Creative Director (London)

Who we are

Kurppa Hosk is a brand agency built for decisive moments. Across Europe and the U.S., our team of 220+ partners with companies at the moments that define them, when clarity is required, and compromise is costly. Working closely with leaders, we help turn bold decisions into confident brands that stand out far from the middle to create momentum and drive demand. From early-stage startups to some of the world’s most admired companies, we work with brave organizations and are proud to count brands like On, Zalando, Electrolux, Scania, H&M, Nike, Estée Lauder, Meta, Snap, Minecraft, Spotify and Heart Aerospace among our clients.

Kurppa Hosk is a founding member of the Eidra Group, a consulting collective where we partner closely with our sister agencies, like Above (innovation), Eidra Consulting (management consulting), Curamando (digital marketing), and Umain (digital products), among others.

As we launch and build Kurppa Hosk in the UK, we're looking for a Creative Director to be one of the founding members of our London team, shaping not just the work, but the creative culture and standards of the studio from day one.

The opportunity

You'll help set the creative direction of Kurppa Hosk in the UK and globally. Inspiring new thinking, pushing concepts further, and nurturing an environment where everyone around you can do the same. Bringing together your co-leads across account, strategy, and creative, as well as the larger design team and client partners to create work that's stronger than the sum of its parts. You bring exceptional creative judgment, a strong point of view, and a gift for world-building; the ability to create rich, coherent brand worlds that hold together through an entire ecosystem. You have the conviction to push work until it's truly great, from early strategic thinking through to final execution.

You'll define what great looks like at Kurppa Hosk UK, leading teams to produce work that's both ambitious and commercially effective. Raising the bar through your coaching, your craft, and your curiosity. Inspiring clients and colleagues to be braver and to keep pushing it.

You'll contribute far beyond your own projects, helping us win work, develop talent, strengthen client relationships, and shape our creative offer as we build the UK studio from the ground up and strengthen our offer globally. Making the team stronger. Making the work more ambitious. And helping establish Kurppa Hosk as a creative force in this market.

Responsibilities

• Set and safeguard the creative direction and quality bar for Kurppa Hosk's design work – from strategic concept through to final execution, across brand creation, rebrands, and other transformative creative challenges.

• Lead and inspire multidisciplinary teams – consisting of accounts, strategists, designers, creatives, and client partners; creating work that's stronger than the sum of its parts.

• Build the London studio from day one – shape the creative culture, hire the team, and coach design talent as it grows, establishing the standards, rituals and ways of working that define what Kurppa Hosk UK stands for.

• Build strong, trust-based relationships directly with clients – acting as a creative partner they trust to push their thinking.

• Partner with the Business Director and founding UK team on new business – from pitches to growing existing accounts, bringing creative conviction into every commercial conversation.

• Champion AI-enabled ways of working – experimenting with emerging tools in our design processes and deliverables, and helping the UK studio integrate them into how we ship and what we ship, in service of higher pace, quality and ambition.

• Shape Kurppa Hosk's design offer and point of view in the UK – establish our creative presence externally through published perspectives, industry engagement and visibility that positions us as a serious voice in the London market.

• Actively engage the wider Eidra network – to bring cross-disciplinary strength into UK client work and open new commercial opportunities.
  

The ideal person

You're a creative leader with a strong point of view and the craft to back it up, someone who can move fluidly from early strategic thinking to final execution without losing ambition along the way. You're generous with your time and your thinking: as comfortable coaching a junior designer as you are challenging a client to be braver.

You're curious about how design craft is evolving, actively experimenting with new tools, AI included, and pulling the teams around you into that exploration rather than waiting for the answer to arrive.

You're energized by the idea of building a creative culture from the ground up. You collaborate naturally with strategy and commercial partners, understanding that great creative work and great client relationships build each other.

And most of all – you're a genuinely nice person.

Qualifications

• Exceptional track record leading creative work at a brand, design or advertising agency. Shaping creative direction, not just executing it. Typically 10+ years, with 3+ at CD level or equivalent.

• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary creative teams and coach individual designers.

• Experience building trust-based relationships directly with senior clients.

• Strong portfolio of brand-led transformation, brand creation, rebrands or comparable transformative work, with examples where you shaped the direction.

• Fluent in modern design tools and actively engaged with how AI is reshaping design craft; keen to experiment and help teams adopt new capabilities.

• Experience contributing to new business, pitches – scoping, account growth – making the creative case in commercial conversations.

• Comfortable in a founding-team environment, building rather than maintaining. Prior experience starting up a new studio, office or practice is a strong plus.

• Excellent communication skills in English, both verbal and written (English is our working language)

• Eligible to work in the UK.
  

Why join us

• 30 days paid holiday

• Private medical insurance

• Regular international travel, with opportunities to work and connect in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, DACH, and the US, where Kurppa Hosk/Eidra have operations

• Play a central role in scaling a fast-growing business

• Latest Apple kit (MacBook + iPhone) to do your best work

• Company conferences in standout European locations to connect, learn, and celebrate