Art Director Job Description

My Career Path to Associate Creative Director

I started out working on a magazine as an intern, and I learned a lot on the job as we do. And then from there, I became a graphic designer. And from there, I became a junior art director. And from there, I became an art director, a senior art director, and now I'm an ACD—associate creative director. So maybe next, I'll be a creative director. But that's kind of like the path.

Pros and Cons of a Creative Leader

I think some of the pros are being able to work professionally as an artist. That's a huge pro. And some cons are, you know, you have to be willing and able to understand that you're doing this for a client. So it's not going to always be the work you think it should be.

Creative Environment

Creative direction is a job that can often be done totally remote, and that can be a pro and a con. I think going into an office is great because, as an artist, I really need to collaborate. I really need people to balance things off of, and I just need to not be in the same place every day.

Salary

I feel really privileged to have a full-time career as a designer. I think salary depends on where you work, every job, not only where you work regionally, but the company you work at. Because, for example, a lot of tech jobs have bigger budgets, smaller companies have smaller budgets. So I think it's good to consider where you want to work, if you want to work at a really big company, if you want to work at a really small company, and then how much is it important to you to make a lot of money? Is it important to you to live in a place where cost of living is low and make enough money? I would look online to really check out—there's a salary guide done every year by maybe the AIGA, and so every year I think it's good to check on that and see where salary guidelines have upped or improved.

Power of Exposure

I think that as an artist, as a creative, getting exposure to different work processes, tools, creative directors, different clients, different types of creative you're working on, different asks is super crucial. If the opportunity comes up to move around, move around often, not only for the creative opportunity but also because they say that the best way to get a raise is to get a new job.