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Advertising & brand
Art Director
You stop making the work and start being responsible for it.
Typical pay
$75k-$140k
How you get in
Design background plus a campaign portfolio
Outlook
Steady at senior level; competitive to reach
Art directors set the visual direction for campaigns and brands and lead the designers executing it. The promotion from designer is a genuine job change — the craft time drops and the persuasion, feedback and client time rise.
A day in the life
- 9:00aReview overnight work from the design team
- 10:00aConcepting session with a copywriter
- 12:00pLunch
- 1:00pPresent three directions to the client
- 3:00pArt direct a photo shoot or review retouching
- 5:00pGive feedback and set tomorrow's priorities
How to get in
Designer to art director
Duration
4-8 years
Cost
$0
Credential
None — a portfolio of campaigns
- Work as a graphic or digital designer and get genuinely good
- Build a book of concepts, not just executions — thinking is what gets promoted
- Start directing junior designers and owning client presentations
- Move to art director, typically at an agency first
Portfolio school
Duration
2 years
Cost
$20,000-$60,000
Credential
Portfolio school certificate
- Attend an advertising portfolio school
- Partner with a copywriter — the art director and writer team is the industry structure
- Graduate with a book of campaign concepts
- Enter agencies as a junior art director, the fastest route into advertising
In-house brand route
Duration
3-6 years
Cost
$0-$60,000
Credential
Design degree or portfolio
- Work in-house on a brand team rather than at an agency
- Own the visual system across channels
- Better hours and deeper brand ownership than agency work
- Move to art director or brand design lead internally
What people love
- · Creative leadership over whole campaigns
- · Strong pay for a creative career
- · Portfolio and taste matter more than credentials
- · Path to creative director
What wears people down
- · Far less hands-on making than designers expect
- · Client revisions can destroy good work
- · Agency hours during pitches are brutal
- · Layoff-exposed when marketing budgets contract