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How to become an art director or creative director?

How do I become an Art Director?

  • I'm currently in an agency as a mac artist/graphic designer. I'd like to make the jump to creative but wondering what the best approach is.

  • Answer:

    So you want to start down the path of being an art director. Congratulations! Art direction is a proud and noble profession with a rich history. There are many famous art directors regaled in the history books for the their contributions to... Sigh, who am I trying to kid? Art direction can be a pretty cool job at times, but it certainly isn't glamorous - nor does it tend to be overly creative. The creativity is usually reserved for the artists, designers and other folks that the art director works with. Your lot is fraught with meetings, paperwork, and politics. If you haven't bailed from this discussion yet, then I'll smile knowing that you are one of those rare (some might say sick) individuals that might have the gumption to make it as an art director. It might help to understand a bit of the history of the art director role. The role of the art director grew out of the advertising agency model. Previously, the art director's job was simply to execute the copywriter's ideas. The hierarchy was clear - copywriter's developed the concepts and art directors produced those ideas. Today, art directors reside in many different places in the creative industry, and their roles have often changed significantly. The bulk of this will be written from the viewpoint of advertising and publishing (both digital and analog) - as those are the industries I know best. There is a lot of carry-over into the entertainment industry and beyond, but if you are specifically interested in those fields I recommend that you find someone in those industries to provide you complete information. Let's clear up the first and biggest myth about the art directors role. Myth #1 - Art Direction is all about art. Sorry to burst that bubble, but art direction isn't about composition, layout, design, marker comps (old skool) or concept sketches. These are definitely skills that might be used in your job, but they don't define your job. A few other myths that need to be tossed out the window #2 - Eccentric and unpredictable #3 - Perpetually disorganized #4 - Deficient in writing skills #5 - Without any regard for budgets #6 - Untrustworthy around clients #7 - Rude and scathing when talking to creative partners or clients #8 - Unable to follow instructions #9 - Short on presentation skills #10 - Mindless about deadlines This habits won't get you anything but a really bad reputation and potentially fired. Better yet, let me share a list of skills that an art director should exhibit: • Keeping up-to-date on contemporary art and design styles • Staying on top of the latest production techniques, tools and materials • Developing a strong grasp of type and typefaces • Knowing what constitutes effective composition and design • Being thorough and detail oriented • Demonstrating resourcefulness in problem solving • Communicating ideas effectively • Possessing the ability to coordinate several tasks or projects at once As you can see, the skill set that is required isn't really about being an artist, but is instead about being artistic. There are some art directors that can't draw a straight line. You should, however, have artistic sensibilities and a knowledge of composition, color, texture, tone, perspective, etc. As the job title implies it's the art director's job to direct or lead. You might dealing with a staff of artists, designers, photographers, or animators, but your responsibility is to guide these folks to meet your objectives...or more accurately, the objectives of you clients. Becoming a leader is a skill that is developed through practice and learning. Don't kid yourself, if you aren't a strong leader - you need to improve those skills to be a truly effective art director. To be a successful art director, you can never forget that your real job is to sell or promote your client or companies service or product. If you forget that, and go off thinking you are in your job simply to make "awesome art" - you will have a short career. Everyone enjoys creative and seeing creative work, but it must be creative for a purpose. If must meet a set of objectives and goals. The greatest reward for an art director should be to boost the bottom line...not win art awards. People are the biggest asset in a creative company, and it is a smart art director that know how to communicate, guide, mentor, and gain the cooperation of the creatives they work with. It is necessary to know what motivates people, how to treat them, and how to criticize without being destructive (!!). Please note that the title also has "director" in it. That implies that you are directing someone...and that implies a team situation. The best art directors aren't just leaders, but also team members. You must learn to appreciate others, collaborate, seek opinions, share skills and knowledge, and all the other skills that help build a team relationship. There's nothing more destructive to a team than an art director that acts like an art dictator. As far as how to get the skills to be an art director. My biggest piece of advice is forget going to school to learn the skills. While I've heard of a few "art direction" schools, I've found the best education is to identify an industry you want to get into, find a skill that will get you into that industry, and then start climbing the ladder. Whether you climb into the role from a position as an artist, a designer, an animator, a writer, or any other creative position doesn't really matter. It's about getting skills and knowledge about the industry, the tools, the people, the relationships, and the business that are truly the most important lessons to be learned. Also don't expect to become an art director overnight. It is not uncommon to work in the industry for 5 or more years before you have developed enough of the skills to prepare you for the role of art director. http://theArtOrder.com

