Type of Position
Full-time Contract
Job Description
9 Story Media / Brown Bag Films is a leading creator, producer and distributor of award-winning animated and live action content for audiences around the world. From development right through to consumer products, 9 Story Media Group is one of the world's leading kids and family content companies. We are looking for an Assistant Head of Art to join our creative team at Toronto studio.
Role Title: Assistant Head of Art
Reporting to: Head of Art
Purpose: Why you're here at Brown Bag Films
To support and collaborate the Creative Directors and Head of Art in developing the studio's artistic vision, design excellence, and visual innovation across all productions, ensuring the creation and delivery of world-class artwork while balancing creative ambition with production realities.
The Assistant Head of Art Department champions a diverse range of artistic styles, develops talent, and provides strategic artistic leadership to productions requiring artistic guidance, intervention, or support.
Delivery: What you produce
Exceptional artistic output across all studio productions.
A sustainable, high-performing Art Department.
Strong visual development pipelines, workflows, and creative standards.
Effective artistic support systems for productions across varying stages of development and delivery.
A culture of creative growth, mentorship, and continuous improvement.
Measurements: How we measure it
Creative outputs meeting artistic requirements within agreed scope, budget, and schedule.
Consistency of quality across productions with varying visual styles.
Team performance, engagement, and development.
Success of productions supported through artistic intervention and guidance.
Delivery against quarterly operational and strategic goals.
Efficiency and effectiveness of departmental workflows and creative reviews.
Key Responsibilities
Creative Leadership:
Managing the team of Art Directors and ensuring they achieve the creative vision within the scope and required standard for their productions.
Guiding productions across a broad range of visual styles, genres, and audience demographics, ensuring artistic authenticity and excellence in each project's unique design language.
Partnering with Show Directors and Episodic Directors to translate creative vision into achievable artistic solutions.
Resolving creative conflicts related to production design, visual development, and artistic execution.
Maintaining studio-wide standards for design quality and visual storytelling.
Production Support & Intervention
Providing hands-on artistic support to productions experiencing creative, design, or workflow challenges.
Identifying productions that may benefit from additional artistic guidance and proactively partnering with leadership to develop solutions.
Conducting creative reviews and assessments to identify risks, opportunities, and areas for improvement.
Supporting productions through visual problem-solving, draw-overs, paint-overs, notes, and targeted creative direction.
Art directing pilots, tests, proof-of-concepts, and special initiatives as required.
Department Leadership
Overseeing the Art department's leads ensuring design teams meet artistic, technical, and workflow requirements.
Overseeing the development and implementation of departmental workflows, methodologies, and best practices including:
Visual development
Concept design and exploration
Style guides
Breakouts and call-outs
Production design documentation
Design reviews and feedback processes
Collaborating closely with CG management to ensure effective delivery to upstream and downstream departments.
Talent & Development
Leading recruitment, artistic casting, and resource planning for Art Directors and design teams across productions.
Identifying emerging talent and fostering career growth within the department.
Establishing mentorship, training, and professional development programs.
Promoting artistic versatility and encouraging the development of skills across multiple visual styles and design approaches.
Quality & Review
Establishing clear review structures and feedback methodologies across the department.
Providing high-quality visual notes, draw-overs, paint-overs, and design feedback to ensure clarity of creative direction.
Monitoring artistic complexity and scope to ensure creative ambitions remain aligned with production realities.
Championing continuous improvement in visual quality, storytelling, and creative execution.
Key Requirements
Knowledge
Expert understanding of a wide range of artistic styles and their application across animation productions, including preschool, comedy, action-adventure, feature, stylized, and hybrid aesthetics.
Strong understanding of 2DD and CG animation workflows and cross-departmental production pipelines.
Strong knowledge of production design, visual development, colour scripting, shape language, and visual storytelling.
Understanding of colour management, colour profiles, and their application in animation production.
Knowledge of current industry trends, emerging technologies, and evolving artistic practices.
Experience
Extensive experience as an Art Director, Production Designer, or equivalent creative leadership role on feature films and/or episodic productions.
Demonstrated success leading projects with distinctly different visual styles and creative requirements.
Experience providing visual feedback through draw-overs, paint-overs, reviews, and hands-on creative problem-solving.
Experience identifying and resolving production challenges through artistic leadership and intervention.
Experience recruiting, developing, and managing design teams within a production environment.
Experience mentoring senior creative talent and department leadership.
Technical Skill
Expert proficiency in Photoshop, digital painting, and visual development techniques.
Expert application of artistic hardware and software within animation production pipelines.
Strong working knowledge of contemporary concept design, review, annotation, and collaboration tools.
Ability to communicate creative feedback clearly through both verbal direction and visual notes/draw-overs.
Behaviours (Competencies)
Strategic Creative Leadership
Collaboration & Influence
Talent Development
Problem Solving
Adaptability & Creative Agility
Production Awareness
Accountability & Delivery Excellence
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We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
The salary range for this role is $90,000 to $110,000 per year.
We consider several factors in determining salary offers including experience, skills, qualifications, and education. Our employees receive competitive perks including comprehensive benefits, paid vacation, and health & wellness days.
Applicants need to be legally eligible to work in Canada and have Ontario residency.
9 Story Media takes diversity and inclusion seriously and we are committed to ensuring equity in the recruitment process. Candidates from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to, Indigenous peoples, Racialized and LGBT2SQ+ communities, candidates from a range of ages and religious beliefs and people with disabilities, are encouraged to apply.
As a company, we deliver high-quality kids' content, and we seek to have diverse characters so that all our audience feels represented. We also want the same for our own workforce, and 9 Story Media is committed to looking for all kinds of talent to build a diverse workforce in which all identities are represented and respected.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided a reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application and interview process to be successful in performing essential job functions. We’d love to know how we can support your requirements for accommodation.
