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armelia
Student
Kansas City, Missouri
1
Question
Asked
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how is a typical day for a creative director?
I would like to become a creative director for a big time company. I would like to know what a creative director usually does everyday. #art #creativedirector
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3 answers
Susan Oppelt
Design Director
3
Answers
Lafayette, California
Updated
Susan’s Answer
Hi! I've been in the creative field for over 28 years–most of that time spent as a Creative Director CD (starting as an art director/illustrator and working my way up). I've enjoyed both agency and client side—in New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Bay Area. I started in print, illustration, packaging, signage—moved into interaction design, product UX/UI, hardware and now back to marketing from a global perspective. Throw in a little naming or other innovative first-to market design experiences as well. My experience with teams have ranged from super small to leading a team of 13 w/ several contractors and 4 agencies at any given time.
In terms of a typical day—this has really ranged from small companies/teams vs larger companies/teams, budgets, etc...
Your day may include meeting with your client or business owners, determining the brief with your team (what is needed and why, what are the business and user goals, understanding the audience or personas and their pain points, what the key message is, what you want the take away to be, how will the deliverable(s) be measured, what success looks like, etc....), sketching or white boarding sessions (you may lead this session, contribute/collaborate with others, and help fine tune early recommends for your client/business owners. Early when I started this was more of a waterfall process, but over the years this has evolved into a more integrated and cross-team process that is inclusive of different roles/perspectives (e.g., business/product, technology, research, marketing, brand, design/copy, motion, sound, etc...).
You'll also lead or contribute when fleshing out concepts/storyboards/designs, diving "into the pixels" we might say. Later on in a CD's career, they may solely lead (manage/guide the work), but some prefer to have a mix. It will really depend on where you want to take your career (do you like to lead and influence younger talent, or do you like to stay in the pixels delivering, or do you like both?). And, CD's can come from the copy writing side. If copy side, they must know how art direct an art director, as well as support their career path— and vice versa....a CD from the "art" side must feel comfortable with direction to a copy writer, as well as know how to support their career path. You'll need to wear a little bit of a finance cap as it relates to budgets and managing those to be on time. And will need to interface with legal, selling your idea in and helping to massage any legal asks that don't completely degrade you or the teams idea.
You will need to determine the type of resources you need to fulfill on concepts and what is the level-of-effort. What types of talents are needed? What's the timeline and how fast do you and the team need to move? What is the budget and what can you afford? Do you want to shoot vs use stock? Do you need a sound designer? Maybe voice over—or several? Perhaps this is packaging—and you need to think about printers and fulfillment. Perhaps this is a digital based delivery and you need the help of technologists to derive hardware to support the design from a user perspective. Or perhaps you are helping with a new brand fine tune their overarching creative strategy, supporting with naming and developing a look, tone and feel for product and marketing design needs. And you may be proposing research to learn more about if the solution(s) meet the intent–and from there you and/or your team will look to fine tune before going live.
Yes, you will think about design styles, and colors, fonts, what's best for the brand, etc...but beyond that you will need to be the champion that helps bring ideas to life. Be flexible yet have a clear voice. Bring others onboard using collaboration to fine tune and improve. And support career paths of those you may mentor or that direct report into you.
One thing is for sure, it's never dull. Every day brings new business/user challenges that need creative solutions.
In terms of a typical day—this has really ranged from small companies/teams vs larger companies/teams, budgets, etc...
Your day may include meeting with your client or business owners, determining the brief with your team (what is needed and why, what are the business and user goals, understanding the audience or personas and their pain points, what the key message is, what you want the take away to be, how will the deliverable(s) be measured, what success looks like, etc....), sketching or white boarding sessions (you may lead this session, contribute/collaborate with others, and help fine tune early recommends for your client/business owners. Early when I started this was more of a waterfall process, but over the years this has evolved into a more integrated and cross-team process that is inclusive of different roles/perspectives (e.g., business/product, technology, research, marketing, brand, design/copy, motion, sound, etc...).
You'll also lead or contribute when fleshing out concepts/storyboards/designs, diving "into the pixels" we might say. Later on in a CD's career, they may solely lead (manage/guide the work), but some prefer to have a mix. It will really depend on where you want to take your career (do you like to lead and influence younger talent, or do you like to stay in the pixels delivering, or do you like both?). And, CD's can come from the copy writing side. If copy side, they must know how art direct an art director, as well as support their career path— and vice versa....a CD from the "art" side must feel comfortable with direction to a copy writer, as well as know how to support their career path. You'll need to wear a little bit of a finance cap as it relates to budgets and managing those to be on time. And will need to interface with legal, selling your idea in and helping to massage any legal asks that don't completely degrade you or the teams idea.
