How To Become A Creative Services Director: What It Is and Career Path

What is a creative services director and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Yash Egami

Companies often invest in sales and marketing initiatives. This is because they know that sales and marketing work hand-in-hand to keep the business afloat. One important aspect of sales and marketing initiatives is the quality of the publicity materials the company releases. These publicity materials are expected to engage with the audience and entice them to avail of the products or services of the company. This is why the role of the Creative Services Director is important.

Creative Services Director sets the tone and creative direction that the company takes. They set guidelines on proper fonts, color schemes, and other design-related items for the perusal of the employees. They are in charge of creating storyboards and mood boards for the creative needs of the company. They also lead the team that handles the creative requirements. Creative Services Directors also ensure that the deliverables are submitted on time.

If you have a creative mind and can translate your vision to reality, this is a career goal for you. You should have leadership skills as well as an eye for aesthetics to succeed in this role.

What general advice would you give to a creative services director?

Yash Egami

VP, The One Club

A recent Forrester report says that the ad industry will lose 50,000 jobs through 2021, with 35,000 of them already lost since the pandemic. The traditional ad agency model was already in trouble, with many brands hiring away talent and creating their own in-house agencies. Add to that the recent reckoning with the Black Lives Matter movement, and what we're seeing is an industry that is being forced to go through monumental change in order to survive.

While traditional roles like art director or copywriter are on the decline, the good news is that, in an effort to reinvent themselves, agencies are seeking creatives with digital skills like UX design and programming. The rise of in-house creative departments has also meant more opportunities for job seekers within brands rather than agencies. And because of the demand for more diversity from clients and those within advertising, recruiters are making more of an effort to hire multicultural talent.

At The One Club for Creativity, we've been at the forefront of change in the industry through our diversity and inclusion, professional development and gender equality programs. We recently hosted our annual multicultural career fair, "Where Are All the Black People?" that brought together thousands of diverse talent with 40 agencies and companies looking to hire. We launched One School, a free online program for Black creatives who want to get into the industry but don't have a portfolio or the economic means to afford to go to ad school. And we're working on upskilling courses for professionals who want to reinvent themselves or keep up with the changing demands of our industry.

So if you're a recent graduate who specializes in art direction, our advice would be to keep an open mind about what kind of company you want to work for and think about expanding your skillset to include digital skills so that you can future-proof your career. Where you are isn't as important because, since the pandemic, agencies have become more comfortable with working remotely and they are more open to having a workforce not centered on the traditional agency hubs, like New York or Los Angeles.

ScoreCreative Services DirectorUS Average

Salary

7.8

Avg. Salary $108,980

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.9

Growth rate 4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.63%

Asian 6.71%

Black or African American 4.47%

Hispanic or Latino 15.02%

Unknown 5.56%

White 67.61%

Gender

female 37.28%

male 62.72%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

7.9

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.0

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a creative services director

Explore creative services director education requirements

Most common creative services director degrees

Bachelor's

77.6 %

Associate

12.0 %

Master's

7.2 %

Start to develop specific creative services director skills

Skills	Percentages
Graphic Design	15.04%
Video Production	7.88%
Adobe Creative Suite	5.42%
Creative Direction	4.71%
Web Site	4.07%

Complete relevant creative services director training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New creative services directors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a creative services director based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real creative services director resumes.

Research creative services director duties and responsibilities

Oversee and manage highly complex creative assignments, copywriting and translations while interfacing with outside agency partners.
Manage content effectiveness, ROI, media orders, ad confirmations, production requests and discrepancy notices.
Initiate RFP process for agency selection and manage all advertising agency activities.
Coordinate, plan, design and execute all print and digital media including professional photography and video production.

Get creative services director experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a creative services director. The most common roles before becoming a creative services director include art director, creative director team lead and graphic designer.

Prepare your creative services director resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your creative services director resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a creative services director resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable creative services director resume templates

Build a professional creative services director resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your creative services director resume.