About

A creative leader who
still makes the work.

Twenty years across advertising, publishing, wagering, government, retail and digital — building brands, campaigns and the teams that make them.

Dan Smith, Creative Director
Dan Smith — Creative Director

I'm a hands-on strategic leader for multi-faceted creative teams. Over the last decade I've managed art directors, designers, developers, photographers, motion designers and editors across multiple businesses, brands and campaigns — most recently as Head of Art at News Corp Australia and Creative Team Lead at Queensland Health.

My work sits where strategy, concept and execution meet. I've pitched and led national brand platforms, rebuilt government identity systems used across 11,000 screens, run in-house creative departments against agency benchmarks, and personally built the rich media, motion and print that carried those ideas to market.

What I care about is coherence: brands that hold together across every channel, teams that know why the work matters, and creative that performs commercially as well as it looks.

Capabilities

  • Creative Direction

    Concept, craft and quality control across brand, campaign and content.

  • Design Leadership

    Building, mentoring and retaining multidisciplinary creative teams.

  • Brand

    Identity systems, guardianship and rollout at national scale.

  • Campaign

    TVC, outdoor, print, cinema, BVOD, social and native content.

  • Digital & Product

    Rich media, display, web, motion and platform thinking.

  • Creative Operations

    Process, resourcing, production pipelines and client partnership.

Career

  • Early 2026

    Creative Lead & Design Manager

    Michael Hill
  • 2024 — 2025

    Creative Team Lead (Design)

    Queensland Health
  • 2021 — 2024

    Head of Art

    News Corp Australia
  • 2019 — 2021

    Head of Creative

    News Corp Australia
  • 2018 — 2019

    Creative Team Lead / Senior Art Director

    Queensland Health
  • 2015 — 2018

    Head of Creative

    Ladbrokes Australia

Selected clients & organisations

News Corp Australia · Queensland Health · Ladbrokes / Entain · Keno · NRMA Insurance · Chemist Warehouse · Louis Vuitton · Vogue · Warner Bros. · Paramount · Michael Hill · Subway Australia · The Courier-Mail · Herald Sun