Interactive Art Director - Approach
Out of context: Reply #11
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- Miguex1
I come from print too, and if that is the case you are 90% already there, now more than ever before, mainly due to large agencies seem to favor very specific positions over designers that can tackle more than one medium. (not the case for small shops where wearing multiple hats is needed).
So think about a website as creating spec-sheets for a package design, you have to outline every single thing that could go wrong, or else it will. If you think about it is incredibly similar, with the exceptions of a few rules that vary from interactive to static medium.
Type sizes
Fluidity on layouts
How does the elements on the composition react to interaction
How does the user navigate through the piece
these are a few that come to mind on top of my head.If the agency has a position called Sr. Art Director, chances are that they will have developers, so you just handle them a psd of each page with your layouts. ( Personally attach a grid outlining measurements between columns, typefaces, space between paragraphs, button overlays etc.) so they have as a reference, but this I got from print.
If you are a Sr. Art Director, (in my experience at least) you will be in charge of the look of the "guide pages", every iteration of those, will be finished by a designer or production artist, your job will be focused to present different looks of the site to your CD and the client and conclude the general direction of the look and feel.
Clients, will intervene at all stages of the project most likely, sometimes even when the project is finished, this will be most likely a decision made between client and your project manager, who sometimes will ignore realistic deadlines in order to make the client happy, but sometimes he can be good negotiating with you and client in order to find a middle ground.
If you have a solid base of design theory, I believe that you can go to any medium you want, it's always the same (just a few medium specific adjustments)