They must have time-management skills to meet deadlines and prioritize duties, and be willing to continually learn new techniques and design technology to keep up-to-date and current. They must have leadership skills, and the ability to direct, organize, and motivate others. They must be great communicators and able to listen and speak with staff and clients to ensure they understand employees’ thinking processes and the client’s desires. First and foremost, art directors must be artistic and imaginative. In addition to a thorough knowledge of design software, such as Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, there are a number of skills and qualities that all art directors must have in order to succeed in this field. Art directors must understand how the decisions they make affect everyone else, and how what everyone else is doing affects the larger picture. The color or size of an image can dramatically change the way the image is received, just like too many images can detract from the message. In this case, an art director will work with illustrators, photographers, designers, and copywriters to present one core idea in the most meaningful way possible.Īs a result, it is imperative that those interested in a career in art direction become familiar with how design affects everything from perception to emotion. An art director makes layout choices, color decisions, general style choices, and more – all with an eye toward helping everyone on the team accomplish the project’s intent in a way that also helps all visual elements look and feel like they’re part of the whole.
Every department in an advertising agency works together to make sure a product or service looks as enticing as possible to consumers and answers the needs of clients. The only difference is that instead of communicating via words (as is true in the case of a screenwriter or novelist), art directors communicate using visuals. The same can be said of most other creative professions. In many ways, art directors are communication experts. The BLS indicated that roughly half of all art directors were self-employed during the same time period, which is a growing trend over the course of the last few years. Roughly 35 percent of art directors worked for newspapers, specialized graphic design services firms, or in the film and television industries.
After all, visual selections can change the way a film or television episode is perceived by an audience member and can provide a tremendous amount of insight into the background and personalities of characters.Īccording to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), roughly 15 percent of all art directors employed in the country worked for either advertising or public relations firms in 2014. They also work closely with the director of the film, along with other creatives, such as the screenwriter, to determine what type of story is being told and how that story can best be expressed through visuals. In terms of film production, for example, an art director will work with the heads of various departments to make sure every visual design choice is made – from the color of the costumes character’s wear to the posters hanging in one of the character’s rooms, and everything in between. Directors guide these different departments to help ensure all individuals are working towards the same unified vision and that every component of a project comes together to form a cohesive visual whole. For this reason, art directors work closely with people in other departments who develop artwork, layouts, write copy, and more. However, although an art director oversees the entire creative process, he or she is less responsible for individual visual components and more for the unique visual style and project’s intent. Art directors are responsible for a project’s entire identity – from the way, something looks, to the emotion a project produces. No question, the ability to deliver out-of-the-box, groundbreaking, and inspiring ideas, while thinking across all media, is vital to becoming a successful art director.