Conceptual Designer

About the role

Join Kayak's internal creative team in London as a Conceptual Designer/Art Director. In this role, you will be responsible for developing innovative and compelling visual campaigns that resonate with audiences and support the growth of the brand. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to transform insights, business goals, and strategic objectives into memorable visual content across a variety of platforms. The position offers an exciting opportunity to shape the visual identity of a leading travel search engine, contributing to campaigns that inspire and engage users worldwide. As part of the team, you will be expected to bring a high level of creativity, strategic thinking, and craftsmanship to every project, ensuring that the brand's visual language remains fresh, relevant, and impactful.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Generate innovative visual concepts and designs for a broad range of media including brand campaigns, performance marketing, social media, video content, digital advertising, out-of-home displays, and emerging media formats.
• Lead creative ideas from initial brief through to final execution, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment with brand strategy.
• Produce distinctive visual content that stands out in a competitive market, helping to elevate the brand's presence across multiple channels.
• Collaborate closely with writers, marketers, motion designers, product teams, and other creative professionals to develop cohesive, insight-driven creative assets.
• Contribute to the development and refinement of visual identity, campaign strategies, moodboards, storyboards, and presentation materials.
• Translate product features, user insights, and business challenges into engaging visual narratives that communicate effectively and inspire action.
• Utilize testing, performance data, and audience insights to refine creative concepts and improve campaign effectiveness over time.
• Maintain high standards of craftsmanship, ensuring that all visual outputs meet the brand's quality benchmarks.
• Support the team in exploring new creative tools, technologies, and trends, including AI, to push the boundaries of visual storytelling.
• Help uphold and elevate the creative standards within the team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence.
• Participate in creative reviews, brainstorming sessions, and strategic planning to ensure alignment with overall brand objectives.
• Assist in mentoring junior team members and sharing best practices to foster a collaborative and inspiring work environment.
• Stay informed about industry trends, emerging media, and technological advancements to keep the brand's creative work at the forefront of innovation.
• Contribute to a positive team culture that values diversity, creativity, and continuous learning.

Requirements

• 5-7+ years of experience in a creative or conceptual design role, with a strong portfolio demonstrating conceptual thinking, craft, and versatility across multiple formats.
• Proven ability to develop innovative visual concepts that align with brand strategy and business objectives.
• Strong art direction skills with a keen eye for detail, composition, and visual storytelling.
• Excellent skills in design, typography, and visual communication.
• Experience working across various media including digital, social, video, out-of-home, and emerging platforms.
• Ability to translate insights, data, and testing results into creative improvements.
• Curious, collaborative, and highly self-motivated, with a passion for travel, storytelling, and culture.
• Enthusiastic about exploring new creative tools and emerging technologies, including AI, to enhance creative output.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to present ideas clearly and work effectively within a team.
• Capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail and meeting deadlines.
• Deep interest in branding, storytelling, and understanding audience needs.
• Willingness to contribute to an idea-first, forward-thinking in-house studio environment.

Nice to have

• Experience working in an advertising agency or a similarly fast-paced, creative environment.
• A portfolio showcasing broad conceptual thinking and execution across multiple formats and media.
• Demonstrated experience working across digital, social, film, out-of-home, and emerging platforms.
• Strong intuition for typography, composition, motion design, and storytelling techniques.
• Knowledge of production processes and motion design is a plus.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with diverse teams.
• Highly organized, with the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines efficiently.
• Genuine enthusiasm for travel and creative pursuits that inspire innovative ideas.

Skills & tools

• Art Direction
• Visual Storytelling
• Design
• Typography
• Composition
• Motion Design
• AI (emerging creative tools)

Practical notes

• This is a hybrid role requiring at least 3 days per week in the London office.
• Benefits include 5 weeks paid vacation, private health and dental insurance, income protection, life assurance, pension contributions, and up to 20 days per year to work from almost anywhere.
• The company emphasizes mental health and well-being, offering paid therapy sessions, Headspace subscription, and a company-wide week off annually.
• Additional perks include no-meeting Fridays, paid parental leave, paid volunteer days, career development opportunities, travel discounts, and social events.
• The role provides an exciting environment for creative growth within a leading travel search engine, with opportunities to influence global campaigns and work with a talented, collaborative team.

About the company

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world's leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We're also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business.