Jon Schindehette at Quora Visit the source

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In order to make a progress and become an art director, you need to enhance your professional profile. Here are few important steps you should follow. 1. Acquire required skills Here are the most required skills employers are looking for, prioritized by their importance, based on the analysis of thousands of Art Directors job posts: Photoshop User interface design HTML Illustrator Typography InDesign Adobe creative suite CSS Photography Start with evaluating your current skill set and identify your missing skill. There are many relevant online and offline learning resource out there, to gain these missing skills. 2. Stay updated with latest industry updates. Read relevant articles and professional material to gain as much relevant knowledge as you can. 3. Grow your professional network. Get connected with Art directors and with other key players from the industry. Here are few effective ways to do that: Attend relevant meetups. Attending meetups is a way to get to know people from the industry, grow your network and to ask questions and get advice. You can find relevant meetups here: http://art-directors.meetup.com/ Join relevant LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn groups is a great way to meet relevant people from the industry and to create initial connections. Here are few groups that may interest you https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3927131&trk=vsrp_groups_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A445702341427271232001%2CVSRPtargetId%3A3927131%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Graphic-designer-art-director-2056001?gid=2056001&trk=vsrp_groups_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A445702341427271232001%2CVSRPtargetId%3A2056001%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary Get connected with relevant people in LinkedIn. 4. Use your existing network to locate relevant people who can mentor you and give you professional advice and lead you to become an art director. 5. Try to gain relevant experience. Consider taking projects (even for free), or even a short internship. You can start looking here: https://www.elance.com/r/jobs/q-art%20director/ I'm a co-founder at https://www.reskill.me/?utm_source=content&utm_medium=quora&utm_campaign=Art_director_Nir#/feed. Our mission is to guide people step by step to their desired job. You can visit us and start getting personalized career guidance to become an art director. It's free.

Nir Goldstein

Taking into consideration your current situation (already working in an agency as a designer/mac artist), I'll try to make this as concise as possible. I'm assuming you work in an advertising agency and not some other type of agency. The perspective of my answer applies to that industry, but may not apply to other industries. If that is your case, there are a couple of ways to go about it, depending on your situation. The first way: I would try to approach a creative director at your agency, and tell him/her that you would like to make the jump. Ask him/her for a brief next time he gets one and try to come up with ideas for it. Be persistent with this, as he's likely to forget and not go look for you. You need to be the squeaky wheel. If he doesn't like your ideas, listen to the feedback and do it all over again. As an art director, concepting is a huge part of the role and you need to show that you're comfortable with that part of the job and that you're good at it. If you come up with ideas the creative director likes, or at least thinks they have potential; he will likely take your request for a change more seriously. However, you will need to be willing to do your regular design or mac artist work on top of the concept development part, not instead. This means, working harder than anyone else, because the time you spend working on these briefs will be your own time, since that's not what they're paying you to do (yet). If you're not willing to do this because it sounds like too much work, you're probably not cut out to be an art director. Sorry if I'm being blunt. Consistently generating good ideas, are what will make you valuable in the creative department. The actual "art" part of the role, will come easy if you're already a good designer and are willing to learn and unlearn a few things. The "director" part of the role is something you can learn also easily assuming you already have a good visual culture and vocabulary. It really is all about picking the right people to accomplish the right things visually in terms of brand personality and creative objectives. It's also about making this creative vision clear for everyone to understand, from account people to clients to vendors. Good communication skills are essential, however they're not rocket science and you can pick those up with a little experience assuming you're not a complete neanderthal. The second way: If you don't have as much true grit to do all of the above, you can opt to go a portfolio school like Miami Ad School, Portfolio Center, or any of the other reputable ones out there. You can pay an arm and a leg and come out with a book good enough for entry level art direction work (or copywriting if you decide it's a better route for you). This route will probably take a couple years including some internships and when you start; you'll be starting from the bottom in terms of salary and seniority. How fast you climb from there depends on many things, including your resolve, your talent, your choices and mostly your luck. Also, a good thing to do before you decide on either one, is to ask yourself WHY you want to be an art director instead of a designer/mac artist. The worst thing you can do, is to try to do this for the wrong reasons. Don't do it for the following reasons: 1) Because you think it's an easier or cushier job. 2) Because you think it'd be cool to tell people what to do for once. 3) Because you think you'll make a lot more money. Only do it, if you are passionate about solving problems by having tons of ideas and if you're passionate about defending and improving the visual integrity and language of a project. If you're not rabidly passionate about those two things, don't become an art director. You'll be miserable and longing for the days when you could just do final art and go home at 5:30 pm.

Carlos Riveroll

That's great you want to make the transition to move up. I know many people when I first started in 1996 that after 2 years they were calling them self art directors. I said to myself how could this be I know just as much or more. I started to investigate how they made the jump. 1. A lot of times they were moved up internally they were there at the right time.  2. They seeked employment else where. Art director as a lot more responsibility and if you love doing design art director is more of a oversee and meetings and politics. So think about it. Also I was senior designer making more than a art director it all depends if you want more money or sacrifice for title to get the experience as AD. Good luck. 

Harris Brown

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