How to Become a Art Director

About Art Director

Art directors are in charge of the visual styles and photographs used in magazine articles, journals, product packaging, and film and television productions. They create the overall design for a project and frequently guide those who create art or design. Art directors work for marketing and public relations firms, publishing companies for magazines and newspapers, specialised design services firms, and the theatre, film, and video industries.

The best degrees that students can pursue to become an Art Director are: a Bachelor of Visual Arts, a Master of Visual Arts, a BSc in Graphic Design, a BA in Fine Arts, etc. The course fee for these courses ranges from INR 32,000 - INR 94,000. NID Ahmedabad, Kalindi College, Government College of Arts and Crafts in Kolkata, IIFA Multimedia in Bangalore, LPU in Punjab, and other reputable institutions offer courses in art direction. Art Director is considered as one of the highest-paying and most prestigious jobs in India, with plenty of opportunities. Every year, the demand for Art Directors in India is expected to rise by 10.53%. Assistant Art Directors earn an average monthly salary of INR 50,000, while Senior Art Directors earn an average monthly salary of INR 75,000.

Those who want to work as an Art Director should take a fine arts or design course to gain a better understanding of the field. Students can major in Visual Communication or Visual Media to pursue a career as an art director. This article will discuss what an art director is, how to become one, what an art director does, what degree is required to be an art director, art director salary in India, and art director qualifications.

Roles and Responsibilities of an Art Director

One of the most impressive careers on the job market is that of an art director. Companies in the advertising, marketing, video game, film, and graphic design industries are where they work. Here are some of the roles and responsibilities of an art director listed below:

• In the course of their work, several other designers and artists create images for television, movies, live performances, commercials, and video games. This is typically overseen by people who choose to pursue careers as art directors
• They evaluate the final aesthetic or tone of each project and communicate their vision to illustrators, animators, graphic designers, and stage and film set designers
• In order to create designs and layouts, art directors collaborate with the art and design teams at advertising agencies, public relations companies, and book, magazine, or newspaper publishers
• People who work as art directors supervise set designs in collaboration with directors and producers of stage, screen, or television productions
• An art director's daily duties include designing and developing original works of art, as well as reviewing and approving the design and art materials created by the team
• They also have to manage the project's budget and set deadlines for the team
• They must decide which components to use for design and creation
  

Eligibility to become Art Director

The eligibility criteria for becoming an Art Director have been listed here. Candidates seeking to make a career as an Art Director must ensure that they meet all the prerequisites for the same.

• The candidate must have completed his/ her education up to the graduation level (at least).
• It is mandatory for the individual to at least have a bachelor's degree in design. Students of other fields will not be able to have a stronger candidature over those who come from the stream of design.
• The candidate must have substantial work experience in the sector he/ she aspires to join as an Art Director. The amount of work experience a person has makes a solid impact on his/ her career as an Art Director.
• The candidate must have prepared a good portfolio that contains as much information and details as possible. This portfolio will represent them for any job role that they apply for in the design field.
• Depending upon the type of employment that the candidate seeks, the companies might have some additional set of eligibility criteria with respect to their operations. The individual must check these conditions as well.
• Apart from the educational qualifications, people looking forward to making a career as an Art Director must also have the necessary skills that are required for the job. These include creativity, ability to work in strict deadlines, resourcefulness, leadership, time management skills, communication skills, etc.

Types of a Art Director

There are few types of art director listed below:

Graphic Designer: To create visual concepts, graphic designers either use hand-drawn sketches or computer-aided design software. The majority of the time, graphic designers produce graphics for publishers, print or digital media like brochures and advertisements. The ability to communicate a particular idea or identity through a variety of media that can be used in advertising and marketing is necessary for a career as a graphic designer. The main objective of graphic design is to hold the audience's attention.

Multimedia Animator: People who choose this line of work create visual and motion effects for television, video games, motion pictures, and other media. Animations and two- and three-dimensional models are produced by multimedia artists. Visual effects are created by multimedia artists for films and television programmes. The computer-generated images created by a multimedia career include simulations of the actor's motions and are animated into three-dimensional objects.

Exhibition Designer: The duties of exhibition designers include designing and producing exhibits for private companies, libraries, museums, public events, and conferences. In Indian businesses and organisations, they are paid between INR 6,00,000 and INR 12,00,000 annually for their work in this field.

Illustrators: The role of an illustrator is to illustrate a specific design and photograph in order to entice and amuse a customer to buy the products. And for that, you need to be a great communicator. For the Illustrator job profile in India, the annual salary ranges from INR 1,20,000 to INR 7,70,000.

Layout Artist: The role of an art director also includes layout artists. Here, the layout artists are tasked with designing and developing the settings, people, and stories for 3D animation. An average annual salary for a layout artist ranges from INR 5,00,000 to INR 9,00,000.

How to Become an Art Director?

Candidates can take the following steps to become an Art Director:

Step 1: Completion of 10+2

Students must understand how to become a film art director. We will walk you through the steps to becoming an Art Director after high school. Students must successfully complete their 10+2 exams with a minimum of 60% aggregate from an Indian recognised board. This section will go over how to become an Art Director in India. Following high school, here are some steps to becoming an Art Director.

