Art Director Career Information

An Art Director oversees and is responsible for all artistic and visual designs produced by their company. This title is used in many different industries, the main ones being advertising, film, television, and publishing, but across industries, the title means that it is your stamp of approval that goes on whatever visual arrangement is important.

This carries a lot of responsibility, so for this position you need to be confident in your taste and judgment as well as your ability to manage people. Many times the title of Art Director is used interchangeably with the title of [career_link creative-director], although when both titles exist within a company the Creative Director is higher.

Your day-to-day tasks depend on your industry and the size of your company. In a small print company you could be creating graphic layouts on the computer while at a mid-sized ad agency you might sit on the creative team and help brainstorm ideas. In a big name fashion show, on the other hand, you could be approving the [career_link model] selection while yelling at someone about why the fake leaves don’t match this season’s color scheme.

So the title of Art Director must be contextualized before you can understand your specific tasks. But regardless of your industry or company, as the Art Director you are the authority on issues of artistic design.