Freelance Associate Creative Director, Experience Design, Future Opportunities As an Associate Creative Director, Experience Design, you understand how strategy, research, and data can be used to shape and support design. You're an expert at curating experiences and consistently reducing complexity to provide clarity to your team, and to your clients. A true collaborator, you are sought after for design expertise and your ability to provide meaningful guidance to your project teams, mentorship, growth and the development of your experience design team, and value for your client's business. You will: Lead and deliver the hybrid UX and Visual Design vision for the experience team. Establish a clear, scalable approach to delivering holistic experience design across all clients. Drive the creation of new products and services that elevate our UX and visual design capabilities. Educate and evangelize experience design through talks, workshops, and training sessions. Manage and grow the experience design discipline, setting performance measures and building team capabilities through mentorship, training, and development programs. Act as the go-to expert for hybrid UX and visual design, ensuring best practices are embedded in every project. Elevate experience and visual storytelling across every project, every day. Champion design thinking and creativity at both the studio and executive levels. Develop new approaches and thinking around experience and visual design trends. Maintain a strong point of view on the latest tools, technologies, and methodologies that enhance design delivery. Understand how customer experience, visual identity, and interaction design connect brands across the entire experience lifecycle. Drive the creative vision across multiple accounts and support new business pitches. Build and maintain strong, trusted client relationships. Work on large, dynamic digital platforms supported by enterprise-level content management systems. Collaborate closely with project teams and client leadership to define direction and craft cohesive, elegant design solutions. Actively engage resources across multi-disciplinary teams and service areas to deliver integrated design solutions. Ensure UX and visual design deliverables meet the highest creative and functional standards. Confidently work with clients and stakeholders, taking briefs, challenging assumptions when needed, and identifying opportunities where design adds business and user value. You Have: A love for hybrid UX and visual design, blending user-centric thinking with creative visual storytelling. A big-picture, empathetic perspective that balances business goals, user needs, and brand expression. Strong storytelling skills with excellent verbal, written, and visual communication abilities. Proven experience leading hybrid design teams and working with diverse seniority levels across leadership and junior talent. Demonstrated success in client relationship building and contributing to business development. An understanding of user experience principlesresearch, information architecture, usability testingand how they integrate seamlessly with visual and interaction design to create compelling digital experiences. A body of work demonstrating creative thinking, process, and problem-solving across various digital platforms. Experience applying the latest accessibility standards to ensure inclusive and compliant design. 10+ years of industry experience in UX, visual design, and product design. Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer.