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- Lead a creative team who develop campaigns and other creative work for organisations
- Exciting but demanding work in a highly creative environment
- Opportunities to progress within an agency, start your own agency, or go freelance
As a creative director you'll normally lead a team or department who create campaigns, visual identities, messaging and concepts for companies.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Be responsible for setting the overall creative direction for a particular project
- Decide what the main messages will be, what the style and tone should be, and what the best ways to deliver the message are
- Spend your time understanding the brief or project
- Develop creative concepts with your team
- Present ideas to clients and work with them to achieve a final solution
- Manage the team to prepare the final outputs - these might be artwork, video, or other materials
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
You could work 'in-house' for a specific organisation where you'll lead the development of creative work for them only. Or, you could work for a creative, marketing, or advertising agency where you'll work on projects for lots of different clients.
The role can be demanding and you may need to work long hours in the run up to major client pitches or deadlines.
You'll need
You'll need excellent creative thinking skills, the ability to manage teams of people, and excellent communication and presentation skills for this role.
Most creative directors study a creative subject like art, design, or film, and many will have a degree but this is not essential. It's critical that you build up a portfolio of work as this is how you'll be judged within the industry. You can do this as part of a formal course, or work in it yourself, either by volunteering or by setting yourself 'mock briefs' to show what you can do.
Most creative directors work their way up through the ranks in a design team or creative agency role before moving into this kind of senior position. Gaining experience in an advertising or creative agency is a really good place to start as you'll learn about the industry an start to build up a network of contacts.
CAREER PROSPECTS
You could set up your own agency along with a finance director and chief executive.
You could also become the chief executive officer (CEO) or chief marketing officer (CMO) if working in marketing.