The Role Of A Fashion Art Director And How To Become One

When you flip through the pages of a fashion magazine, look at a marketing campaign, or see beautiful pictures of products, there is a key person behind them: an Art Director. 

If you are pursuing a creative career in fashion, and being in charge of visual aspects of a brand or magazine sounds like a dream job, the role of a fashion art director may be the one made for you. 

In this article, I will navigate you through this fascinating career and explain how you can become an art director. 

I wanted to clarify one thing from the start. An art director is not an entry-level job in fashion, so you cannot become one with zero or little experience. But I will explain how to get there by choosing the right studies and developing the necessary skills. Also, building your path in the fashion industry towards becoming an art director.

The Role Of A Fashion Art Director And How To Become One 

The role of an art director in the fashion industry

An Art Director in fashion is a creative individual who is in charge of overseeing, planning, and directing all imagery and visual aspects of campaigns, product shots, magazine covers, page layouts, and more. As an industry that relies on powerful imagery to tell a story and form an emotional connection, the role of an Art Director is very important.

From initial concepts to final execution details, all decisions are down to the art director. The creative vision of the brand, agency, or magazine is entirely in their hands. They need to have both the big picture and take care of the small details.

This visionary role can be seen in many different aspects of fashion. It can include working for a fashion house or department store to working at a fashion magazine. They work full time and most of them are freelancers. 

It is the Art Directors’ responsibility to understand and immerse themselves in the company they work for. Also, it’s the Art Director’s responsibility to produce fantastic imagery aligned with what the brand or magazine stands for. The visual representation of the brand is placed in their hands.

The Fashion Art Director’s responsibilities

As it is the directors’ responsibility to ensure all image-making aligns with their company and its vision, the art director works alongside a team of other creatives to execute the creative vision of a fashion brand or magazine.

When on set, art directors work with stylists, photographers, models, hair and makeup artists, marketers, and other professionals to ensure they deliver the content in line with the vision the art director and their team envisioned. They need an opinion on every little detail. 

However, input from the art director is also needed throughout the whole creative process. 

Being the lead of the creative vision means brainstorming new ideas for innovative shoots and campaign concepts. They assess and sign off on any ideas considering the brand’s DNA and vision. 

Since the ever-growing shift to digital has altered the role of imagery making, the art director is someone who understands how to utilize imagery across multi-media platforms to share a message. As the creative leader of visuals, they are responsible for building different creative visions. These visions are for editorial, social media, and marketing campaigns, as well as new launches, and product shots for e-commerce sites. 

The art director needs to be an expert in all areas from creating mood boards to planning the shoot. They also have skills in photography and graphic design to be able to guide other members of his team.

As fun as days on set can be, an Art Director also has administrative tasks to do. Their responsibilities include organizing model castings, contacts and photoshoot location ideas, and managing the budget.

Art director of a fashion brand vs department store vs magazine

Working across a range of creative projects for multiple platforms from digital to print, the fashion art director is involved in the concept and execution of the visual strategy of the company. The core of the role does not change much from the work environment in different sectors of the fashion industry. The only key difference will be the vision they must align with. 

If you are an Art Director within a department store such as Bergdorf Goodman or Selfridges, you may be given a brief and mood board from a client such as Michael Kors, Tory Burch, or Blumarine. This shows how they would like you to portray their brand and product in that specific department store or e-commerce platform. 

Whereas if you work for a single fashion house, say Gucci, then you focus on building the creative vision for Gucci.

At a fashion magazine, the art director is tasked with handling the whole visual aspect across all pages of the publication. 

The average day of a fashion art director

What can you expect a day in your life to look like as an Art Director? From planning the concepts and creative vision to days spent on set getting the perfect shot, you can never expect a boring day. 

In fact, every day in the life of a fashion art director can be different. 

In the morning, you could be brainstorming ideas with the creative team, and in the afternoon you could be developing one of those ideas. 

On Monday, you could be organizing the budget, and on Tuesday, you could be attending meetings with models and photographers. 

Therefore, it is important to keep track of the different tasks and stay organized.

The Skills You Need as a Fashion Art Director

Working as an art director in the fashion industry requires a range of many different skills to bring ideas to life. Here are some of the most important skills a fashion art director needs.

Creativity 

Since the career of an art director is one of the most creative ones, art directors obviously need to have a highly creative mindset. This is important in order to develop unique and innovative concepts for different projects. Being able to think outside the box is essential in this career to propose a unique vision. Arti directors need to attract the consumers’ and audience’s attention to the products, and push the boundaries of fashion. 

Visual Communication

Fashion art directors need to possess strong visual communication skills to convey their ideas and concepts to the team through visuals. Behind every image, from the location where it was shot to how looks were styled, there is a message the brand or magazine wants to convey, and an art director has to find a way to communicate it through imagery.

