Creative and Content Lead

ABOUT AVANT ARTE

Avant Arte is a curated platform connecting the world’s leading artists and public arts institutions with a new generation of enthusiasts, collectors and patrons. In collaboration with the most exciting contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei, Mickalene Thomas, Maurizio Cattelan and Jenny Holzer, Avant Arte creates limited editions of the highest quality, from prints and sculptures to digital works.

With a global community of over 4 million collectors and art enthusiasts, Avant Arte reflects the growing energy and curiosity of a generation transforming how art is discovered, collected, and supported. Together with leading museums and institutions, such as LACMA, the Contemporary Art Society and the Guggenheim, Avant Arte develops fundraising collaborations that strengthen public access to art and engage the new generation of patrons who will shape its future. Make-Ready, our North London print studio, is the largest fine art silkscreen printmaker in the world.

Avant Arte’s mission is to make discovering and collecting art more accessible, connecting artists, institutions and audiences in meaningful ways that expand art’s reach and impact.

OUR CULTURE

We’re a small team with really big ambitions, both for what we want to achieve and also the environment we’re building. We want to create a company that remains thoughtful as we scale and tries to be genuinely progressive in how we operate. We want people to really own what they do and be given the autonomy and freedom to make mistakes, learn, and create something meaningful.

We all work incredibly hard because we really care about what Avant Arte is here to do – we’re looking for exceptional people who are proactive, hungry to learn, and want to put their pride in our collective achievements.

We know that creating an inclusive environment that promotes and values diversity is critical if we want to build something with impact and meaning. We believe that having diversity in age, background, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective will make us an infinitely better company. We were shortlisted for Women in Tech’s Best Employer - Small Company and Best Benefits, and Otta’s top 100 startups to work at. 

What we need

Avant Arte's content and marketing has a reputation as among the most innovative and high-quality of any in the art world, and is an extension of the brand's mission to make collecting art more accessible.

The Creative and Content Lead plays a central role in delivering this, leading a team of creatives and specialists in the creation of cut-through content that tells the story of every artwork we release - across both Avant Arte and Make-Ready Editions.

With access to some of the world's biggest artists and a mandate for creative excellence, this is a role of unusual breadth and creative opportunity. But it is, first and foremost, a role about running a busy, high-quality content operation. We release multiple edition campaigns every week, and the Creative and Content Lead is the person accountable for the quality of everything that goes out. The marquee creative moments matter enormously - but they sit on top of a well-run machine, and this role owns both the ideas and the engine room.

This is not a role for someone who only wants to shape the big creative direction. As much of the job is reviewing, directing specialists, unblocking and holding a consistent quality bar across high volume as it is generating standout ideas. If the day-to-day running of a content machine sounds like a distraction from the "real" creative work, this isn't the role for you. If it sounds like the thing that makes great creative work possible at scale, read on.

In a typical week you might be:

• Working out what our expanding pipeline of releases means for the team - where resourcing is tight, what needs to be designed, and how to maintain quality as volume grows.

• Reviewing and signing off campaign content across copy, video, photography and design before it goes live.

• Giving art direction to a photographer on a shoot or a video editor on a cut.

• Pitching a standout content idea to an artist's team or an institutional partner.

• Shaping the creative concept for a marquee release.

• Sitting down with Creative Ops to resequence the week when a launch date moves or a project slips.

• Briefing a specialist on a new edition and setting the creative bar for it.

• Rolling up your sleeves to get content over the line when the team is stretched - including stepping into Figma or the CMS yourself.

Core responsibilities

1. Content quality and creative direction

• Leading a team of creative specialists in the creation of content that continues to define the category in which we operate.

• Acting as the final quality gate on campaign content - reviewing and signing off work across copy, video, photography and design before it goes out, at pace and without becoming a bottleneck.

• Setting creative direction for edition launch campaigns and directing the specialists who execute it, rather than producing every piece yourself.

• Coming up with and pitching innovative content ideas (such as this or this) to both artists and their teams and to institutional partners.

• Driving our creative storytelling across social channels, particularly Instagram, with the goal of setting the benchmark for art storytelling on the platform.

• Ensuring consistency and quality in every piece of content we put out - from on-site product photography, edition and artist pages, and articles to content for social (organic and paid), email and other channels - across both Avant Arte and Make-Ready Editions.

• Providing ongoing direction to the in-house photographer on edition documentation.

• Creating and maintaining the guidelines, templates and standards that let specialists produce consistently on-brand work without needing you on every detail.

• Setting and holding the visual and art-direction bar across everything we make - this is your core craft - while ensuring copy meets the same standard, working with the Senior Creative who leads on writing.

• Knowing the full system of content delivery well enough to direct it confidently and step in when needed - from asset versioning in Figma to building pages in our on-site CMS. You won't be doing this work day-to-day, but you need to understand how it all fits together and be ready to help when the team is under pressure.

2. Project and team management

• Managing and developing a team of creative specialists, making sure each is set up to do their best work and held to a high standard.

• Working in partnership with Creative Ops and Content Management to keep the campaign pipeline moving - ensuring work is well distributed, correctly resourced and delivered on time across multiple concurrent campaigns.

• Working closely with the Creative Ops lead to manage the content production budget, making sure it's appropriately allocated and delivers excellent value for money.

• Working with the wider organisation to manage the ongoing pipeline of projects, prioritising where necessary.

3. Strategic planning and improvement

• Maintaining a content strategy that underpins the delivery of impactful content with strong ROI.

• Responding to data on performance to continually improve the efficacy of our content.

• Working closely with the marketing team to determine content requirements for releases.

• Acting as the guardian of the Avant Arte and Make-Ready brands, defining when and how each is most impactfully expressed.

The main skills we're looking for

• You're an inspiring team leader - highly organised, with excellent team management skills - and you're energised, not drained, by running a high-volume content operation. You take real satisfaction in a well-run machine, not just a brilliant idea.

• You're an exceptional art director who can hold a quality bar across a large volume of output produced by a team of specialists - not only content you make yourself. (Copy is led by our Senior Creative, so this is an art-direction-first role.)

• You're comfortable being the person everything passes through for sign-off, and you can do it quickly and decisively without becoming the bottleneck.

• You know the full content delivery stack - Figma asset versioning, on-site CMS page-building and the rest of the production chain - well enough to direct it and jump in when needed, even if it's not your day-to-day.

• You have a proven track record of developing content strategies and leading teams that deliver outstanding content across multiple content types - and you can talk about how and why content works, along with articulating a clear ROI.

• You're experienced in a digital business where content needs to deliver on a tangible sales agenda without compromising on brand tone of voice.

• You're experienced in managing teams delivering multiple concurrent projects using internal and external resources - streamlining processes as you go, within your own team and the broader business.

• You have experience managing budgets and aligning content ROI against your own and the business priorities of different departments.

• You can inspire people across departments about the potential of what we can achieve with our content.

• You thrive in a fast-moving environment.

We think you'll probably have

• Strong experience working in creative and content for a top culture, tech or fashion brand, publisher, high-growth start-up or agency.

• Experience running content at volume - ideally somewhere the bar was high and the pace fast.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Avant Arte is dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic team so we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

BENEFITS INCLUDE:

• Generous equity allowance

• Private Healthcare (UK)

• Enhanced pension contributions and parental leave policies 

• 29 days of holiday (including Christmas closure)

• L&D budget of €1000 per year per employee

• Regular company socials

• Art loan scheme for employees

• Cycle to Work Scheme