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Art director skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

6 min read

Quoted experts

Scott Foster,

Brian Pirman

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical art director skills. We ranked the top skills for art directors based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 11.2% of art director resumes contained graphic design as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills an art director needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 art director skills for your resume and career

1. Graphic Design

Graphic design is the art of making visual content to communicate messages. Designers apply different page layout methods and visual hierarchy by using letters and pictures to meet the need of end-users. Most companies use graphic design to sell their product or services and to convey complicated information by using infographics.

Here's how art directors use graphic design:

Oversee the graphic design department for developing catalog and design for collegiate and university-level competitive sports apparel.
Networked and collaborated with graphic designers to maintain the professionalism and quality of our magazine.

2. Art Direction

Art direction is an essential job in the activities related to theatre, advertising, fashion, publishing as well the film industry. All of these fields have a direct or indirect connection with art and therefore require direction and supervision regarding this very aspect of the job. The art director is responsible for how a product turns out visually..

Here's how art directors use art direction:

Collaborated with copywriters, illustrators, and photographers to ensure the art direction and visual presentation supported defined strategies.
Led art direction for all special marketing initiatives and programs including seasonal campaigns and offline catalog and collateral.

3. Creative Concepts

A creative concept is a big idea that helps in capturing the audience's interest, attracting customers, influencing decisions, and help them to take action. A creative concept can be applied to all communication channels like messages, call to action, emails, etc. Generally, a headline or a tagline is the place where creative concepts play a vital role in successfully attracting the target audience.

Here's how art directors use creative concepts:

Produced creative concepts that transcended digital tactics that immediately drew public emotions, and directly affected and positively engaged the audience.
Interact with executives and managers from various departments to develop creative concepts for assigned projects within established deadlines.

4. Sketch

Here's how art directors use sketch:

Developed designs from thumbnail sketch to formal layout design for client presentation.
Work with artist through the sketch and color process.

5. Adobe Creative Suite

Here's how art directors use adobe creative suite:

Demonstrate a high level of proficiency in design, web and multimedia software and applications, such as Adobe Creative Suite.
Developed layouts in Adobe Creative Suite, MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for the company s Consumer Banking Division

6. Adobe Photoshop

Here's how art directors use adobe photoshop:

Used advanced Adobe Photoshop technique to address organization, exceptional and image editing process.
Designed and created branding, packaging and labeling for line of beers in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Flash.

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7. Product Photography

Here's how art directors use product photography:

Work with Product Managers, Executives and Photographers to redefine Product Photography Standards from concept to global implementation.
Supervised product photography and designed packaging for decorative mirrors sold in retail stores.

8. Photo Shoots

A photoshoot is a series of photographs that a photographer takes of someone, usually of a model or a famous person, to be used in a newspaper or a magazine. The goal of a photoshoot is to achieve a predetermined visual objective. Later, these images can be used for editing or post-production..

Here's how art directors use photo shoots:

Designed and produced editorial Hired and supervised assistant, artists, and photographers Art directed photo shoots Managed art budget
Contracted assignments with photographers/illustrators, oversaw on-location photo shoots, managed budgets and supervised work by freelance artists.

9. Adobe Illustrator

Here's how art directors use adobe illustrator:

Invented graphics and images on Adobe Illustrator to be used in the print edition of the Panther Newspaper.
Managed, produced and designed a bi-weekly Trade magazine using Quark Express, Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop.

10. Website Design

Here's how art directors use website design:

Provided concept-to-completion brand development, design and production website design projects, delivering every project on time and within budget.
Handle all creative needs including artwork preparation for website design and promotional business publications.

11. Creative Direction

Here's how art directors use creative direction:

Provided creative direction pertaining to structural solutions, concepts and packaging formats achieved through collaboration with internal/packaging teams and manufacturers.
Position responsibilities included: providing creative direction on all projects, client relationship management, and print production management.

12. PowerPoint

Here's how art directors use powerpoint:

Conceptualized and successfully developed numerous creative visual concepts for online sites, print materials, and PowerPoint presentations.
Prepared presentation materials for marketing personnel, including overheads, slides, handouts and PowerPoint presentations.

13. Brochures

A template, leaflet, or pamphlet which carries particulars about a certain company or an organization is called a brochure. Brochures are informative documents that are mostly used for advertisement purposes. These informative papers are organized in the form of booklets that act as promotional documents.

Here's how art directors use brochures:

Collaborated with Copywriters to concept and design successful direct mail sweepstakes formats and brochures for Promotion Department.
Developed and designed collateral including: interior/exterior signage, special events, brochures, promotions.

14. Creative Solutions

Creative solutions include the process of using someone's creativity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems.

Here's how art directors use creative solutions:

Conceptualized, designed and developed creative solutions for a wide variety of revenue- and lead- generating marketing and promotional communications materials.
Analyzed business needs and goals, and then facilitated communication and actionable creative solutions.

15. HTML

Here's how art directors use html:

Web Designer: Spearheaded development of web sites: Planning/mapping, navigation, interactivity, design, and HTML production management.
Attended design conferences and learned new technology trends, including HTML 5, CSS-3, HTML animation and responsive design.

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What skills help Art Directors find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What art director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Scott Foster

Associate Professor of Studio Art, Chair of Creative Arts Department, Siena College

Working on a team. The exact project might not matter much, although it's better if it dovetails with your interests or career goals. This could be as simple as volunteering at a non-profit to revamp a website or build an app to measure outcomes.

What type of skills will young art directors need?

Brian Pirman

Associate Professor, St. Norbert College

For someone who is contemplating a career in graphic design, I recommend several things. One would be to develop a portfolio that shows a diverse skill-set. This may include expertise in design and layout, photography, illustration, typography as well as animation and video. If you have a more varied skill set, you are more likely to either gain employment or able to do freelance work. The other thing is internships, internships, internships. Having a portfolio of applied work (versus school projects), as long as it's good, will separate you from the competition.

Do you want to know more?

List of art director skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for an art director resume and required skills for an art director to have include:

Graphic Design
Art Direction
Creative Concepts
Sketch
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe Photoshop
Product Photography
Photo Shoots
Adobe Illustrator
Website Design
Creative Direction
PowerPoint
Brochures
Creative Solutions
HTML
Mac

Adobe Indesign
Fine Arts
CSS
Promotional Materials
Design Solutions
Creative Process
Brand Development
Style Guides
Corporate Identity
Design Concepts
Design Projects
User Experience
Creative Projects
User Interface
Facebook
Creative Development

Concept Development
Print Collateral
Print Design
Print Production
Print Materials
Press Checks
Logo Design
Color Correction
POS
Print ADS
Environmental Design
Copywriting
Web Site
Account Executives
Email Campaigns

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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Art Director Skills

Updated January 8, 2025

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