Creative Director
Encyclopedia
A creative director is a position often found within the graphic design
, film
, music
, fashion
, advertising
, media
or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development
and software development
firms as well.
A creative director is a vital role in all of the arts and entertainment industries. In another sense, they can be seen as another element in any product development process. The creative director may also assume the roles of an art director, copywriter, or lead designer. The responsibilities of a creative director include leading the communication design, interactive design, and concept forward in any work assigned. For example, this responsibility is often seen in industries related to advertisement. The creative director is known to guide a team of employees with skills and experience related to graphic design, fine arts, motion graphics, and other creative industry fields. Some example works can include visual layout, brainstorming, and copywriting. Before one assumes the role of a creative director, one must have a pre-set of experience beforehand. Like anyone else, these types of artists start up from the very beginning in fields that can relate to motion graphics, advertisement in television, and/or book (or magazine) publishing. It takes years of experience and professionalism for an artist to grow and eventually take the job as a creative director. If one shows exceptional skills in visual and team leading projects, they may be considered to be promoted to the role.
A creative director needs to possess a wide range of general skills when working with projects that involve collaborating with a large team. The director is the lead person so he or she is in charge of what ideas and concepts go forward. In order to perform effectively, one must have a wide attention and listening span, especially with large projects and teams. It is the responsibility of the creative director to fully understand the ideas and opinions of his or her team in a respectful/critical manner (providing constructive criticism, turning small ideas into larger concepts, etc.). The creative director must be able to make decisions in a deadline driven environment in the most efficient way as possible. Coordinating his or her team in an accurate conceptual direction of where the project needs to go and involving their team in constant creative/brainstorming sessions is crucial. Also another important key part is being able to learn new skills and strategies from fellow workers and how to apply those to future projects.
A creative director is ultimately responsible for the quality of the final creative work. For this reason, they get the lion's share of acclaim when their team's efforts win awards, but conversely, the creative director shoulders the negativity (and the blame) when a project goes wrong, response falls short of expectations, or an important individual on the client's side dislikes or vetos an idea.
Advertising creative directors are usually promoted from copywriting or art directing positions. Familiarity with film-making techniques is also common. Creative directors rise to become executive creative directors or chief creative officers, a position with executive responsibility for the entire creative department, and some progress to chairman of a firm.
Creative directors usually possess a VFX Movie,communication design
or fine art
s degree. Copywriters may have degrees in journalism
, language arts
or may develop more emphasis on advertising copywriting while pursuing a communication design degree.
or Shigeru Miyamoto
whose influence extends across more than one project.
The video game industry is very important when it comes to the roles of creative directors. The creative director has a very important responsibility in this industry because video games are all visual and motion graphic driven. The director must devise ideas to lead a video game project forward and many responsibilities involve working with various individuals or teams spread out within the entire project/video game production. This can include collaborating with motion graphic artists, 2D/3D animation developers, various illustrator artists and much more. Academically speaking, a creative director must have a bachelor’s degree, but there are some circumstances where a high school education strongly focusing on aspects such as art, graphics, computer science, and math can be acceptable and provide some valuable insight to students who hope to aspire in this field of work. Some skills that a creative director working in the video game industry must have include proficiency in computer programming, graphic development (illustrations, fine art), excellent interpersonal and writing skills (since they deal with many other clients and management leaders). Once a concept has been decided and agreed upon, it is up to the art director to recruit a responsible and skilled team. The magnitude of video game development is incredibly large and expensive and most of the time requires an enormous team of skilled people with experience in graphic, animation, illustration art work, and programming. As usual, the position of a creative director is not an entry spot. One would have to earn that role by showing their skills and development over a period of years. Creative directors have done their share of lower level startup positions such as internships or assisting other directors in art related work fields. It is all about advancing through the career chain and once one has earned the position a creative director, they may be eligible to work for larger and more popular game developing companies depending on how successful they have been with past collaborative projects.
.
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
, advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
, media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
or entertainment industries, but may be useful in other creative organizations such as web development
Web development
Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet or an intranet . This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development...
and software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
firms as well.
A creative director is a vital role in all of the arts and entertainment industries. In another sense, they can be seen as another element in any product development process. The creative director may also assume the roles of an art director, copywriter, or lead designer. The responsibilities of a creative director include leading the communication design, interactive design, and concept forward in any work assigned. For example, this responsibility is often seen in industries related to advertisement. The creative director is known to guide a team of employees with skills and experience related to graphic design, fine arts, motion graphics, and other creative industry fields. Some example works can include visual layout, brainstorming, and copywriting. Before one assumes the role of a creative director, one must have a pre-set of experience beforehand. Like anyone else, these types of artists start up from the very beginning in fields that can relate to motion graphics, advertisement in television, and/or book (or magazine) publishing. It takes years of experience and professionalism for an artist to grow and eventually take the job as a creative director. If one shows exceptional skills in visual and team leading projects, they may be considered to be promoted to the role.
A creative director needs to possess a wide range of general skills when working with projects that involve collaborating with a large team. The director is the lead person so he or she is in charge of what ideas and concepts go forward. In order to perform effectively, one must have a wide attention and listening span, especially with large projects and teams. It is the responsibility of the creative director to fully understand the ideas and opinions of his or her team in a respectful/critical manner (providing constructive criticism, turning small ideas into larger concepts, etc.). The creative director must be able to make decisions in a deadline driven environment in the most efficient way as possible. Coordinating his or her team in an accurate conceptual direction of where the project needs to go and involving their team in constant creative/brainstorming sessions is crucial. Also another important key part is being able to learn new skills and strategies from fellow workers and how to apply those to future projects.
A creative director is ultimately responsible for the quality of the final creative work. For this reason, they get the lion's share of acclaim when their team's efforts win awards, but conversely, the creative director shoulders the negativity (and the blame) when a project goes wrong, response falls short of expectations, or an important individual on the client's side dislikes or vetos an idea.
Advertising
While the many advertising and graphic design schools do graduate people with their own degrees and diplomas, there is no degree or diploma in "creative directing".Creative directors often have a strong command of the technical aspects of their business. Styles of creative direction are quite varied, however, with some creative directors being quite hands on while others will maintain a separation. Creative directors who are extremely familiar with graphics software, for example, can personally sit at the computer and achieve a 'look' for an advertisement that is the center of a new strategy for a brand.Advertising creative directors are usually promoted from copywriting or art directing positions. Familiarity with film-making techniques is also common. Creative directors rise to become executive creative directors or chief creative officers, a position with executive responsibility for the entire creative department, and some progress to chairman of a firm.
Creative directors usually possess a VFX Movie,communication design
Communication design
Communication design is a mixed discipline between design and information-development which is concerned with how media intermission such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people...
or fine art
Fine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
s degree. Copywriters may have degrees in journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, language arts
Language arts
Traditionally, the primary divisions in the language arts are Literature and Language, where language in this case refers to both linguistics, and specific languages....
or may develop more emphasis on advertising copywriting while pursuing a communication design degree.
Video games
With the increased team sizes and more specialised disciplines in the games industry, certain game designers are titled as 'creative director', 'executive designer' or 'game director'. A creative director in a videogame company is usually responsible for product development across a number of titles and is generally regarded as the prime design authority across the company's product range. Some examples are Peter MolyneuxPeter Molyneux
Peter Douglas Molyneux OBE is an English computer game designer and game programmer. He created the God games Dungeon Keeper, Populous, and Black & White, among others, as well as business simulation games such as Theme Park and more recently, the RPG series Fable.Despite the success of his games,...
or Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
whose influence extends across more than one project.
The video game industry is very important when it comes to the roles of creative directors. The creative director has a very important responsibility in this industry because video games are all visual and motion graphic driven. The director must devise ideas to lead a video game project forward and many responsibilities involve working with various individuals or teams spread out within the entire project/video game production. This can include collaborating with motion graphic artists, 2D/3D animation developers, various illustrator artists and much more. Academically speaking, a creative director must have a bachelor’s degree, but there are some circumstances where a high school education strongly focusing on aspects such as art, graphics, computer science, and math can be acceptable and provide some valuable insight to students who hope to aspire in this field of work. Some skills that a creative director working in the video game industry must have include proficiency in computer programming, graphic development (illustrations, fine art), excellent interpersonal and writing skills (since they deal with many other clients and management leaders). Once a concept has been decided and agreed upon, it is up to the art director to recruit a responsible and skilled team. The magnitude of video game development is incredibly large and expensive and most of the time requires an enormous team of skilled people with experience in graphic, animation, illustration art work, and programming. As usual, the position of a creative director is not an entry spot. One would have to earn that role by showing their skills and development over a period of years. Creative directors have done their share of lower level startup positions such as internships or assisting other directors in art related work fields. It is all about advancing through the career chain and once one has earned the position a creative director, they may be eligible to work for larger and more popular game developing companies depending on how successful they have been with past collaborative projects.
Films
The creative director involved in the film industry carries a large responsibility of managing the arts and props of a movie. The job is similar to a creative director's role in the video game industry in that they manage a team of employers and have to consistently develop new ideas and methods of working. It is vital that creative director's in this field are able to produce expressive/creative ideas and translating them into something cinematic. Usually a certain sum of funds is distributed among different departments in the production of a film (in this case, the art department). Creative directors must decide on how to distribute and use the funds in the most efficient and effective way to ensure maximum quality in the films art department. An example can include the structuring of scenes and sets once a film begins to undergo the shooting process. During this process, it is important for creative directors to understand what props and effects should be used and how they should be used among various sets and scenes of the film. Some important qualifications that one should have include being able to manage teams, having expertise on design (specifically in theatre and interior sets and art design), being open minded to new ideas and methods in regards to organizing film sets, and having an understanding of coordinating among different departments in order to move a project towards success. A creative director in the film industry usually starts out in lower ranks of the chain such as an assistant to other art directors and/or as a DraughtsmanDraughtsman
A draughtsman or draftsman , is a person skilled in drawing, either:*drawing for artistic purposes, or*technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering...
.