assets and other supporting creative.
  • Partner closely with the social team to develop graphics that feel native to the platform while remaining unmistakably on-brand.
  • Translate larger campaign concepts into creative that feels appropriate for social rather than simply resizing existing assets.
  • Stay connected to evolving visual trends across social, fashion, retail and culture while knowing when a trend does, or doesn’t, make sense for our brands.
  • Support content creation with thoughtful graphic treatments and creative ideas that strengthen the overall visual story.

Retail, Events & Print

  • Design event signage, window graphics, in-store marketing materials and other retail creative.
  • Create postcards, packaging inserts, promotional materials and other printed collateral.
  • Develop creative for pop-ups, partnerships, collaborations and experiential brand moments.
  • Prepare accurate, production-ready files and work with internal teams and outside vendors through production.
  • Consider the full customer experience and how our visual identity extends beyond the screen and into our physical spaces.

Creative Project Management & Collaboration

  • Manage multiple creative projects simultaneously across two fast-moving brands, keeping timelines, deliverables and priorities organized.
  • Work closely with the Associate Creative Director to understand creative direction and independently carry projects through execution.
  • Partner cross-functionally with Marketing, Social, E-commerce and Retail to understand creative needs and ensure teams have the assets they need, when they need them.
  • Help create clarity around creative deliverables, timelines, feedback and approval.
  • Maintain organized working files and asset libraries and ensure final creative is accurate and production-ready.
  • Coordinate with printers, vendors, freelancers and other external creative partners as needed.
  • Proactively identify gaps, creative needs and opportunities rather than waiting for assignments.
  • Help establish and improve processes that allow the creative team to move quickly without sacrificing quality.

What We’re Looking For

  • 4–6+ years of professional graphic or brand design experience, ideally within a consumer, retail, fashion, lifestyle or culturally relevant brand.
  • A strong portfolio demonstrating exceptional visual taste, typography, layout, composition and brand storytelling.
  • Demonstrated experience designing across multiple marketing channels including email, social, web and print.
  • Expert proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, particularly Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
  • Demonstrated experience owning creative projects from brief through final execution.
  • Strong understanding of digital design and how creative should adapt across different platforms, formats and customer touchpoint.
  • Experience working within—and helping evolve—an established brand identity
  • Strong understanding of typography, composition, hierarchy, color and image selection.
  • An eye for photography and an understanding of how imagery, typography and graphics work together.
  • Strong project-management and organizational skills with the ability to prioritize creative needs across multiple teams and deadlines.
  • Ability to take creative direction and feedback while also bringing a strong point of view and thoughtful solutions to the table.
  • Comfortable communicating directly with cross-functional partners and taking ownership of deliverables.
  • Experience working with printers, vendors, freelancers or outside creative partners is a plus.
  • Highly organized, proactive and comfortable operating in a fast-growing entrepreneurial environment.
  • A genuine interest in design, fashion, retail, culture and what makes a brand feel relevant.
  • This is a highly hands-on design role; a strong portfolio demonstrating work you personally designed is required. 

You’ll Thrive Here If

You’re the person who notices when the type is slightly off, the crop could be better or the spacing just doesn’t feel right and you care enough to fix it.

You have great taste, but you’re not precious about your work. You love collaborating, taking feedback and making an idea stronger. You can work within an established visual identity while still finding ways to make the work feel fresh.

You understand that designing for a brand isn’t about making every individual asset beautiful in isolation. It’s about creating a visual world that feels cohesive and recognizable whether someone encounters us in her inbox, on Instagram, on our website or walking past one of our stores.

You’re also an owner and an organizer. You can take a campaign from creative direction through dozens of individual deliverables, keep track of the details and make sure everything gets across the finish line.

You’re comfortable with variety. One day you might be designing an email for a new collection; the next you’re creating signage for an event, building assets for a homepage launch or helping bring a new campaign to life across multiple channels.

Most importantly, you’re excited to make things. You want to be part of a creative team, care deeply about the details and are energized by the opportunity to help shape what two growing brands look and feel like as they enter their next chapter.

How We’ll Make It Pretty Fun

Alice & Wonder is a Chicago-based shop curating and designing pretty fun things, from apparel to gifts. We’re a female-led team that values creativity, collaboration and building something meaningful together.

You’ll get a front-row seat to a growing founder-led company and, more importantly, a meaningful role in shaping how Alice & Wonder and Mini Wonder show up in the world, from our digital channels to our Chicago stores, events, collaborations and beyond.

Compensation & Growth

Salary: $60,000–$72,500, depending on experience, plus benefits.

This is a full-time, in-office position based in Chicago

Additional Perks of the Gig

  • Health benefits, paid time off and 401(k)
  • Employee discount
  • Creative, collaborative and team-forward environment
  • Opportunity to work across two growing lifestyle brand
  • Meaningful ownership over how Alice & Wonder and Mini Wonder show up across marketing and brand creative 

Interested?

Please email your resume, portfolio and cover letter to careers@aliceandwonder.com. Be sure to include the position you’re applying for in the subject line.

A portfolio is required for consideration. We’d especially love to see examples of work you personally designed across brand design, email, digital, social, campaigns and print.