Im an Art Creative Director, love design but never study it. 🎨✨
Confusing? ok, i will explain…
Back in the day, I was a bit of a nerd, hooked on anime and the illustrations within it. I started drawing and fell in love with design—the usual. But my dream of studying design got squashed by my mom, so I ended up studying marketing. I hated the whole deal with budget classes and numbers, but then came a saving grace—an "advertising" class. And guess what? Art direction entered as an option.
I did a masters and 9 years later I became one of the few Art Creative Directors in my agency (there are a lot of Copy Creative Directors in Mexico, but we will come back and talk about this in another post)… So whenever I needed a new art director in my team, bosses or HR would send me a designer portfolio.
Eh? The confusion persists.
To break it down: A graphic designer is all about execution, while the art director dances with the concept. Molds it and folds it. True, it's not quite that black and white. Sometimes, designers can wear the art director hat, and vice versa. Details, people, details!
As an Art Director…🧩
Your skills move more into the conceptual side. It's less about "how" it looks, and more "what" is the idea? How does this convey the mood of the brand? Does the theme bring the response we desire? How balanced should this composition be? Does it feel like the message? So, those skills are a little more abstract: ideation, conceptual connection of pieces and creative direction.
As an Art Director you don't need to be a design executioner, but carrying a solid background and a deep understanding are essential. It's like having a visual dictionary in your brain, a wide visual vocabulary and a sixth sense for the psychology of visuals.
Now, on the flip side, Graphic Designers…🎨
are the execution wizards. A graphic designer focuses more on the execution of visual elements within a project. Do the colors match? Is the composition balanced? Is the photo in focus? CMYK or RGB? Their expertise lies in crafting the specific images, layouts, and typography that bring a design concept to life. Graphic designers possess a deep understanding of design principles, composition, color theory and software tools necessary to create visually compelling and engaging materials. They're the artisans crafting the visuals, working closely with art directors to translate visions into concrete designs.
So, there you have it, if you wanna work in the art area of an agency, if you wanna hire a designer or art director, if you are from HR or a copywriter that ”just wanna help”, take notes ✌🏻… These are two different positions, two sides of the creative coin, each bringing different cutlery to the table 🙌. Let’s not simplify or confuse them.
