What does a senior art director do?
A senior art director is responsible for monitoring the creative art department's operations, ensuring the adequacy of resources and materials, as well as high-quality outputs based on clients' specifications and business requirements. Senior art directors implement strategic project management procedures to offer deliverables within the budget goals and set timeframe. They coordinate with the clients for progress updates and inform them of any adjustments as needed. A senior art director should have a keen eye for details and knowledge of various art software applications to assist the team, especially when doing revisions.
Senior art director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior art director resumes:
- Manage and direct interaction designers, marketing designers, HTML production and user research teams.
- Direct and manage all photography including composition, talent acquisition and photo manipulation.
- Design materials including POS, mailings, brochures, posters, flyers and other collateral materials.
- Create flyers, show cards, and prepare artwork and media files for exhibitions director.
- Design wire frames and work on UX design issues and working with development team to ensure integration.
- Assist in all stages of the marketing and design process, from initial brainstorm meetings to final production.
- Design and code digital solutions for capabilities and event videos, presentations, HTML email, web graphics, and websites.
- Lead designer for packaging, cosmetic bottles, magazine ads, trade show materials, store shelf displays, PowerPoint presentations.
- Participate in brainstorming sessions for marketing campaigns.
- Create templates for graphic display and animation of innumerable user interactions.
- Collaborate in a nation-wide major corporate rebranding including retail store design.
- Participate in brainstorm sessions and develop creative options for internal projects.
- Enable additional cost savings by designing less elaborate sets and utilizing pickup photography whenever possible.
- Create corporate communications, mini websites, PowerPoint presentations, print collateral, promotional advertising materials.
- Champion innovation technologically including responsive UI
Senior art director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 9% of Senior Art Directors are proficient in Graphic Design, Photography, and Creative Concepts. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Creativity, and Leadership skills.
We break down the percentage of Senior Art Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Graphic Design, 9%
Assisted and mentored graphic designers by providing constructive feedback, technical direction and design modifications as necessary to ensure high-quality output.
- Photography, 9%
Managed eight-person visual team to concept and develop all American Girl catalogs and all merchandising/lifestyle photography for American Girl brand.
- Creative Concepts, 7%
Develop and prepare creative concepts internally and externally.
- Sketch, 7%
Developed strategic project plans managing and maintaining multiple projects from sketch to print, facilitating high-impact presentations to senior leadership.
- Digital Marketing, 6%
Designed and developed print and digital marketing and sales tools, promoting revenue growth and brand awareness.
- Adobe Creative Suite, 5%
Prepared project estimates, timelines and Adobe Creative Cloud/Suite scope.
"graphic design," "photography," and "creative concepts" are among the most common skills that senior art directors use at work. You can find even more senior art director responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a senior art director to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what senior art directors do because "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." Additionally, a senior art director resume shows how senior art directors use communication skills: "display knowledge of printing procedures, photography, illustration and verbal and written communication. "
Creativity. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling senior art 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 a senior art director resume, here's how senior art directors can utilize creativity in their job responsibilities: "collaborate with copy and creative teams in the conceptual development of all aspects of advertising and sales promotion. "
Leadership skills. This is an important skill for senior art directors to perform their duties. For an example of how senior art 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 a senior art director: "determined creative strategy, direction, developed brand identities and provided leadership to meet all project deliver ables. ".
Time-management skills. A big part of what senior art directors do relies on "time-management skills." You can see how essential it is to senior art director responsibilities because "balancing competing priorities and multiple projects while meeting strict deadlines is critical for art directors." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical senior art director tasks: "deliver strategic insight and project management for key clients to achieve marketing objectives both on time and within budget. "
The three companies that hire the most senior art directors are:
- Amazon13 senior art directors jobs
- Wpp Us Holdings Inc12 senior art directors jobs
- Deloitte11 senior art directors jobs
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Compare different senior art directors
Senior art director vs. Art consultant
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.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, senior art director responsibilities require skills like "photography," "creative concepts," "sketch," and "digital marketing." Meanwhile a typical art consultant has skills in areas such as "art gallery," "contemporary art," "art collections," and "art shows." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Art consultants tend to make the most money working in the internet industry, where they earn an average salary of $68,646. In contrast, senior art directors make the biggest average salary, $112,256, in the professional industry.On average, art consultants reach higher levels of education than senior art directors. Art consultants are 8.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Senior art director vs. Associate creative director
A Creative Services Director is responsible for managing digital content and campaign publications for project management efforts. They oversee the daily account operations and ensure that the processes adhere to high-quality standards and client specifications. They also conduct data and statistical analysis to measure media presence's effectiveness and adjust plans as necessary to meet goals and objectives.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, senior art director responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "photography," "sketch," "healthcare," and "web banners." Meanwhile, an associate creative director has duties that require skills in areas such as "acd," "art direction," "client facing," and "emerging technologies." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Associate creative directors earn a higher average salary than senior art directors. But associate creative directors earn the highest pay in the media industry, with an average salary of $141,342. Additionally, senior art directors earn the highest salaries in the professional with average pay of $112,256 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Associate creative directors tend to reach similar levels of education than senior art directors. In fact, they're 3.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior art directors in the next 3-5 years?
Scott Foster
Associate Professor of Studio Art, Chair of Creative Arts Department, Siena College
Senior art director vs. Creative director/owner
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a senior art director is likely to be skilled in "sketch," "digital marketing," "healthcare," and "web banners," while a typical creative director/owner is skilled in "art direction," "video production," "seo," and "trade shows."
Most creative directors/owner achieve a similar degree level compared to senior art directors. For example, they're 3.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior art director vs. Creative services director
Updated January 8, 2025
