Services / Fractional Creative Director
Fractional Creative Director, Melbourne
Some teams do not need an agency. They have designers. They have a marketing manager who knows the business inside out. What they are missing is someone senior enough to set the direction, hold the standard and say no when it matters.
That is the job. I work as a fractional creative director inside in-house teams and other agencies, directing brand and digital work under their name rather than mine.
The numbers behind the work
20 years
agency-side across Tribal DDB, Blaze Advertising and Mediacom before founding The Animals.
2 studios
currently, directing creative at Free Studio and Call To Action alongside my own.
A few hours
a week through to a full season or a single project, depending on what the work needs.
What’s included
Creative direction
On live work, not advice from the sidelines.
Critique and standards
So the work gets better before a client sees it.
Pitch and new business
When you need senior weight in the room.
Mentoring
For designers who have talent and no one to learn from.
Brand guardianship
Across campaigns, channels and whoever else is touching the work.
Client-facing presentation
Where it helps to have another senior voice.
How it works
1 · Scope
What you actually need, and how often. Some teams want a standing day. Others want someone for the four weeks either side of a launch. The arrangement should fit the work rather than a retainer template.
2 · Embed
Into your tools, your meetings and your file structure. The point of this model is that I am inside the team rather than quoting at it, so the setup matters more than it does on a project.
3 · Direct
The actual work. Setting the creative direction, reviewing what comes back, making the calls that need twenty years behind them, and taking responsibility for the standard.
4 · Review
What changed, what is working, what the team needs next. Fractional arrangements drift if nobody checks them, so this is deliberate rather than assumed.
Work
Myer
Angus and I spent a year embedded in the in-house social team, working to their calendar, their stakeholders and their approval chain rather than briefing from outside. It is the arrangement described on this page, inside one of the country’s largest retailers.
Free Studio
A creative partnership of senior strategists, designers and directors across Melbourne and London. I direct creative and digital work as a member of the collective.
Call To Action
Fractional creative director since 2025, working across their client base.
Earlier agency-side work includes directing digital for a national liquor retail group, an Australian pharmaceutical company and a hospitality and motoring group. That work sits under the agencies that held the relationships, so it is described here by sector rather than by name.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many hours do you need to be useful?
Less than most people expect. A few hours a week is enough to hold direction on work that is already moving. It is not enough to originate a brand platform from scratch. If the brief is bigger than the hours, I will say so rather than stretch it.
Do you work under our name or yours?
Yours, unless we agree otherwise. That is the normal arrangement with agencies and it is why a lot of this work never appears in my portfolio. If you want the relationship named publicly, that is a separate conversation and entirely your call.
Can you present to our clients?
Yes, and often that is the point. A second senior voice in a pitch or a review changes the room. I can appear as part of your team or as a named partner, whichever you prefer.
What happens if a conflict comes up?
I raise it before it becomes a problem. If you are pitching against a client of The Animals, or against another studio I direct for, you will hear about it from me first and I will step back from that piece of work.
Can you bring in other people if the work needs more than one?
Yes. The default is me, directing. Where a job needs more than direction I bring in senior people I have worked with before, across strategy, design, copy and production. They are contracted, managed and billed through The Animals, so you deal with one supplier and one invoice rather than a roster of freelancers, and I stay accountable for the work. They are scoped to the job rather than retained, and work under your name on the same terms I do.