art director vs. graphic designer
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- kirshar12
Is there a big difference between these two titles?
- kirshar120
Just curious how it is in other places, two folks at my workplace were let go due to slow business, the reason they gave for picking the two they did were because they were "graphic designers" and that particular position is slowly going away......
As opposed to the three art directors we have (one in training).......
- Whoever gave you that "reason" lied to you. Either they know the truth and are lying, or not sr enough to know what really happened.nthkl
- ... Happened.nthkl
- 3 ADs and 2 GDs haha WTF?
should be 1 to 4animatedgif - if not moreanimatedgif
- ukit20
graphic designer is very general, seems like most jobs call for a more specific skillset these days
- Miguex0
- nobody uses InDesign?Amicus
- My GCD uses InDesign still. Freaking wiz.jaylarson
- this might be more 'interactive' oriented. No one uses FW but ID is still king :)Miguex
- wow looks like after 9 years im still at intern level...FallowDeer
- This has nothing to do with advertising. Flash and Dreamweaver? That's web shit, not advertising.monospaced
- im a cd and i never use xcel or powerpoint. i look at a lot of pdfs tho_me_
- The intern and designer should have powerpoint as well. Gotta make those presentations pretty!desmo
- No ppt for any of these. Flash is diminishing quickly and at least give the ECD Mail instead of Microshit Entourage.CyBrainX
- Douglas0
this explains it well:
http://www.alistapart.com/articl…
- dijitaq0
- graphic designers work... art directors pondersdijitaq
- this site is fucking coolAmbushstudio
- fucking scarves.zenmasterfoo
- we've all been there.... and it sucks!brandonp
- vaxorcist0
hah!
AD's job is to go into a meeting and control the client expectations and experience and cause them to trust the process and hand off a vague set of ideas to a GD, who comes up with a product which the AD then uses his Reality Distortion Effect to convince the client to accept without any changes or "make the logo bigger" moments...
Graphic Designers are often canon-fodder in a meeting if there's no AD there to control the client....
at least in my previous experience...
but to fire all the GD's would result in slower work output by far....
- strange how this makes an AD sound more like an account exec... but that happened at one agency....vaxorcist
- honest0
art director = "Yes / No / Maybe... / Oh that's interesting..." graphic designer = "I want your job... I'm so much better than you... can i go the fuck home now?!?"
- i_monk0
I've never worked anywhere that the AD was half as competent as the srGDs or srPDs.
- DaveO0
I think it differs studio to studio. Being a good art director is all about being a good communicator to the people around you, and getting the best out the talents at your disposal. Half the time it's the "yes / no / maybe" that make the difference rather than a GD working away at something that fundamentally doesn't work.
- monospaced0
I've never worked anywhere where the GDs are half as competent as the ADs.
- MarleyMarl0
Half the idiots here should be glad they have ADs or CDs above them, Based on the way you act and talk here I wouldn't let you anywhere near a client.
Also realize that an AD in a graphic design studio vs. an AD in an ad agency are completely different.
- twokids0
An art director should be able to do what a graphic designer does. A graphic designer may or may not be able to do what an art director does.
this is what that is: meet with clients to understand what the fuck they want and talk them out of stupid ideas and make sense of everything so it can get done in a reasonable time frame. give the GDs direction and then steer them back to reasonable when they go off the rails, or kick them in the add if they aren't getting the general idea.
Then, if the GD fails, they do the design themselves and look for another GD.
- maikel0
I think the main difference between GDs and ADs are than the latter have fffffffound invites.
- Difference between AD and CD is CD has QBNProanimatedgif
- _me_0
clients rape CDs who rape ADs who rape graphic designers. since time immemorial.
[ to be honest tho the fucking shit graphic designers come out with these days - they need shooting not raping. ]
- OP310
I feel like it depends on where you work. I'm in a small agency and have an AD job title, but I think elsewhere I'd be considered a senior designer. Job titles to me are kind of BS in small shops.
- kirshar120
I do agree and understand with what you guys are saying. I've come to my own conclusion that the reasons given for their laying off wasn't the truth.
Would it stand to reason that most AD's come from originally being a graphic designer or production artist? We have one girl who went from being a traffic assistant to an AD, and I refuse to comment on her artistic ability because I'm a nice guy, but I'm still trying to figure that one out.......
- hahaha what a joke, wonder why the other ADs didn't kick offanimatedgif
- i_monk0
Before it bites me in the ass, I should say by "competent" I don't mean creatively, I mean more detail-oriented. I've had ADs hand me stuff with the wrong brand colours (close, but wrong), glaring inconsistencies in type styles, misalignments, butchered artwork, things that just won't print (layer effects with Pantones, for example)...
- That's still not a fantastic point as the bigger picture stuff is the ADs forté rather than artworking
DaveO - ADs worry about the concept, the big idea. Studio/Mac Artists are for making sure colors are correct, etc.MarleyMarl
- I would hope an AD would know their client's branding better than a GD.i_monk
- That's still not a fantastic point as the bigger picture stuff is the ADs forté rather than artworking