Creative Director -Trade

Description

Come join our team!

Teacher Created Materials is a 45 year-old, award-winning publisher of educational and trade books, digital products, and provider of professional learning services. Our vision is to create a world in which children love to learn and our products are recognized for their effectiveness and embraced by educators worldwide. Headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, the company is experiencing remarkable growth driven by customers including educators at all levels, parents and caregivers, and trade partners. We continuously work to ensure that our interactions with customers, authors, community members, and employees are always positive and that our products and services espouse the values of our company.

Teacher Created Materials offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including:

• Health, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance
• Paid Time Off plus Company Holidays
• Generous 401(K) program with Match
• Generous Childcare and Wellness Programs
• Plus more!

Location:

• Hybrid 4x/week (Minneapolis, MN)

Position Summary:

The Creative Director, Trade Division owns the creative vision and output for TCM’s trade list of books for children and teens, as well as for parents and educators. This involves leading a team to develop and execute designs for covers and interiors, ensuring that all creative elements align with content and brand standards. The Creative Director leads division-level brand stewardship, trade book production, budget oversight, and cross-functional collaboration with Editorial, Marketing, Sales, and Production. The role requires strong leadership, a deep understanding of design principles, project management skills, and efficiencies with creative software.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

• Lead and direct in-house and freelance illustrators, designers, and typesetters to deliver accurate, on-time work; provide clear briefs, milestones, and feedback. This position includes owning specific design projects (books, logos, packaging) through the creative process.
• With input from Editorial and Marketing, direct cover concepts and packaging. With editorial, direct sketches and interior designs. Lead cross-team review and feedback processes and seek timely approvals.
• Oversee final design, layout, and typesetting for book covers and interiors; diagnose and resolve design or production issues.
• Manage budgets, estimates, cost tracking, and schedules.
• Oversee print file preparation; coordinate with internal teams and printers to confirm specifications, manage four-color hard-proof approvals, and control costs.
• Institute best-practice processes, file standards, and version control with Production; uphold on-time, error-free releases to print and digital.
• Maintain style guidelines and use software/templates to optimize workflows across projects.
• Lead, mentor, and elevate an in-house creative team (in-office/hybrid and remote). Foster a collaborative creative culture and provide clear direction and feedback on typography treatments, compositions, and accessibility, while raising the bar in design.
• Research design and illustration vendors, request samples and quotes, and recommend vendors; coordinate freelance work to schedule.
• Leverage emerging AI technologies to optimize creative processes, uncover new design possibilities, and elevate the team’s creative output.
• Monitor market trends and competitor activity to inform creative strategy and maintain a fresh, innovative brand presence.
• Manage internal design asset requests for company initiatives and Marketing/Publicity.
• Attend trade shows, conferences, and seminars as needed to represent TCM.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Post-secondary education in design or related field.
• 10  years experience in publishing/children’s content and 5 years leading internal and external teams.
• Expert in Adobe Creative Cloud (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and macOS; advanced typography/typesetting and print-production fluency.
• Demonstrated success directing external partners and delivering on schedule to press and digital.
• Portfolio required showing high-impact covers/interiors and system-level thinking.
• Ability to plan project strategy and schedule workloads to meet deadlines.
• Working knowledge of MS Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Preferred: Asana; Amazon A and Edelweiss familiarity; accessibility best practices.

Physical Requirements:

• Ability to sit for extended periods, use a computer regularly, and perform repetitive motions using keyboard/mouse.

Work Conditions:

• General office and home-office environments

Teacher Created Materials (TCM) is an equal opportunity employer and as such, affirms in policy and practice to recruit, hire, train, and promote, in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status or status as a protected veteran. This policy of non-discrimination and affirmative action applies to all levels of employment and to all employment practices, including (but not limited to) compensation, benefits, transfers, layoffs, educational, training, recreational and social activities.

Salary : $90,000 - $120,000