Lead, Concept Art & Illustration

Journey with us! Combine your career goals and sense of adventure by joining our exciting team of employees. Royal Caribbean Group is pleased to offer a competitive compensation & benefits package, and excellent career development opportunities, each offering unique ways to explore the world.

NOTE: This is a full-time in-person role based in the company’s headquarters in Miami, FL. Applicants must be available to work in Miami– Thursday, with work from home on Friday.

Position Summary

The Royal Caribbean Creative Development & Advanced Concept Design Studio (or “Creative Studio”) has a balanced mission of enhancing active near-term product efforts, and envisioning future capabilities and offerings of the company. We apply creative effort and insight to enhance and amplify existing products, and develop new product, experience, and service concepts and prototypes that improve guest and crew experience across all human interface touch points. We leverage both established and emerging technologies, partner with technology vendors and service providers, and invent new technology and concepts, blending physical and digital to produce shareable design assets and tangible test experiences. We prove out concepts for desirability, feasibility, and viability, and move projects that satisfy these requirements to homes within relevant RCG businesses. The Creative Studio is seeking a Lead Concept Artist & Illustrator to assist in delivering this work.

Based in Miami, FL and reporting to the Director, Creative Development & Advanced Concept Design, the Lead Concept Artist & Illustrator will be responsible for creating conceptual art and visual assets for product, service, and experience concepts. Collaborating with Studio designers, capturing and communicating the tone, look and feel, and overall functional concept of a given project will be a major responsibility of the Lead Concept Artist & Illustrator.

The Senior Concept Artist & Illustrator will have deep expertise and capability with concept art, storyboarding, keyframe art, illustration, and visual development and design. Ideally, the Lead Concept Artist & Illustrator will have familiarity with project-oriented work methodology or related multi-disciplinary experience design and will be tasked with exploring and defining the initial experience and look and feel of a project. The ideal candidate will bring a balance of individual and teaming capability to the position, providing both compelling artistic expertise and necessary team collaboration.

Responsibilities

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide Concept Art and Illustration expertise for Creative Studio projects:
• Conduct and present visual research for functional and aesthetic reference
• Ideate and explore creative directions through rough-to-polished concept sketches, storyboards, illustrations, keyframe visuals, renderings/paintings, photo bashing, presentation visuals, and 3D models to achieve look and feel and communicate intent
• Assist team resources in producing final project assets and documentation; provide hands-on assistance and collaboration where needed
• Collaborate with Creative Studio Director, Designers, Fabricators, and Product Development Product Owners to ensure 2D and 3D assets convey desired look, feel, function and overall intent of a proposed of a product, service, or experience concept
  
  

Leadership activities

• Take responsibility and ownership for assigned work, exercising initiative to contribute beyond what’s assigned, work to address developmental opportunities and increase capabilities.
• Informally lead junior resources on Creative Studio team or otherwise, helping them develop higher levels of practice and understanding.
• Exemplify partnership and collaboration with internal teams, helping team to navigate competing priorities while delivering excellence.
• Explore and investigate emerging techniques, technologies, trends, events, and companies to leverage and/or partner with on advanced concept projects; share findings with team.
• Function as visual art SME for team, providing instruction and skill enhancement to other team members.
• Generate new strategic ideas for the Creative Studio, be it process, practice, or project.
  
  

Management Activities

• Manage involvement in multiple concurrent project work streams.
• Provide informal support and assistance to junior team members for individual growth.
  
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration, Entertainment Design, Visual Arts, or similar.
• 5-8 years relevant experience.
• Exceptional visual artist across multiple visual categories and levels of fidelity: rough and tight sketching, storyboarding, painting/rendering, keyframe art, and visual development/design; facility with graphic design, typography, logo design, signage/wayfinding a plus.
• Deep expertise with relevant tools and techniques, both analog and digital (traditional media, Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, ZBrush, Blender or other 3D modeling programs, rendering engines) and comfort and facility depicting everything from human scale products to vehicles to spaces/environments.
• Strong grasp of experience design and narrative structure and how to use their constituent elements to design a compelling, immersive, effective experience.
• Experience with a wide variety of project categories a plus (e.g. Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Experiential/Exhibition, Hospitality, Retail, etc.).
• Broad perspective and informed creative opinion on experience design and interaction a plus.
• Effective and efficient manager of available resources, be it time, budget, or materials; excellent time management and organizational skills, enabling completion of multiple concurrent work streams, effective delegation, and delivery against deadlines. Fast turnaround and iterative process for delivering work is highly desirable.
• Excellent verbal communication skills: explanation, presentation, persuasion.
• Strong collaboration skills: communicating, teaming, delivering shared work, learner mindset.
• People-oriented and a natural team worker, comfortable working in a fast-paced, fluid environment where collaboration, proactivity, and self-direction are essential.
• Resilient to ambiguity, change, and chaos: the Creative Studio is responsible for envisioning and prototyping the future, so team members need to flex to the needs of any given project. Sometimes we will start with clear direction and objectives; sometimes we will start with an empty whiteboard.
• Biased to action, attentive to detail, consummate craftsmanship.
  
  

We know there's a lot to consider. As you go through the application process, our recruiters will be glad to provide guidance, and more relevant details to answer any additional questions. Thank you again for your interest in Royal Caribbean Group. We'll hope to see you onboard soon!

It is the policy of the Company to ensure equal employment and promotion opportunity to qualified candidates without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, sexuality, gender identity or expression, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Royal Caribbean Group and each of its subsidiaries prohibit and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment.