Art Direction

We had a 3 shot story practicing by using 3 three "different" pictures from magazine. Professor Jimmy mentioned "art direction" in the middle of the lecture.  But, what is "art direction?" By interpreting it literally, it's a job of directing art, kinda like film director. I did not research for what art direction means exactly but just pretending that is what I think. What abilities an art director should have?

Knowledge, is THE most important ability that a successful art director should have. The knowledge here should not only be about artistic or design knowledge, but also cultural, scientific, and social knowledge etc. He/she does not have to be expert in any of the fields and can still be an excellent art director. A wide range of knowledge, if use properly, can help to solve difficult problems or make important decisions. For example, cultural knowledge helps me to see things differently because I learned two cultures. When I have to make a decision about targeted audience, I would not only think from one perspective but two.

Management, is also the key ability for an art director. Art directors are not only thinking like artist or designer but also like a "manager." Such as finance, time, and human resource, art directors have to think in a huge picture including all of the involved factors "together." Art directors need to figure out how to maximize the efficiency, productivity, and creativity at the same time. 

"Calmness" is the most important ability for an art director to be the most successful. Art director is the leader so that if a project failed expectation, client would psychologically think that's the art director's fault. Failure can be the worst case. But, if that just something bad happened during a project, what if the art director freaks out? A leader should always be calm even if the world would end within next few hours. Solutions often be found only when people are calm instead of freaking out.

Last thing I believe it is "gut." Whatever how careful when an art director makes a decision, there is always something can not be predicted. So, that is when luck comes into play. Because of the unpredictable future, it takes guts for an art director to make a decision and ready for facing failure. Even the worst failure makes an art director falls down from top of a mountain, he/she can still climb back up to the top because of "guts." A strong minded person can careless about failure.