Me encontré esta discusión en el grupo de CannesLions en LinkedIn, sobre si debe desaparecer el rol de “Director de Arte” en las agencias. No tengo problema con que cambie (después de todo es solo un título además), siempre y cuando se cambie por algo mejor, mas útil y más aproximado a la realidad. Como aquí no se logra lo segundo, lo defiendo a capa y espada, con argumentos que creo yo son suficientes para que se siga usando un rato más, hasta que se nos ocurra algo realmente mejor…

Time to kill the ‘Art Director’ in Advertising?

‘Art Director’ sounded great in the 60’s, but was always fighting for space in a crowded market to begin with… Movies, Magazines, etc. Each having similarities,
but each in fact being an entirely different discipline.

Now that the Term ‘Art Director’ is so readily applied to a Senior Web designer.
I think It’s time to kill the old dog and generate a title that better reflects the modern usage of the role in advertising across all medias. Recently, I have seen ads for roles as Art Director (Conceptual) - but I’d prefer not to walk around as a subset.

‘Concept Director’ Applies to both Writers and AD’s. Still carries the ‘Director’ tag but more clearly describes the problem solving qualities required to ‘Crack a brief’ and offer a solution be it in Art or copy.
Without sounding like a petty discussion about ‘Titles.’ I think it’s important to demarcate between ‘Art Directors that ‘code’ and ‘Art Directors’ that can add millions in profits to a company by generating a great ‘media neutral’ idea…

Ignacio Alcocer Cordero - When you hear the term Designer (even if “Senior”) it is usual to relate that to someone who solves creative problems only in a graphic level. Even now in digital times the term Web Designer refers to someone who has the skillis to produce a web page, attending to its technical needs and its visual and graphic apects (and by means, Front End and User Experience aspects).
But when we talk about a creative process that requires ideas and concepts, we may find that this is completely another kind of skill that many designers include, but many others dont have (or dont want to have). Here is where the Art Director appears, as someone who can develop both concepts -and images- and then put them in a final concept-product.
I agree the term is a little abused, and for me (after 10 years ind advertising) it is now completeley normal to understand that different agencies have different roles for the same “position titles”, depending on how many resources they count on. Sometimes, if the agency is big, you have people at your charge. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you do Art Direction for one or many, small or big accounts, in very different ways to approach each one of them and with different teams for every one. Sometimes you are responsible for whole new campaign or communication concepts, and sometimes you just have to adapt to a brand guidelines, or to someone else’s ideas (previously authorized by client, sometimes), and execute them in a profesional way, as a key visual or any other physical product.
I think the “Art Director” term has proven to work most of the times for an experienced artist/designer who can solve most of creative problems in a more or less “complete” way in these two aspects (concepts and visuals)
I dont know if a “Concept Director” will be able to communicate and even put in practice that skills in the same complete way… and if you always have to specify what kind of skill youn need in a “Concept Director” role, then i think the term is not clear nor usefull enoug… sorry i think it should be left unchanged, just the way it is…

http://linkd.in/tYGnMq