I was hoping that you would’ve asked “what’s the difference between an art director and a graphic designer” so I could’ve responded with “about $20,000 a year.”

Oh well.

In general the art director is more likely to do the initial concepts and then pass it on to a graphic designer to complete, but I think it’s different depending on the company. Sometimes it’s just a title.

I hear that.

The art director directs. The designer designs. In most times, the designer is seem by the director just as the little guy whos got to get it done today, “chop chop, chap”. At times, the designer holds up some ideas just until before the deadline is at the door, as a way to have some credit, which in most cases goes to the director, cause “you work for me” - they say ...

what if the designer takes on some of those responsibilities. Directing and designing? What then? Should the designer get more credit, more importantly compensation?

In the advertising agencies I’ve had expereince with it’s basically the same role. The designers the work is sent to finish (ie no concept development) is usually called “production” or “the studio”.

I have a sneaky suspicion the only reason the 2 titles are used is so companies can pay you less as a designer but make you do the exact same work as an art director under guise that it will help you move up.

I use both titles when people ask me what I do. Apparently it’s more prestigious in the industry to be called an Art Director, but if you’re looking for freelance work people want to hire a Graphic Designer.

...where these two cross roles...

Vice President, Director of Creative Services.

I was going to use Haley’s answer. That’s where I see it most often.

My findings from freelancing as a designer at large agencies

Creative director, Copywriter(s), Suits (account managers, marketing and strategic, R&D), Art director, Studio manager, Graphic designer, Mac op, Trolley person, media placement and production managers... tv, programmers, animation

The most important is the trolley person, especially on a Friday... when they push the trolley over full of beer, wine and snacks at 3.30pm... it is well received.

In large agencies...

Creative director(s) and suits.
Creative director (initial ideas/concepts... how did you think of that) works with art directors and designers together. or steals the designers ideas and wins an award for it.

Once designed designers as semi final art (templates) then pushed out to mac ops to create the various media and final art watched and directed by art directors, studio manager.. with the occasional suit getting involved.

Art directors will stay on the campaign and design other rough ideas and formats, though art directors are like the creative director(s) pets.

Designers will work with the art directors to make the art director look good...
Mac ops will make anyone else on mac look really slow.

Now the new term from where I am standing is not art director or graphic designer... just ’creative’

Creative Director
Suits (account managers, marketing and strategic, R&D)
Creative - copy writer(s)
Creative(s)
Mac Ops... plus all the others

my all time favourite is the client who wants to art direct.........! or thinks they can!!

sorry I am tired and waffling on... none of this makes sense if I re-read it.

I like creative

In the days before computers the difference was easy to spot. An art director had no clue how to prepare a proper mechanical.

I had this one art director who would do a little scribble with a pencil, and then walk away. No indication of typeface, virtually nothing there. I would take his scribble spec the type commission the art and create the layout. Guess who got the credit?

Then I got to be a Design Director and all I did was go to meetings and talk about design.

I agree with terminal

Where I work, it’s a meaningless title - from the moment someone is trusted to design work that will be shown to a client, that person has Art Director on their business card. There is a hierarchy, but it is not officially delineated. Some designers consider themselves junior Art Directors, others very vehemently declare they are senior Art Directors. Everyone’s business card is the same, it just says Art Director. And between you and me, no one should have the title Art Director as no one but the Creative Director of the company directs anything, we’re all just regular designers. But the title on the card makes people feel better I suppose.

I think that the area where they cross over would be in designing the work. Certain AD’s that I’ve worked for would set the tone of the design work, and then you as the designers would follow their lead, adding little bits of your own in there, but mostly following.

But it really depends on where you work, how the roles are perceived.

thanks everyone. so far, this has helped me a lot. anymore thoughts would be great.

i’ve been both, often at the same time. as an art director i work more conceptually, clarifying the meaning of choices, identity points, the meaning of visual decisions. as a graphic designer i work more hands-on; nudging pixels, tweaking layouts, kerning fonts.

i think that’s the key: an art director has more conceptual and contextual responsibility. a graphic designer should understand and employ that sort of thinking but works more directly with the hands-on process, often under the direction of an art director.

“Artwork” was traditionally (pre-digital) considered to be the bits and pieces that were assembled on artboards.
Therefore, an art director directed the assembly (by the paste-up artist, a.k.a. mechanical assembly artist), as well as directing the art contracted out to type houses, illustrators and photographers, especially directing photo shoots. In those days, the art director’s rough layout provided direction to all these people. Other work contracted out included the production of comps (comprehensive layouts), which were intended to be very close to what the finished thing looked like (although many art directors had sufficient skill with markers to do slick comps themselves). Also, comps could be made from dry transfer products and colored paper.
Art directors could also “direct” the selection of stock photography, although this was far less used before PhotoDisc came along.

Not to forget directing another aspect of production—film and printing. Proofs that are made directly from digital files, rather than from film used to burn the plates, are a fait accompli not requiring much direction.

So in the past, there was literally a lot more directing involved in art direction, before software telescoped and subsumed so many job functions. The distinction between advertising art direction and graphic design was more clear cut, now there seems to be more overlap and “globality” of branding.

“globality”. i like that one. is that like... glowing balls ?
art directors need those sometimes.
superfat winking emoticon.

In the days before computers the difference was easy to spot. An art director had no clue how to prepare a proper mechanical.

That still happens even now, James! I’ve had to prepare mechanicals that were chock-full of RGB colors, or spot colors that should have been converted to CMYK. Fortunately this does not happen with every AD.

I’m interested on learning some aspects of art directing like developing a concept and being able to communicate it for others to develop, fostering creativity, dealing with a team of designers, photographers, illustrators, etc. ¿Is empirical activity the only way to learn this?

Héctor

working with a really good art director is a good way.
studying graphic language, design theory, semiotics, symbolism, psychology and color theory helps. experience, seeing your work produced as quickly as possible (turnaround) helps a lot, thinking about why successful designs work, and why you like what you like. (those are not always the same thing).

and then ignoring all of that, having a sense of humor, and being opinionated.
;)

Holy Pantone Colour Matching System, Batman! All this time & I didn’t know they were the same job. That abut doubles the jobs I can go after, eh.

-=®=-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artistic_director

http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Art_Director/Salary

http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/majors_careers/profiles/careers/1052...

http://www.adigitaldreamer.com/articles/art-director-jobs.htm

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/artdirweb

I see very few design companies still using that title art director. To clarify our roles we use the term Director for our people that manage an entire team (a development team, our visual design team, our interaction design team). The equivalent of art director in our company is Senior Designer, Senior Interaction Designer.

You have to also understand the distinction in titles is not just about experience and talent. The longer a designer is in her/his field the more they have to hone their concepting skills (idea creation), their communication skills (idea selling) and their mentoring skills.

Our team looks like this:

Design Intern
Designer / Motion Designer / Interaction Designer
Senior Designer / Senior Interaction Designer
Associate Director
Director

thanks everyone.