Eye for detail

Many elements make a good picture: The aesthetic, the set, the colors, the style, the light. Since the art director takes care of every aspect from concept to production of the imagery, and perfect visuals are essential in the fashion industry, having strong attention to detail is a must.

Understanding of the company’s vision 

It’s crucial to understand the brand or the magazine to convey their vision in every aspect of art direction. It is also important to understand the platform and the target audience the content is made for.

Knowledge of fashion and trends

Having a solid understanding of fashion history, and keeping up-to-date with the latest trends in fashion, art, and culture is crucial for creating relevant and engaging visual content.

Vast knowledge of other industries

I wanted to address an important misconception: that you have to be only a fashion expert to work in art direction.

Many art directors gain their inspiration from areas outside of fashion, such as music, film, travel, food, architecture… It is therefore important to be curious about other industries. This knowledge will help you manage your daily tasks. As an art director, you shouldn’t just have good taste and a sense of aesthetics; understanding other things like photography angles, camera settings, shoot logistics, and styling choices will also be beneficial.

Computer skills

Mastering computer programs such as Photoshop, Indesign, and Illustrator is important for art directors to create and edit visual assets.

You should also start learning the ins and outs of Excel to stay organized in your daily tasks, as an Art Director you will have a lot of lists and data to keep on top of, from contacts to budgets.

Leadership and communication

As a leader figure, art directors have to keep on top of the tasks and everyone involved in the team. You should be able to communicate your ideas effectively to your creative team and build strong relationships with agents, models, photographers, and other collaborators.

Organizational skills

The fun and versatile part of the career of an art director comes with a more difficult part: staying organized. As an Art Director, you will execute many projects, so it’s crucial to keep your work organized.

Adaptability

The fashion industry is fast-paced and constantly evolving, so art directors need to be adaptable to those changes, changing trends, and deadlines.

What to study to become an art director?

I say it about about every career in fashion and I will say the same about the role of the art director: You don’t necessarily need to study fashion to work in the industry. 

Creativity is the central part of an art director’s role, and it’s a skill you don’t only learn at a fashion school. You can also study art history, fine art, graphic design, photography, or anything similar where you will develop a keen eye for visuals. The skills you will learn there can be easily applied later to the career of a fashion art director. 

In addition, since an art director is not only a creative mind but also a strategist with a strong understanding of a brand, a degree in management, marketing, or communication will also be a good asset. 

When choosing what to study, look also at the responsibilities of the art director. They are multi-ranged, involving styling, graphic design, and visual communication, among other tasks. So a degree in any of these fields is always welcome. 

How to start as a fashion art director?

As I said at the beginning of this article, to become an Art Director, you need to gain experience first. An Art Director is indeed a senior, managerial role in fashion. If you are at the beginning of your career, you need to start with fashion internships. 

Apply to fashion internships

When it comes to getting experience to become an art director, you have two options. 

The first option is to become the art director’s assistant. You will be helping them with practical and administrative tasks, doing research and finding inspiration to create visuals, and assisting them on set, among other things. 

The second option is to join a team that collaborates with art directors, aka editors, stylists, photographers, graphic designers, and marketing managers. In fact, art directors often begin their careers as editors, stylists, or graphic designers. These roles have some tasks in common with art directors, plus they work closely. Overall, any experience where you can be on set is a good start. So you will be in touch with art directors and gain relevant knowledge and skills even if you won’t be assisting them directly. 

This way, although it will take time to climb the career ladder to become an art director, you can still enjoy working in other related creative roles. 

Where to find internships in fashion art direction?

You can find internships in the departments of art direction, editorial, styling, and graphic design, among others online, on the career pages of brands and magazines. 

However, I always recommend not waiting for opportunities to pop up but spontaneously introducing yourself to fashion companies by sending a cold e-mail. 

You should e-mail directly art directors, stylists, and marketers…and ask for an opportunity to assist them. This strategy is more direct and efficient than applying for fashion internships online. The strategy allows you to have more freedom to discuss the tasks you would like to do. Also, you will still do practical and administrative tasks but professionals can be more flexible with the tasks they assign you compared to when the responsibilities have been decided in advance and outlined in the traditional internship offer online. What’s more, by sending a cold e-mail to recruiters, you won’t be competing with other hundreds of applicants.

Be proactive and send a cold email with a strong resume, a customized cover letter, and a portfolio. 

Aspiring art directors do need a portfolio to show some examples of their work. The good news is that you can build one without any experience by including your personal projects. It can be a fashion mood board, research on the current trends, some styled looks, etc.

I teach more about building a fashion portfolio and emailing companies directly. As well as other unconventional strategies in my online course Break into the Fashion Industry.

Need help landing your dream job in fashion? Register for my free masterclass here and I’ll teach you 5 strategies to impress recruiters. Reserve your seat to the masterclass here.