Professional Context: Art Direction in Magazines and Advertising

In Magazines

In magazines an Art Directors job is to set the magazines visual style, they are responsible for the layout of the magazine and ensuring it remains cohesive throughout. They also have a managerial role, it is important that they can manage a team well. A Magazines design can hugely affect its readerships opinion and so affect the circulation, much quicker than almost anything an editor can do directly. Most magazine art directors (particularly those in fashion) should be adaptable but also have strong visual taste.(1)

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According to The Art Directors Handbook of Professional Magazine Design, Art Directors can be split in to 3 categories;

THE ARTISTIC ART DIRECTOR

The magazine concept is dominated by their own personal style, this can be an advantage when the designer meets the demand for originality and inventiveness but of course it can also be a disadvantage.

THE VIRTUOSO EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR

This category places emphasis on service, technique and teamwork. They will have mastered a wide variety of design languages and be able to cater for a wide variety of target groups.

THOSE WHOSE DECISIONS ARE HEAVILY INFLUENCED BY MARKET RESEARCH

These Art Directors have the smallest degree of individuality. Sometimes these instant packages may even be successful, if your criteria for success are sales figures and income from ads. (2)

In Advertising

An art director in advertising is part of a small team of creatives who are responsible for coming up with concepts for ads and other direct mail pieces the clients want to produce.

I contacted Kimara Mitchell Stokes who is an an American award-winning art director and designer and the co-founder and creative director of the San Francisco fashion film festival. Stokes previously worked as an art director for an advertising agency so I asked her how a typical project would run. Here was her response:

1. The client comes in and says, we want to do a direct mail piece for our new product.  

2. The client gives us (myself and what other ADs are working on the project) a creative brief, which outlines who the target is, what the piece is trying to achieve (more customers, etc.), what limitations we have (can we do a photoshoot, buy images, how many colors, size/postage limitations, etc.) 

3. The team goes away and develops concepts for the piece. Sometimes you'll develop more than one concept, depending on the time/budget, but all concepts should stay within the brief. You can be as creative as you want, as long as the client's message is still getting through. 

4. Meet internally with creative director/account team to narrow down what concepts are going to be shown to the client. You’ll also iron out details like printing issues, photography/illustration, etc. 

5. Further refine concepts and make mock-ups 

6. Present ideas to the client, then (hopefully) they'll chose one. 

7. Concept is further refined with copy, etc. while artwork (photography/illustration) is chosen. 

8. Once the concept is signed off by the client it then goes into production, I usually hand off the project to a production designer, who gets it ready for press.

(Kimara’s blog: http://kimair.blogspot.co.uk)

Jenny Theolin, who is a senior art director at muirhoward and the founder of Soapbox & Sons and also a contributor to the web magazine Typetoken, says that she works with the Creative Director to ensure that the creative strategy is innovative and right for the client. She also states that people skills are a massive part of being an art director for an agency as you interact with clients so often; sometimes you will be working on several briefs at a time. (3)

It seems that working for an advertising agency as opposed to a magazine, is much more varied as with a magazine you generally stick to the style of the magazine throughout each issue however in advertising you are working various clients on different briefs. There is obviously more variation in advertising.

References

(1)Morrish, John and Bradshaw, Paul. (2012) Magazine Editing In Print and Online. Oxfordshire. Routledge.

(2)Moser, Horst. (2003) The Art Directors' Handbook of Professional Magazine Design. High Holborn. Thames and Hudson.

(3)How to Become an Art Director  http://www.creativebloq.com/career/art-director-11121180 (Accessed 12/2/13)