Design Directors?
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- CyBrain
I was curious about your role, what you think the title means, what skills are needed, etc. Any observations, jokes and inspirations are welcome. Thanks in advance.
- d_rek0
I work with an 'executive design director'.
As a matter of fact they're the only person above a designer that also moonlights as art director, creative director and account management.
Insofar as I can tell they're equally terrible at all of those tasks.
As far as the 'design direction' part of the job... mostly they manage high-level thinking and strategy for larger accounts, determining strategically how a brand or identity should be developed/implemented.
I'm not sure how this role is handled in other organizations but being in a small branding firm it seems that this title encompasses many roles/tasks, none of which are really clearly defined.
- for your industry it seems you create weaker designers instead of making them bettere-pill
- how does one become a DD if they cant do any of the said tasks?? makes no sense.e-pill
- does your industry just fill empty seats with people who claim to have experience?e-pill
- i am rather taken back by what you posted as it undermines everything i do.e-pill
- in our industry it is extremely difficult to be granted this position n not be accountablee-pill
- i hope i am misunderstanding you.. oi i need coffeee-pill
- I would rather suspect he's referring to this one particular individual, rather than making a blanket judgement on all DDs.Continuity
- I could be wrong, though. ¬_¬Continuity
- e-pill0
i am the Design Director of the Brand i am currently working with.
In this role my experiencer as a senior designer for the last 10 years.the experience i have earned has granted me the level or respect and responsibility to manage the entire design and production teams. My role is to concept and create the entire brand from conceptual design to final product which is to be sold at stores.
I must define shape, create hardware, source fabrications, fly to overseas factories and manange the 1st sampling and final development of all my product. i must advise upon changes as well as sit in every meeting and sales.
I must research my competitors market and define a solid direction to surpass them, i must sell the ideas to the buyers and design around their needs.
as a design director it is my responsibility to manage the senior designers as well as the associate designers in making sure thier goals are met and reached on a daily basis.
that is what i do as a design director.
- oooh look at my spelling errorz
i need coffee..e-pill - don't email that to anyoneidiots
- that is much more clearly defined than what I am used tod_rek
- i limited the definition a lot..e-pill
- Thanks. I think the role is more common in product designCyBrain
- i think as a product designer a need for a Design Director is very much in demand.e-pill
- oooh look at my spelling errorz
- CyBrain0
Thanks. Both are great answers. Anyone a Design Director from an ad agency?
- e-pill0
i must also create all trend reports, define the in-store matrixes of all product sold within our market defined price range and define the demographic of the target consumer and design around them. i must submit week reposts of these trend analysis to our sales dept in order to figure out a pricing strategy. as a senior designer this job was never given to me til i became a Design Director.
the DD must be fluent in all aspects of design and understand total construction and pattern making in order to manage all teams with-in design.
- e-pill0
the role of the Design Director is also to be the face of design and the face of the brand, this role is to work directly with the heads of other teams and partners in the process from owners to other design directors and sales teams. the function of the design director is also to bridge all the channels from all teams into one complete form and idea.
in product design we do not have Creative Directors as that role is already done by associate designers, or the beginning level stages.. the role of that job from what i have seen or witnessed in our industries is rather opposite of the responsibilities we give our entry level designers to accomplish.. this is why i always giggle when i hear about people "finally" becoming a Creative Director! haha in product design we have no place for people who just have ideas and cant accomplish that idea themselves..
the roles of the DD is that of every job and that person must be able to make it happen everything happen without a thought..
- Kiggen0
I'm 'Owner'. Has a nicer ring to it ;)
- monoboy0
A design director runs a creative team per campaign or client. Responsible for delivery, strategy and maintaining the standards set by the creative director or creative partner.
1. Creative partner or Executive creative director
2. Creative director
3. Design director
4. Senior designer
5. Middleweight designer
6. Designer
7. Junior designerReminded me of this...
- SoulFly0
what e-pill said
- d_rek0
e-pill,
I do agree with you... and in some aspects it kind of proves the Peter Principle does hold true.
I'm sure my over 50 'design director' at one point in they're career was a talented designer, able to fully conceptualize and execute ideas. But now, as they've moved up and up they probably started having less and less to do with actual design and began to be more of a client facing person than anything.
Granted, they understand brand strategy up and down but they've since lost any ability to foster and execute 'good design'. This does dishearten me because I continually have to report to someone who a) does not follow trends in design b) cannot utilize current technology to the benefit of us and our clients and c) wheres so many hats around the office it's hard to get them to focus on one task let alone two or three
And I won't speak for all Design Directors who work in branding/graphic design but this one in particular seems to have done exactly what you talk about - filled an empty seat with someone who claimed to have experience.
The only thing I can do at this point is learn from this person - learn exactly what NOT to do with my career.
- what is the "Peter Principle" ?e-pill
- peter principle- http://en.wikipedia.…
i actually never heard of thise-pill - makes sense though in the industry i work in this doesnt happen so much..e-pill
- promotions arent given to those that cant preform a given tasks or future tasks.e-pill
- if a person moves from company to company instead of staying put in one place..e-pill
- the peter principle will never happen as their experiences will be greater then if they staye-pill
- as i am in Fashion, we have a revolving door of people coming and going monthly..e-pill
- the industry itself creates this greater style of designer that negates that peter principle.e-pill
- when i personally see a director or higher not working towards their expectations..e-pill
- it is always called out rather fast as we are all part of the problem.. the weakest link..e-pill
- i am happy to be in a very demanding environment that creates demanding designers.e-pill
- over people that just float by doing work that an entry level designer can accomplish.e-pill
- different worlds i guess.. breed different lifestyles and meaning..e-pill
- i want to be in your world - i'm in the latter where we all suffer from one designer in a senior art director rolejmilligan
- former?jmilligan
- Rand0
Brand gets capitalized now, like God?
- fyi 'God' is now 'god'.detritus
- it's God when you're talking about monotheistic, god when it's polytheistic.doesnotexist
- should have used footnotes to convey actual meaning of commentsRand
- No, it's always lower case.
Unless you actually believe that shit.detritus - —Detritusgramme
- Rand0
Shit gets capitalized now, like Go Fuck Yourself
- PIZZA0
we had a Design Director, basically the Director wanted to be called an Art Director because it sounded cooler so the Art Director became the Design Director
- mydo0
e-pill, can you have ninjas AND cavemen?
and to my other question about this thread.
does anyone have "Middleweight designer" as a job title?