What Is Do I Need Advertising Direct or Art Director
In the creative world, there are and then many like-sounding roles (Artistic Director, Pattern Managing director, Artistic Pb, Project Manager, Visual Designer, Production Designer….the list goes on) it can make your caput spin.
Of all the roles in the creative world, art direction is a especially important ane—but it also happens to be a role shrouded in mystery. Unless y'all've worked as an art managing director, you probably take no clue what, exactly, it is we exercise. (Do nosotros direct films about fine art? Do we direct artists creating new things? What does art direction fifty-fifty hateful?!)
Allow'south put this mystery to rest once and for all. I'm an art director here at 99designs, and I'm here to pull back the curtain and show you exactly what an art director does, how it differs from other artistic roles, and how to get an fine art director yourself (if that's what you lot're in the market place for).
What does an art director do?
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In a nutshell, an art director acts every bit a span between design talent and, depending on the situation, the executive team or the client. We take business organisation objectives from non-designers and work with designers to come with artistic means of executing them through fine art. Information technology's a mix of project resourcing, deadline management, pattern know-how, people management, and interim every bit a liaison between designers and concern folk in social club to manage expectations and provide clarity… it'southward a various, fast-paced and exciting part.
So, for example, permit's say our Managing director of Marketing needs a design deliverable created for a new initiative the company is launching next quarter. Every bit art director, I'd sit down with the Marketer and become an thought of how they envision the piece. Then, I'd create a timeline of how and when things need to happen in gild for u.s.a. to hitting our deadline, bring on the right designers and production artists for the office, and manage the project from first to finish. Along the manner, I'd provide management and support to the designers, manage the Director of Marketing's expectations (so, for example, if they requested a revision that would go beyond the budgeted timeline or scope, I'd permit them know), and make sure the project is on pace and that everything is ready to whorl before the deadline.
How is an art manager dissimilar from other roles in the creative space?
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Similar I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of similar sounding roles in the creative globe, and one question I get a lot is "how is art direction different from other roles in a creative company?" So let'southward unpack that for a minute.
The roles that people most often get mixed upwardly are "art director" and "artistic director." And information technology makes full sense, because the differences betwixt the 2 are fairly nuanced.
And so, first off: a company might not always take a creative director and an art managing director. And if they don't, the responsibilities of both roles are typically managed past the other (then, if a company only has a creative director, they'd manage the duties typically associated with an art director, and if a company only has an art manager, they'd too take on the tasks of a creative director). If a visitor does have both, a artistic manager is a step above an fine art managing director; a creative director would manage the fine art manager and their projects in improver to the creative vision for other areas of the visitor.
Some other question I get a lot is "is an fine art director different from a graphic designer?" And, to put it bluntly, the answer is yep—very different.
Fine art directors might come from a graphic design background, simply once they move into art direction, the amount of actual design they exercise tends to decrease; instead, an increased corporeality of their time is spent on strategy, project management and managing designers. Graphic designers handle less of the managerial and directing responsibilities and instead spend near of their fourth dimension in the trenches, coming up with the actual designs to bring the art director'due south concepts to life.
What skills do you need to become an art manager?
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Design know-how
You don't necessarily have to come from a pattern background in order to exist a successful fine art director (enough of art directors come up from the copy earth). But y'all do have to have a pretty deep level of blueprint know-how in guild to be able to effectively manage design teams, processes and projects. And so, for example, maybe yous can't pattern a website yourself—but you do know how a website gets designed and what is and isn't possible so you can ready proper expectations with the client and aren't making promises you (and your designers) tin't keep.
It's also important to have an overarching noesis of different areas of design; not every project is going to be the aforementioned, and so you demand to be just equally comfy directing a website projection as yous are a total-on corporate rebrand or a imprint advertising design entrada.
Time management
At its cadre, fine art direction is really a complicated trip the light fantastic toe of fourth dimension direction. Yous need to be able to look at a project and figure out how long it's going to have to bring deliverables to life, at which stages progress updates and cheque-ins should happen, how many rounds of revisions might be needed, how people's physical location might touch the project (for case, if y'all're working with designers in different timezones), how each component of the project affects the residual of the project's timeline… it'due south a lot to stay on top of. If you're crackerjack at time management—and, more than importantly, keeping other people on track—yous'll thrive as an art director.
Now, information technology's impossible to plan for every scenario that could leap upwards during a project (wouldn't that be nice?!), then information technology's important for art directors to have a contingency plan for when things get wrong (which, at some point, they inevitably will).
Budgeting
Another one of the art managing director'south responsibilities is managing the budget for a project—so you need to be the type of person who tin can budget out fourth dimension and resources effectively, understand where to cut costs and where to invest, and brand certain your team is on budget every bit the project progresses.
