Art Director ITP Media Group

Job Description

Roles & Responsibilities

Desired Candidate Profile

Requirements

1) Portfolio Visual Strategy & Brand Stewardship

• Maintain and evolve the Harper s Bazaar portfolio visual language (typography, grid, imagery, palette, illustration, motion), ensuring cohesion with each edition s local nuance.
• Enforce brand style guides and cross-platform design systems for print/digital, including bilingual/RTL specifications and component libraries.

2) Issue Design & Production (Monthly & Quarterly)

• Lead flatplans and pacing; art-direct covers, features, departments, and special supplements; approve layouts from concept to press-ready files.
• Partner with the Managing Editor and Production teams on schedules and closes appropriate to a monthly (Arabia) and quarterly (Saudi/Qatar) cadence.
• Design and lay out all pages in line with our global standards.

3) Photography Direction & Commissioning

• Commission and direct photographers, stylists, set designers, illustrators, and retouchers across fashion, portrait, still-life, architecture/interiors.
• Write treatments and shot lists; supervise on-set art direction and retouching standards; build and maintain a best-in-class regional contributor network.

4) Digital, Motion & Social Packaging

• Translate print features into platform-native packages (.com templates, social carousels, Reels/Shorts graphic systems, thumbnails); set motion/graphics rules for video lower-thirds and opens.
• Collaborate with social/video leads to ensure visual consistency and high engagement across channels.

5) Prepress, Colour & Print Quality

• Own colour-accurate output across devices and presses: CMYK conversions, profile selection, proofing, paper stock recommendations, and press checks.
• Implement ICC-profiled colour management and preflight/QC practices to ensure predictable, premium print reproduction.

6) Arabic/English Craft (RTL/LTR)

• Ensure excellent Arabic typography, spacing, ligatures, and mirroring logic; set rules for mixed writing directions (numbers, units, dates) and bilingual hierarchy.
• Curate Arabic-compatible type families and oversee RTL adaptations of layouts and UI elements for digital.

7) Operations, Assets & Rights

• Maintain file architecture, versioning, and DAM hygiene (naming, metadata, reuse).
• Oversee image rights, credits, licenses, and clearances in partnership with Legal/Editorial; manage third-party fonts/artwork usage.

8) Collaboration and Commercial

• Partner with editorial leaders to shape visual storytelling; collaborate with commercial/branded content teams on premium executions while protecting editorial integrity.

Qualifications

• 8 10+ years art direction in luxury fashion/editorial environments with a portfolio of landmark covers/features and cross-platform systems.
• Mastery of typography and grid; expert in InDesign/Photoshop/Illustrator; working knowledge of Lightroom/Capture One; motion basics (After Effects/Premiere) and Figma for digital systems.
• Proven prepress/print expertise (proofing, press checks, colour pipelines/ICC); strong retouching oversight.
• Bilingual/RTL experience strongly preferred; Arabic/English fluency is a plus with sensitivity to regional cultural context and luxury aesthetics.
• Calm under pressure, deadline-reliable, and excellent at cross-functional communication with editorial, production, and commercial teams.