Assistant Art Director CGI Temp - West Elm

About the Role 

This Photo–CGI–AI Assistant Art Director role helps drive the look, feel, and execution of our photo-realistic product CGI-AI assets and digital photography both in-studio and for CGI / AI workflows. Proper design and art direction, combined with the right content, drives customer engagement with the brand. Visual content created in this role directly translates business needs into compelling imagery that ultimately drives revenue.

This position supports high-volume, Photo-AI-driven image production while also contributing to broader CGI, rendering, and digital photography initiatives. It requires a highly organized, process-oriented, and extremely detail-focused creative leader who thrives in structured workflows, moves quickly without sacrificing accuracy, and works confidently within defined brand and production standards.

You will collaborate cross-functionally to translate creative direction into consistent, brand-aligned, photo-realistic imagery across ecommerce and digital channels. This includes structured prompt development, image refinement, interior scene direction, asset organization, quality assurance, and process optimization. The ideal candidate is agile, adaptable, and comfortable evolving workflows while maintaining exceptional quality standards.

A strong understanding of architecture, interior design, photography, lighting, composition, decorating, visual branding, and emerging AI-driven creative tools is essential.

Responsibilities 

Photo Art Direction & Visual Execution

• Provide art direction, interior design, and styling of room scenes for photorealistic photo, CGI/rendering, and AI image outputs (architecture; interior/exterior environments; materials; composition; lighting; propping; window scenes; crops; post-production; color temperature; retouching direction; etc.)
• Translate art direction into structured AI prompts to produce consistent, on-brand imagery for high-volume single- and multi-SKU needs
• Generate, review, refine, version, and QA AI, CGI, and photographic imagery with extreme attention to detail
• Ensure assets are presented and shared in final and intended crops
• Maintain full ownership and responsibility for assets produced on-set and digitally, contributing to end-to-end planning, execution, and post-production
• Coordinate prop and product pairings with Art Direction and Styling teams; edit, make shot direction calls, approve selects, oversee lighting and retouching notes
• Provide feedback and direction during collaborative reviews, proofing, and QA processes
• Ensure strict adherence to brand standards, style guides, and visual guidelines
• Develop and maintain Photo / CGI / AI visual standards for lighting, composition, and room environments by product category

AI & Production Workflow Support

• Support high-volume AI image production within structured workflows
• Maintain highly organized file structures, naming conventions, tracking documents, and asset libraries
• Build and contribute to Photo / CGI / AI libraries (models, materials, scenes, props) and optimize asset reuse strategies
• Identify inconsistencies or production challenges and proactively recommend solutions
• Refine Photo / CGI / AI pipeline workflows, tools, and processes
• Support documentation and continuous improvement of processes as efficiencies and learnings are identified
• Manage time effectively to meet high-volume production deadlines
• Demonstrate strong attention to detail in final outputs

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with Creative Operations, Art Direction, Site & Photo Merchant partners, Post-Production, Product Design, and Digital Design teams
• Communicate clearly cross-functionally to ensure assets are compelling, on-brand, on-deadline, and efficiently project-managed
• Project manage delivery schedules and milestones for creative development, modeling/rendering, image outputs, and production timelines
• Collaborate with product designers, photography, po