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What does an associate creative director do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
What does an associate creative director do

An associate creative director helps the creative director in creating design concepts and directions for multiple design projects, marketing materials, and campaigns. Other tasks include researching marketing trends and strategies and overseeing multiple design projects. The skills that an associate creative director should possess to accomplish his/her or her responsibilities include good interpersonal skills and knowledge of social media platforms and trends. The requirements to qualify for the job including possessing a degree in advertising, fine arts, or related fields and experience in supervising staff.

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Associate creative director responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real associate creative director resumes:

  • Lead and manage team of visual designers responsible for online creative and HTML.
  • Manage XD team members and oversee their work to create conceptual and detail deliverables.
  • Manage staff of senior copywriters, copywriters (including SEO writer), proofreaders, freelance writers and interns.
  • Lead and supervise creative teams and create award-winning advertising campaigns and programs that target physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals.
  • Develop global digital menu board design strategy, highlighting company's food quality story using proprietary food photography and animation.
  • Create marketing decks and client presentations using Powerpoint.
  • Create new weekly content for YouTube channel and website.
  • Contribute creative ideas and executions as part of an ACD team.
  • Hire as a hybrid ACD for print and web design expertise.
  • Select to lead FCB s world- wide digital and CRM efforts.
  • Create comedic content for``sketch"comedy, pod casts, and video marketing.
  • Focus on website conversion fundamentals through implementation of strong UI principles and sound web development practices.
  • Work with creative and marketing directors in the oversight of projects and commissions for ArtStart summer program.
  • Create corporate-wide PowerPoint templates for presentations, adhering to brand standards.
  • Aid executives in coordinating office services in implementing and oversight of daily operations.

Associate creative director skills and personality traits

We calculated that 6% of Associate Creative Directors are proficient in Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, and Creative Concepts. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Creativity, and Leadership skills.

We break down the percentage of Associate Creative Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Graphic Design, 6%

    Collaborated with teams of art directors, graphic designers and copywriters to develop integrated campaigns, marketing initiatives and corporate identity.

  • Digital Marketing, 6%

    Research and write periodic digital marketing magazine/newsletters that win industry awards annually.

  • Creative Concepts, 5%

    Provided strategic direction and consultation on creative concepts.

  • ACD, 4%

    Contributed creative ideas and executions as part of an ACD team.

  • Art Direction, 4%

    Broadcast art direction for American Savings Bank, Kauai Visitors Bureau, and Sprint Business to Business.

  • Creative Direction, 4%

    Identify opportunities and lead creative direction on all agency self-promotion materials.

Common skills that an associate creative director uses to do their job include "graphic design," "digital marketing," and "creative concepts." You can find details on the most important associate creative director responsibilities below.

Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for an associate creative director to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "art directors must be able to listen to and speak with staff and clients to ensure that they understand employees’ ideas and clients’ desires for advertisements, publications, or movie sets." Associate creative directors often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "collaborated on the strategic development, design, copywriting and production of marketing communications programs for multiple clients. "

Creativity. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling associate creative director duties is creativity. The role rewards competence in this skill because "art directors must be able to come up with interesting and innovative ideas to develop advertising campaigns, set designs, or layout options." According to an associate creative director resume, here's how associate creative directors can utilize creativity in their job responsibilities: "involved in strategy development, writing of creative briefs and creative conceptualization, art direction and team leadership. "

Leadership skills. This is an important skill for associate creative directors to perform their duties. For an example of how associate creative director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "art directors must be able to organize, direct, and motivate other artists." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of an associate creative director: "provide creative leadership and maintain trusted client relationships, advising senior clients on day-to- day and strategic marketing initiatives. ".

Time-management skills. For certain associate creative director responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "time-management skills." The day-to-day duties of an associate creative director rely on this skill, as "balancing competing priorities and multiple projects while meeting strict deadlines is critical for art directors." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what associate creative directors do: "project management; balanced multiple projects on tight deadlines with a high level of design with accuracy. "

Most common associate creative director skills

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Compare different associate creative directors

Associate creative director vs. Art consultant

A Senior Designer/Art Director is responsible for the execution and on-time delivery of high-quality creative materials. They determine how best to represent a concept visually and which photographs, art, or other design elements to use.

The annual salary of art consultants is $71,107 lower than the average salary of associate creative directors.Even though associate creative directors and art consultants are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require graphic design, fine arts, and powerpoint in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between associate creative directors and art consultant. For instance, associate creative director responsibilities require skills such as "digital marketing," "creative concepts," "acd," and "art direction." Whereas a art consultant is skilled in "art gallery," "contemporary art," "art collections," and "art shows." This is part of what separates the two careers.

Art consultants tend to make the most money working in the internet industry, where they earn an average salary of $68,646. In contrast, associate creative directors make the biggest average salary, $141,342, in the media industry.On average, art consultants reach higher levels of education than associate creative directors. Art consultants are 5.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Associate creative director vs. Senior designer/art director

An art director collaborates with the design and art staff for books, public relations firms, advertising agencies, or newspaper publishers. Art directors create designs and layouts that embody the organization and send the message they want the audience to get. They work with producers and directors of theatres, television, and movie productions to oversee set designs. Being an art director also includes critiquing people's work, working to reach deadlines while still following the budget allocated for a certain project, and (on occasion) disciplining designers who are slacking off on the job.

A career as a senior designer/art director brings a lower average salary when compared to the average annual salary of an associate creative director. In fact, senior designer/art directors salary is $36,766 lower than the salary of associate creative directors per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both associate creative directors and senior designer/art directors have skills such as "graphic design," "digital marketing," and "creative concepts. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that associate creative director responsibilities requires skills like "acd," "creative briefs," "client facing," and "fine arts." But a senior designer/art director might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "web banners," "photography," "sketch," and "adobe photoshop."

On average, senior designer/art directors earn a lower salary than associate creative directors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, senior designer/art directors earn the most pay in the media industry with an average salary of $113,063. Whereas associate creative directors have higher pay in the media industry, with an average salary of $141,342.senior designer/art directors earn similar levels of education than associate creative directors in general. They're 4.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Associate creative director vs. Designer/art director

On average scale, designer/art directors bring in lower salaries than associate creative directors. In fact, they earn a $43,651 lower salary per year.Using the responsibilities included on associate creative directors and designer/art directors resumes, we found that both professions have similar skill requirements, such as "graphic design," "creative concepts," and "creative direction.rdquo;

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from associate creative director resumes include skills like "digital marketing," "acd," "art direction," and "creative briefs," whereas a designer/art director is more likely to list skills in "photography," "adobe photoshop," "sketch," and "product design. "

Designer/art directors earn the highest salary when working in the media industry, where they receive an average salary of $100,319. Comparatively, associate creative directors have the highest earning potential in the media industry, with an average salary of $141,342.Most designer/art directors achieve a similar degree level compared to associate creative directors. For example, they're 2.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Associate creative director vs. Worship arts director

Worship arts directors average a lower salary than the annual salary of associate creative directors. The difference is about $89,462 per year.

Even though a few skill sets overlap between associate creative directors and worship arts directors, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an associate creative director might have more use for skills like "digital marketing," "creative concepts," "acd," and "art direction." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of worship arts directors require skills like "drama," "av," "god," and "pastoral care. "

Worship arts directors reach similar levels of education compared to associate creative directors, in general. The difference is that they're 0.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
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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