People direction
As an art director, you're going to take a team of designers, production artists and creative talent working nether you. And if you want to exist a successful art manager, you need to know how to manage those people—and manage them well.
Great fine art directors know how to motivate their team to do their best piece of work; they empathize where each fellow member of the team best fits on a project, how to play to their strengths and how to help them abound into a better designer. They can requite constructive feedback without being overly harsh, can hit deadlines without overwhelming their team, and can create a positive experience for everyone involved.
They too know how to become designer buy-in on their projects. The way they frame projects not only communicates how important the projection is to the visitor, just how important the designer is to the projection—which creates a certain level of commitment from the design team that propels the project forrad.
Basically, they're great managers—and if you want to be a great art manager, constructive direction skills are a non-negotiable.
Finger on the pulse of what's going on in the design world
This isn't a skill, per se, but information technology is important—if you desire to exist a successful fine art director, information technology's important to go along your finger on the pulse of what's going on in the design world. Things change quickly, and there's always a new pattern program, tendency, or strategy happening—and if you don't stay on top of those programs, trends, or strategies, the projects yous directly are going to feel stale and dated.
How to develop these skills
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So, now you know the skills necessary to get an art managing director. Simply how, exactly, do you get-go developing those skills?
When it comes to cultivating the skills yous need to succeed in art direction, you have to learn past doing. Start looking for potential projects where you lot can hand off work to other designers and work collaboratively with them to bring the project to life. This tin be a personal projection or (if y'all're willing to take the risk) a customer project, merely the primal is to be more easily off with the design and, instead, manage other designers throughout the blueprint process.
If you lot don't have the opportunity to actually laissez passer piece of work off to other designers, try putting together a design review grouping. Get a group of designers together who are all independently working on projects and come up together to review each other's work and offer feedback. You'll learn how to give and receive feedback—a key skill yous'll need as an art managing director—and you lot can test the waters before you lot start really passing forth piece of work to other designers.
Finally, if y'all're already working every bit a designer, showtime bringing strategy into conversations with your clients. Enquire them questions in lodge to understand exactly what they're trying to achieve, and make recommendations accordingly. They may accept come up to you to blueprint a brochure for a convention, only through your design expertise you lot may be able to advise that a postcard and landing page will better serve their needs.
The typical career path of an art director
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Ok, so we've talked about what an art manager does, how it differs from other roles and what skills y'all demand to become an art director. Now, let's talk well-nigh what that looks like in activeness.
There's no ane-size-fits-all career path for art directors. Some art directors start off every bit graphic designers and then slowly uplevel their career, taking on more management responsibility until they reach the director level.
Others start out every bit copywriters who work closely with the blueprint team and slowly come to notice they enjoy direction more than than copywriting. And others start out at a pocket-sized companies where they have a lot of responsibility and kind of stumble into art management as a byproduct of wearing so many dissimilar hats.
My career path to fine art managing director took me in a lot of dissimilar directions. After doing a few freelance gigs early in my career, I took my first full-time design position at a web design and motion graphics studio. Over the years, I expanded my skill prepare and worked in graphic design, print, branding, videography and photography at various ad, gaming and tech companies. Over time, I began to directly manage and direct additional designers and copywriters, and plant that I actually liked it. And voila—an art director was born!
The indicate is, it doesn't matter which path y'all have to fine art direction—if you have the skills, the blueprint chops, and the experience, you can make a career in art direction happen.
And let me just say, when it comes to opportunity? Art management is where it'southward at. As an art director, you can work in-house, you can work as a freelance director or consultant, or yous can work for an bureau, where you get the opportunity to piece of work with a number of dissimilar clients. And in terms of industries, the sky's the limit; everything from design studios to corporate businesses to ad agencies to B2B/B2C companies all need art directors.
Directly your way into a career in art direction
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Hopefully, this article has given you a piddling insight into what art directors do and what you need to launch a career in fine art direction. And while art direction is the perfect career for me (seriously, I love it), I do want to say it'southward not for everyone.
A lot of graphic designers call back that in order to move up in their career, they demand to move into fine art direction. And it's true—art direction can exist a large step up in your career. But you shouldn't climb up a specific ladder but because someone told you it's the side by side step! Before yous determine to move towards a career in art management, you need to brand sure it's the correct fit for you. As I mentioned, in that location'south is less actual pattern piece of work equally an art managing director—so if you lot beloved the design process and getting your easily muddy in Photoshop 'round the clock, this might not be the right career for you.
Simply on the flip side, if you love the strategy side of creative piece of work and are comfortable managing all the moving pieces that are par for the course in a creative projection, art direction is right up your alley—and you take a long, creatively-fulfilling journey ahead of you.
And so what are you waiting for?
Sign upwardly as designer today and take your showtime step towards a career in fine art direction.
Source: https://99designs.com/blog/design-resources/how-to-become-an-art-director/
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