What does a senior designer/art director do?
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.
Senior designer/art director responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real senior designer/art director resumes:
- Manage new and existing assets from initial photography through final delivery.
- Develop strategic project plans managing and maintaining multiple projects from sketch to print, facilitating high-impact presentations to senior leadership.
- Design and execute many high-end brochures with complex print production enhancements.
- Design integrated campaign collateral including brochures, POS materials.
- Base on strategic marketing input, package branding is developed using compelling illustration, photography and copy.
- Develop strategic project plans managing and maintaining multiple projects from sketch to print, facilitating high-impact presentations to senior leadership.
- Collaborate with design specialist on promotional creative for email execution keeping brand consistent and in-store POS accurate.
Senior designer/art director skills and personality traits
We calculated that 7% of Senior Designer/Art Directors are proficient in Creative Concepts, Graphic Design, and Web Banners. They’re also known for soft skills such as Leadership skills, Communication skills, and Creativity.
We break down the percentage of Senior Designer/Art Directors that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Creative Concepts, 7%
Direct and produce creative concepts across multiple channels and platforms for web and social media.
- Graphic Design, 7%
Collaborated with project managers, instructional designers, motion graphic designers, technical writers and developers.
- Web Banners, 7%
Produced web banners and jump pages, direct mail, FSIs and brochures for a variety of clients.
- Photography, 7%
Based on strategic marketing input, package branding is developed using compelling illustration, photography and copy.
- Art Direction, 6%
Provided Art Direction and design specifications to assist with project management for various Marketing and Brand initiatives.
- Sketch, 5%
Developed strategic project plans managing and maintaining multiple projects from sketch to print, facilitating high-impact presentations to senior leadership.
Most senior designer/art directors use their skills in "creative concepts," "graphic design," and "web banners" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential senior designer/art director responsibilities here:
Leadership skills. The most essential soft skill for a senior designer/art director to carry out their responsibilities is leadership skills. This skill is important for the role because "art directors must be able to organize, direct, and motivate other artists." Additionally, a senior designer/art director resume shows how their duties depend on leadership skills: "provided creative leadership and direction in developing new packaging lines style guides and procedures. "
Communication skills. Many senior designer/art director duties rely on communication skills. "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.," so a senior designer/art director will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways senior designer/art director responsibilities rely on communication skills: "created an in-house photography division within the communications department to aid in all aspects of hunter s image internally and externally. "
Creativity. This is an important skill for senior designer/art directors to perform their duties. For an example of how senior designer/art director responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "art directors must be able to come up with interesting and innovative ideas to develop advertising campaigns, set designs, or layout options." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a senior designer/art director: "produced package design and implemented creative marketing strategy for 12 individual product lines. ".
Time-management skills. senior designer/art director responsibilities often require "time-management skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "balancing competing priorities and multiple projects while meeting strict deadlines is critical for art directors." This resume example shows what senior designer/art directors do with time-management skills on a typical day: "managed internal and external creative and design resources to ensure design solutions are on strategy and deliverables are met on time. "
The three companies that hire the most senior designer/art directors are:
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Compare different senior designer/art directors
Senior designer/art director vs. Graphic design manager
A graphic design manager is primarily in charge of leading and overseeing the efforts of a graphic design team, ensuring adherence to goals and deadlines. It is their duty to learn and analyze the purpose of design, coordinate staff, liaise with internal and external parties, set goals and objectives, manage schedules, and conceptualize plans. Furthermore, as a graphic design manager, it is essential to lead and encourage teams to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations, including its vision and mission.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between senior designer/art directors and graphic design manager. For instance, senior designer/art director responsibilities require skills such as "creative concepts," "photography," "sketch," and "digital marketing." Whereas a graphic design manager is skilled in "project management," "customer service," "product photography," and "flyers." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Graphic design managers really shine in the finance industry with an average salary of $82,776. Comparatively, senior designer/art directors tend to make the most money in the media industry with an average salary of $113,063.The education levels that graphic design managers earn slightly differ from senior designer/art directors. In particular, graphic design managers are 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a senior designer/art director. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior designer/art director vs. Associate creative director
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.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that senior designer/art director responsibilities requires skills like "web banners," "photography," "sketch," and "adobe photoshop." But an associate creative director might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "acd," "creative briefs," "client facing," and "fine arts."
On average, associate creative directors earn a higher salary than senior designer/art directors. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, associate creative directors earn the most pay in the media industry with an average salary of $141,342. Whereas senior designer/art directors have higher pay in the media industry, with an average salary of $113,063.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Associate creative directors tend to reach similar levels of education than senior designer/art directors. In fact, they're 4.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for senior designer/art directors in the next 3-5 years?
Scott Foster
Associate Professor of Studio Art, Chair of Creative Arts Department, Siena College
Senior designer/art director vs. Designer
A designer is someone who creates a master plan of the look or workings of something before it will be made. It could be tangible or intangible objects, products, procedures, laws, events, games, graphics, services, and even experiences. Designers are creative thinkers with a great eye to configure the skeletal and structural properties of the targeted output. They work in several fields, such as fashion, architecture, web graphics, and user experience. In spite of the variety of professionals in the design industry, all of them are artistic, passionate, inspiring, and emotionally connected to their projects and brands.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from senior designer/art director resumes include skills like "creative concepts," "web banners," "photography," and "digital marketing," whereas a designer is more likely to list skills in "customer service," "javascript," "revit," and "project management. "
Designers earn the highest salary when working in the technology industry, where they receive an average salary of $87,754. Comparatively, senior designer/art directors have the highest earning potential in the media industry, with an average salary of $113,063.designers typically earn similar educational levels compared to senior designer/art directors. Specifically, they're 2.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Senior designer/art director vs. Lead graphic designer
A lead graphic designer is responsible for creating, designing, and updating the company's visual aspects. The lead graphic designer works closely with the branding department alongside the advertising and marketing team. It is essential for the lead graphic designer must be creative, willing to think outside the box, and brave to dare novel ideas. The lead graphic designer is also responsible for leading the creative department in accomplishing assigned tasks from management.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between senior designer/art directors and lead graphic designers, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a senior designer/art director might have more use for skills like "creative concepts," "photography," "digital marketing," and "visual design." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of lead graphic designers require skills like "adobe illustrator," "project management," "product photography," and "adobe indesign. "
In general, lead graphic designers earn the most working in the technology industry, with an average salary of $85,443. The highest-paying industry for a senior designer/art director is the media industry.The average resume of lead graphic designers showed that they earn similar levels of education compared to senior designer/art directors. So much so that theyacirc;euro;trade;re 0.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.1%.Types of senior designer/art director
Updated January 8, 2025
