Education

To begin with art directors should put together a portfolio, which is a collection of their best works. There are multiple ways to begin your training as a Art Director. In High school students should take courses in art, mechanical drawing/drafting, and photography. Post-secondary education could include a program at a 2-year college, a 4-year college, or a special art school. Some 2-year colleges offer basic courses while 4-year colleges offer bachelor degrees in fine art. A number of schools across the nation offer thorough training in graphic arts, including courses in typography, design, layout, and photography. To be accepted into art school applicants typically need to present a portfolio.

Required Skill Set

To be in the Art Director profession you must be able to do the following and have one to three years of design experience with consumer products and brands:

1. Create modern and highly usable designs for web and rich media
2. Concept and design online advertising campaigns
3. Concept and design email campaigns
4. Maintain graphic identities and web standards for clients across all jobs
5. Write your own headlines when needed
6. Create ideas and campaigns not just designs
7. Follow a brief
8. Work with outside resources including writers and developers
9. Be happy with a larger than life to do list
10. Be proficient in Photo shop and Illustrator.

A Day in the Life

Work begins in a large, open work are known as the bull pen, where the art director supervises a team of artists who work up the rough layout of an ad, refine it, and put it together on the computer. Assistants scale photos and illustrations to the proper size and decided on typeface. They run the copy and the photos through the computer programs to create the pages as they will appear in print. Art Directors oversee the artistic design of advertisements and print materials, as well as the filming of television commercials. They are the decision makers who are responsible for the quality of the finished product. The art Director chooses a photographer, an illustrator, models, and any props necessary for an ad if a printed ad comes back with an imperfection; the Art Director is responsible for retouching it.

Advancement and Employee Outlook

In advertising a successful art director may become an art supervisor who manages other art directors on an account or a group head who supervises the artwork for a group of accounts. An art director may also become a creative director, a vice president, or the president of an advertising agency. A talented art director can prosper in the book, newspaper, and magazine fields as well. Magazine publishers generally publish more than one magazine, and a successful art director on one title may oversee the artwork for a group of magazines. This person is sometimes called the corporate art director. In book publishing, an art director is generally responsible for designing book covers and pages. Some art directors earn prestige by having their work shown in museums, and some earn extra income by designing posters and calendars.

Salary and Career Future

Salaries for art directors vary widely depending on an individual's experience and skills, the employer, and the company's geographic location. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage for salaried art directors was $63,750 per year in 2004. Pay is slightly higher in the advertising field than in publishing. Senior art directors may earn up to $125,000 per year depending on their talent, experience, and the size of the agency that employs them. Both the advertising industry and the publishing industry reflect the ups and downs of the economy. Competition in the field is intense, but employment is expected to grow at an average rate through the year 2014. The best job opportunities will be for those with a great deal of talent and experience.