Advertising art director
Art directors design images for ad campaigns, including film, TV, website and printed adverts.
What you'll do
Day-to-day tasks
You could:
- work closely with a copywriter to create adverts that your client wants
- create storyboards or sketches of your ideas
- present your ideas to a creative director or account team
- choose studios or locations and attend photo or film shoots
- make sure that budgets and deadlines are met
- manage the final editing of the finished adverts
Working environment
You could work in a creative studio, in an office or at a client's business.
Your working environment may be outdoors some of the time.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could:
- become a senior art director
- work freelance
- set up your own advertising agency
- move into directing for TV or film
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You'll need:
- knowledge of media production and communication
- the ability to sell products and services
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- excellent verbal communication skills
- knowledge of the fine arts
- thinking and reasoning skills
- the ability to come up with new ways of doing things
- the ability to organise your time and workload
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently
How to become
You can get into this job through:
- a university course
- an apprenticeship
- working towards this role
- graduate trainee scheme
Employers will often expect you to have a foundation degree, higher national diploma, degree or postgraduate qualification in:
- graphic design
- advertising design
- illustration
- fine art
With your degree you can apply for graduate training schemes in advertising companies.
Entry requirements
You'll usually need:
- 1 or 2 A levels, or equivalent, for a foundation degree or higher national diploma
- 2 to 3 A levels, or equivalent, for a degree
More Information
You could apply to do an apprenticeship, which may help you to get a trainee or assistant role with a company. They include:
- Junior Advertising Creative Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship
- Advertising Creative Level 6 Apprenticeship, leading to a professional qualification
These apprenticeships typically take around 2 years to complete and are a mix of learning in the workplace and off-site study.
Entry requirements
Employers will set their own entry requirements.
More Information
You can start as a junior creative to develop your skills on the job and work your way up through training and promotion.
You could get some experience before applying for your first job. This will give you a better understanding of advertising and is a good way to make contacts.
You could contact agencies directly to ask about volunteering opportunities. You could also make contacts on social media channels like LinkedIn.
You can get more advice on how to contact advertising agencies from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.
Career tips
Your creativity and ability in art and design are the most important things to many employers.
When looking for jobs, you'll need to show a portfolio of examples of your creative work. Some agencies recruit creative teams rather than just individuals. You could work with a copywriter and create ideas you can pitch together.
Professional and industry bodies
You could join the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising to find training opportunities and make industry contacts
Further information
You can find out more about careers in advertising from the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Discover Creative Careers.
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This page contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.