Company Description
The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.
Position Overview
The Senior Graphic Design Manager leads the development and execution of Barbour’s global visual design language across all brand and commercial touchpoints. Translating seasonal strategy and campaign direction into distinctive visual assets, you will set global design standards while managing and mentoring an internal team (Senior, Mid, Junior, and Student level) and building a network of external creative freelancers.
*The role is based at head office in South Shields and the expectation is 4 days in the office and 1 day of home-working.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Creative & Brand Leadership
- Elevate Barbour’s global graphic design language, translating brand strategy, seasonal direction, and campaign concepts into compelling visual identities across physical and digital channels.
- Maintain high standards for typography, layout, graphic treatments, and visual storytelling while respecting and evolving the brand’s heritage visual codes.
- Act as global guardian for visual identity, ensuring consistency across retail, wholesale, digital, social, e-commerce, and experiential touchpoints.
- Develop scalable design systems, guidelines, and toolkits for global markets.
Team & Operational Management
- Lead, inspire, and develop the graphic design team, setting clear objectives, offering regular creative critique, and managing succession planning.
- Manage internal resources and build a external freelancer pool to bring in specialist skills and free up the internal team for core creative work.
- Establish efficient workflows, clear briefing standards, and approval processes alongside Brand and Creative Services.
- Drive design efficiency by exploring new tools, templates, automation, and AI-enabled workflows.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Brand, Trade, Digital, E-commerce, and regional teams to align design solutions with commercial goals and hero product priorities.
- Present creative concepts confidently to senior stakeholders, articulating rationale and balancing creative vision with channel constraints and budgets.
Skills and Experience
- Significant industry experience in graphic design, ideally within premium fashion, retail, lifestyle, or creative agency environments.
- Proven track record leading, managing, and developing design talent.
- High-calibre portfolio demonstrating sophisticated visual identity, layout, and storytelling across print and digital media.
- Commercial acumen with strong stakeholder presentation and cross-functional communication skills.
- Deep understanding of contemporary fashion, culture, and omni-channel creative requirements (retail, e-commerce, digital, social).
- Expert knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite and working proficiency in Figma.
- Degree in Graphic Design or Visual Communication (or equivalent), with knowledge of motion design, AI tools, or international markets considered advantageous.
- Discretionary Company bonus scheme
- Staff shop
- 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
- Access to training and development activities to support your career development
- Free onsite parking
- Subsidised canteen
- Operate hybrid & flexible working
- 4pm finish on a Friday
- Refer a friend bonus scheme
- Reward & Recognition Program
- Length of Service Rewards
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