You will need to determine the type of resources you need to fulfill on concepts and what is the level-of-effort. What types of talents are needed? What's the timeline and how fast do you and the team need to move? What is the budget and what can you afford? Do you want to shoot vs use stock? Do you need a sound designer? Maybe voice over—or several? Perhaps this is packaging—and you need to think about printers and fulfillment. Perhaps this is a digital based delivery and you need the help of technologists to derive hardware to support the design from a user perspective. Or perhaps you are helping with a new brand fine tune their overarching creative strategy, supporting with naming and developing a look, tone and feel for product and marketing design needs. And you may be proposing research to learn more about if the solution(s) meet the intent–and from there you and/or your team will look to fine tune before going live.
Yes, you will think about design styles, and colors, fonts, what's best for the brand, etc...but beyond that you will need to be the champion that helps bring ideas to life. Be flexible yet have a clear voice. Bring others onboard using collaboration to fine tune and improve. And support career paths of those you may mentor or that direct report into you.
One thing is for sure, it's never dull. Every day brings new business/user challenges that need creative solutions.
Janet Silverness
Design and Marketing
1
Answer
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Updated
Janet’s Answer
Hi Armelia! I did work my way up into a Creative Director role but started as a Graphic Designer. I worked in several in-house creative service roles within companies and learned to workflows. To answer your question about a typical day of a Creative Director, it may vary from brand to brand, but I will say the smaller the company the more diverse the variety of work becomes. Larger corporate Creative Directors can have a more carved out role that is more specific, but in a nut shell they all work to maintain the brand and project manage the teams that all play a role in building and maintaining any and all graphic elements of the brand.
Specific to my role, in a typical day I could do a number of tasks within any of the subject matter below:
- Maintain the Brand: - Manage all branding style guides, logo guidelines and any new rebranding projects with all vendors and any partner representing the brand (i.e. any and all use of the logo or brand)
- eCommerce Advertising : coordinating, scheduling, planning and designing advertising (i.e. Google/Amazon)
- Social Media Marketing: scheduling content, coordinating design of content (i.e copy writing, photography, contests, videos, etc)
- Photoshoots: consistency is key to keep all branding imagery representative to the look of the brand. Tasks include scheduling, gathering props and product, aligning with designers for design requirements of the image, working with photographers, etc.
- Design Direction: working with designer or content creators to align and police all branding in a variety of internal and external projects (i.e. merch design, internal department projects, departmental process, streamlining, project tracking)
- Packaging Design: work with Design team to maintain consistency with appearance of the product and branding
- Video Shoots: work with Video team to align on branding message and overall appearance of the product and branding message
- Web Development: work with Web Design and Development team to align on branding message and overall appearance of the product and branding message
Overall Creative Director in my eyes is someone who is a passionate project manager and has the experience and vision to wear a lot of creative hats with the primary goal of owning, maintaining and policing their brand to the world.
Specific to my role, in a typical day I could do a number of tasks within any of the subject matter below:
- Maintain the Brand: - Manage all branding style guides, logo guidelines and any new rebranding projects with all vendors and any partner representing the brand (i.e. any and all use of the logo or brand)
- eCommerce Advertising : coordinating, scheduling, planning and designing advertising (i.e. Google/Amazon)
- Social Media Marketing: scheduling content, coordinating design of content (i.e copy writing, photography, contests, videos, etc)
- Photoshoots: consistency is key to keep all branding imagery representative to the look of the brand. Tasks include scheduling, gathering props and product, aligning with designers for design requirements of the image, working with photographers, etc.
- Design Direction: working with designer or content creators to align and police all branding in a variety of internal and external projects (i.e. merch design, internal department projects, departmental process, streamlining, project tracking)
- Packaging Design: work with Design team to maintain consistency with appearance of the product and branding
- Video Shoots: work with Video team to align on branding message and overall appearance of the product and branding message
- Web Development: work with Web Design and Development team to align on branding message and overall appearance of the product and branding message
Overall Creative Director in my eyes is someone who is a passionate project manager and has the experience and vision to wear a lot of creative hats with the primary goal of owning, maintaining and policing their brand to the world.
Eric Vincent
Freelancer Visual Communication Specialist
35
Answers
New Jersey, New Jersey
Updated
Eric’s Answer
Having held the role of creative director and sometimes acting as one now, a typical day may be different depending on the company you work for. I've been a CD where I did just as much creating as I did reviewing files and managing the work flow for my production manager. Yet in other cases I've done no creating and more correcting of work, reviewing and modifying and managing. Still, I have done all the work for a project as a CD but all the smaller components were developed by other team members.
I suggest this, if you are looking to become a creative director and are more about the actual creativity while still managing, then find that kind of company to ultimately work for. Ask the questions of the interviewer about the duties associated with the position, ask about the culture of the creative department and the company. Definitely seek an environment with that position that you can thrive in and meets your desires.
I suggest this, if you are looking to become a creative director and are more about the actual creativity while still managing, then find that kind of company to ultimately work for. Ask the questions of the interviewer about the duties associated with the position, ask about the culture of the creative department and the company. Definitely seek an environment with that position that you can thrive in and meets your desires.