Step 2: Sit for Entrance Exam

These crucial actions will help you understand how to become an art director. Admissions tests are administered by numerous colleges and institutes. The results of the applicants are primarily used to determine admissions after the entrance exam. Additionally, many institutions offer admissions based on a 10 + 2 passing score. It is crucial for the student to succeed in the entrance exams of universities and other educational institutions that offer programmes that prepare students to work as art directors.

Popular Entrance Examinations

Step 3: Bachelor’s

To work as an Art Director, you must have a bachelor's degree or higher. You were then granted a bachelor's degree, and you must now complete a series of short undergraduate courses to develop the skills required for your job. Because art direction is done in a variety of sectors, each with its own primary function, some courses that are beneficial for arts direction are Filmmaking, Communication Design, Visual Media, Visual Communication, Cinematography, and Graphic Design.

Popular Bachelor's Level Programmes 

Step 4: Post-Bachelor’s
After completing a Bachelor's degree programme, students have a variety of opportunities to advance their careers. We've highlighted two important options below to help you choose the best career with the fewest challenges. There are several Master's level degrees that can help you become an art director, such as MSc and MA.

Option 1: A Master's degree can help you achieve a variety of techniques that can be applied to a variety of design-related career opportunities. Individuals with a bachelor's degree can easily pursue a postgraduate programme in the relevant field.

Option 2: Following completion of the bachelor's degree programme, students may begin working in an entry-level position in the business. After gaining some years of experience, you can apply for a Master's degree.

Popular Master’s level programmes

Courses to Become an Art Director

Art Director courses are available at the diploma, certificate, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Every year, the most popular courses chosen by students are briefly mentioned below.

Skills Required to Become an Art Director

The highly required skills for working as an Art Director in the graphic design field are listed below.

Types of Job Roles Art Director

The job roles for Art Directors depend highly upon the level at which they are in their career. Candidates who are just started with their work in this arena will be hired as Junior Art Directors and will be promoted to the Associate or Senior level as per their quality of work and the time they spend with the organisation. The duties that are to be fulfilled by Art Directors at certain levels also increase with their designations. They have the liberty of switching to a different sector in which they can enhance their skills and learn more about how to be an Art Director in a different field.
 

Employment Opportunities for an Art Director

Many sectors and employment opportunities are open for recruiting art directors. Some of the most popular sectors in which art directors seek jobs are listed below.

• Advertising
• Marketing
• Public Relations
• Newspapers
• Magazines,
• Periodicals
• Book Publishers
• Publishing Houses
• Motion Pictures
• Video Industry
• Specialised Design Services
• Film and Television
• Web Designing
• Graphic Designing
• Video Games
• Self Employed Services
   

What After Becoming an Art Director?

After completing courses in graphic design, visual media, and fine arts, art directors can work for any company that produces advertising, films, or newspapers to gain experience in those industries.

• Higher Education

The course offers students higher education degrees as well, allowing them to select different PG and PhD (Doctorate level) courses to become an Art Director. The entrance exam is required for these courses, and the chosen candidates can be admitted based on the results of the entrance exams, which are followed by a personal interview.

• Startup Job

To work as an Art Director, a person must have some training and experience in the field. However, in order to gain experience, a person can also work as an intern in the advertising, marketing, filmmaking, or gaming industries. The starting salary for an art director in India is between INR 2,00,000 and INR 4,00,000. After more than two years of experience, the salary can increase to between INR 5,00,000 and INR 10,00,000.
 

Pay Scale/Salary of Art Director

Employees working for different companies and with different levels of experience are paid differently. The average annual salary for an Art Director is discussed below, based on organisations, specialisations, experience, and so on.

Organization Wise Salary: The salary ranges between INR 3 - 4 LPA.

Specialization Wise Salary: The salary ranges between INR 3 - 7 LPA.

Gender Wise Salary: The salary for men is INR 3,90,000 and for women it is INR 3,50,000.

Books & Study Material to Become Art Director

It is important to refer to the best books for becoming an Art Director as it can definitely assist the candidate in his/ her professional venture in the field of art direction. The list given below mentions some great preparation books for Art Directors. Studying these books will not only give important insights but will also enhance the knowledge, abilities, and skills of candidates.

• 'The Education of an Art Director' by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne
• 'Inside Art Direction' by Steven Brower
• 'Creative Direction in a Digital World: A Guide to Being a Modern Creative Director' by Adam Harrell
• 'The Art Direction Handbook for Film' by Michael Rizzo
• 'Art Direction for the Web' by Andy Clarke
   

Pros of becoming a Art Director

• Art Directors have a team working under them which means they have a number of creative minds that are focused towards a task. This helps in garnering more ideas and suggestions for the particular task which can prove to be quite beneficial.
• Art Directors can look for jobs in innumerable sectors and industries. With digital media at its peak, almost all the sectors hire experts for their digital needs.
• The pay scale of art directors in quite lucrative when they reach higher positions at good organisations. The job is quite fulfilling not only creatively but also financially.
   

Cons of becoming a Art Director

• The job of an Art Director can be quite hectic and some projects might require them to put in extra long hours to complete the task in tight deadlines.
• Managing a large group of people can be a difficult task to achieve at times.