What Does an Art Director Does?
An artist who designs logos, posters, or any other form of visual art is known as an art designer. Art director is the name for various job roles in advertising, design, publishing, television, video games, theatre, photography, motion graphics, computer animation, web design, and theatre production. The people involved in art production may include writers, producers, actors, and directors. It’s the creative side of the business that gets most press, but art directors and designers also have to keep the cost of production down so they can make their artistic visions come alive on a budget.
An artist, when deciding what type of work to do, first thinks about the audience. For example, if children are the focus of the project, a child-friendly website will be more suitable than a more adult-oriented one. In the same way, graphic design and computer programming skills are important. For instance, if the project will be informational, then the designer needs to have knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which means using keywords to increase the ranking of websites in search engines like Google and Yahoo! An artistic director on a children’s website would most likely use a Flash program, to a photographer need to know the proper use of images.
An Art Director is usually very busy, working with clients on a number of different projects during the course of a year. A typical day may begin with the concept stage, where the creative mind is put to work; and end with the creation stage, when the graphic design and technical specifications are ready to be implemented. Although most designers start out as interns, working directly with the client on an in-between period until they feel confident enough to take on full-fledged graphic design projects, many eventually go on to freelance design jobs, working for themselves or smaller companies. In recent years, the art industry has boomed as more people became self-employed or started their own small businesses. As the number of freelance designers increases, the need for business will also grow, with a corresponding increase in the amount of artwork available on the Internet.