What Novice Art Directors Need to Know Beyond Their Portfolio

Abstract

To land a job as an art director, the presentation of a strong conceptualized portfolio is only part of the equation. What additional knowledge helps the novice creative not only during the initial interview but to succeed once they land the job? This study looked to identify what additional skills and traits working art and creative directors felt young creatives needed beyond their portfolio in order to land their first job in advertising. The results suggest ways forward in how to prepare students to incorporate design, business, and personal skills into a well-rounded creative and personal brand.

تأثير المدارس الابداعية عبر الانترنت على تمكين الشباب وريادة الأعمال في مصر

“…Creative fields such as advertising, photography, directing, art directing and others have received little academic research on their learning and teaching techniques, thus this paper immensely focus on this aspect (Pollard et al, 2018). For youth who are interested to land jobs in the creative field need to have a strong presentation of their work and to build a well conceptualized portfolio besides their knowledge and expertise in the field (Blakeman et al, 2020). As mentioned earlier Sync school as one of the first established creative schools in the MENA connects and guide aspiring youth in many creative fields such as (copy writing , art directing , photography, directing , shooting and lighting techniques and production) to build their professional creative portfolios and to start their creative journey.…”

“…Teachers and mentors through creative schools help aspiring young art director , copy writers and others to tell their own story of their passion for the art of advertising and highlight their tremendous abilities by promoting their knowledge of design , writing or producing a piece of the advertising art through a fruitful portfolio (Porter et al, 2020). Researchers (Honig and Probstl, 2020 ; Ile and Boadu , 2018;Blakeman et al, 2020) in the advertising field advocated for the importance of using insights from the creative industry from young art directors, copywriters and producers to include within the curriculum of university courses to integrate a youthful perception from experienced creatives. According to Blakeman et al(2020), both trade and academic literature positions of what a young creative need to learn and how to land jobs in a completely aggressive workplace is through the art of building a strong creative portfolio that shows the true colors of the creative himself/ herself , this is apparent in the work of creative schools such as Sync school in Egypt which allows its students to benefit from its online workshops and masterclasses that provides intense information in a variety of creative field from well-known professionals in their chosen fields.…”

“…Researchers (Honig and Probstl, 2020 ; Ile and Boadu , 2018;Blakeman et al, 2020) in the advertising field advocated for the importance of using insights from the creative industry from young art directors, copywriters and producers to include within the curriculum of university courses to integrate a youthful perception from experienced creatives. According to Blakeman et al(2020), both trade and academic literature positions of what a young creative need to learn and how to land jobs in a completely aggressive workplace is through the art of building a strong creative portfolio that shows the true colors of the creative himself/ herself , this is apparent in the work of creative schools such as Sync school in Egypt which allows its students to benefit from its online workshops and masterclasses that provides intense information in a variety of creative field from well-known professionals in their chosen fields. The role of creative schools goes beyond guiding their students with building a strong portfolio in their work , creative schools also focus on adding new skillful traits to these aspiring young creatives such as the knowledge of the business they are willing to work within , the media they are going to operate through and the importance of having a diversity of interests, the ability to comprehend the variation between ideation and the creative brief concept and to have strong presentation skills that help them to deliver their creative ideas to other (Porter et al, 2020).…”

“…As advertising field became very competing university professors claimed the need for more challenging and creative programs that guide youth in that field to cope with the tremendous challenges impacting the workforce that youth face (Carballo et al, 2021). The direction for online platforms grew massively post the covid-19 outbreak in 2020 which shifted many of the educational institutions to online teaching which was implemented very well in the creative field as it allowed a lot of youth to participate in the online workshop and master classes based on its easier accessibility anytime anywhere, this factor encouraged more students to join the master classes and workshops provided online from various background education and made the career shifting process easier (Blakeman et al, 2020). In relation to mentor relationship theory mentioned above, the purpose of Sync School is also to provide a mentor and guide to students in the creative to help them reach their goals (Masha et al, 2022).…”