How To Become A Professional Art Director: According To Experts

Any professional position that becomes sufficiently important and well-respected will eventually attract a crowd. As a result of that crowd, things get…competitive. Art Direction is no exception. On the one hand, it’s a growing field, with bright prospects for new graduates. On the other, the best available positions have become coveted—and the gatekeepers that do the hiring have come to expect a certain level of ability from their new creatives. As a result, the expectation has come to be that any rising Art Director has studied the art and theory. It’s assumed that their new employers won’t necessarily be forced to do much training on the job. In their eyes, that’s what school and internships are for (we’ll talk more about interning in a minute). Is this to say that formal education is an absolute necessity for a would-be AD? Of course not. There are still those who can make their way alone, as there are in many fields. There are also, notably, those who train in another creative field (say design or copywriting) and then pivot to directing later on. Both are valid paths…but can be somewhat risky. Not least because you’ll inevitably be competing with young guns who