Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/why-every-company-should-have-an-art-director-41ff67e64f9?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Andréa Linzmeyer 
I’ve been in the ‘design industry’ for almost a decade now and I noticed a major shift in my design abilities when I had an “art director” as a boss. I was five years in, still an eager beaver but with a broken design esteem.
You see, I’d never had a bad boss before. And then <a href="https://medium.com/@alinzmeyer/my-worst-design-job-32adcd643838">I did</a>.
This new “art director” boss of mine was actually more of a design mentor than anything. He made my design what it is today. And after my last corporate gig, I realized why some designers don’t improve while others do. It’s the lack of an art director and too many marketing directors taking that on as their job.
<h3>Marketing Director vs Art Director</h3>
From my experience, a marketing director either went to actual business school or somehow landed in the job. Most don’t have a clue what “proper” design is and they shouldn’t — that isn’t their qualification. Marketers know how to sell and do weird analytical things that designers, myself included, are like… what?
An art director has likely gone to some type of art/design/tech school or has developed professionally because they have a great eye for design. They understand visuals, colours, flow and how something will end up looking like. They may have been doing it for so long that they can easily spot mistakes and course correct their mentees.
<h3>Growing Your Designer</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*WDRg8c3icwCP2Ge-CvzsLQ.jpeg">
Designers come in all shapes, sizes, colours and humours. Getting your degree or diploma doesn’t really mean much. Take it from me, I went to school thinking it was going to be graphic design and ended up making robots for four years — just for a degree. Because you know, degrees still matter even though kids are learning to do our jobs early on now.
If companies want to succeed in this new era, they need to hire the proper people. It’s not just about throwing a graphic designer with a marketer and assuming magic will happen. It won’t. And that’s why your design initiatives go in circles.
<h3>Scenarios From Heaven</h3>
Working under an art director, I learned how to properly use fonts to be purposeful and to be legible. This is real life, with real consequences. Not some school project that we’ll get graded on by a possibly jaded professor. I learned how to position certain aspects so that it will read neatly and customers will appreciate it. My art director was great at showing me his designs and ideas and also giving me tips when I asked. I learned by example. He trusted that eventually I would develop naturally. And I did. And I continued to develop.
<h3>Scenarios From Hell</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*iGXwp5rau1g-7kPwGbCXlg.jpeg">
Note: These are my observations based on a colleague, which sparked the understanding between art direction and marketing direction. I didn’t have any issues with this specific marketing director because I was already shaped as a designer and could understand the idea and produce accordingly.
This colleague had a background in print(shop) only and the boss was a marketing director with an agency background. Higher ups (and people) know there’s always room to grow, but I believe they think that it’ll happen magically. That they don’t have to do anything to shape their brand new hire. And by that I mean in a way that their design skills will develop nicely (and over time) not shaping office culture. I think the misconception is that designers are born designers (maybe some are) and we “should know” how to do our jobs. Most of us don’t, as education is not the same for everyone and in my opinion, pretty crappy across the board.
Then, in walks the marketing director. Marketing and design are not the same thing, so how can designers be shaped into designers?
Marketing directors, for the most part, can make comments here and there but the designer will likely not improve nearly as much as with an art director. I noticed this because I couldn’t comprehend why this colleague’s designs were so bad. Like 1999 bad and didn’t improve. Until I realized that there was no art direction. There was only “right” and “wrong” and taking orders from the sales department.
Can you visualize it? It pains me to write and remember it because I was once in that position with a different company and I developed the belief that I was a “bad designer”.
<h3>Invest In Your Workers = See Long Term Results</h3>
Not only to turn a profit but to grow your workers so that they actually want to be there and work for you. So, go ahead and do hire a marketing director — they are useful and needed. But also hire an art director. Nowadays more than ever, visual perception is everything.
And also make the distinction when hiring because many marketing people want to slide into designer positions, and many designers think they can do marketing.
My last two cents: pick your side of the fence or get an education in both.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/why-every-company-should-have-an-art-director-41ff67e64f9">Why Every Company Should Have An Art Director</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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