Art direction

Member lesson

The difference between art direction and design

Lesson 2 of 12 in Art direction.

Lesson

A useful split: design is what happens inside the frame, direction is what the frame contains and why. A designer decides the type size. An art director decided that there would be a photograph of an older woman's hands rather than a product on white. The same split tells you whom to hire. A catalogue that needs forty pages laid out neatly needs a designer, and one that needs somebody to decide what it should feel like, choose the photographer and send back the first round of pictures needs an art director.

An ink drawing of a designer bent close over a layout at a desk while an art director stands at the far end of the room looking at a whole wall of pinned pages.
A designer working up close while the art director stands back to judge.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Doing the thing well. The designer's territory.”

    • Production designer
    • Coherence
    • Craft
    • Fit
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Deciding what should be done. The art director's.”

    • Proposition
    • Redundancy
    • Intent
    • Reference-led
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Where things go on a page. Design.”

    • Tethered
    • Craft
    • Layout
    • Team

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