.
Art Direction
Tuition: $27,000
5 quarters | 15 months | full-time workload | online or in Denver
Agency art directors best express their thoughts visually.
Just like a graphic designer would, art directors communicate through art, visuals, and designs. But while all art directors have graphic design skills, they also brainstorm lots of ideas with their copywriting partners, make decisions on typography and color, design layouts for print ads and billboards, help develop a brand’s logo and identity, plan out photography, pick commercial locations and wardrobe, and direct the overall visual look and feel of an ad campaign.
If you...
experience a rage blackout whenever you see someone use the Hobo or Papyrus fonts, can match the hues of random objects to colors on Pantone.com, have always wanted to direct a music video, are proud to say your idea of a good book is the 1975 NASA brand style guide, and can create a visual look and feel that fits with a brand and the story they’re trying to tell
...then you’d probably make a good art director.
The art curriculum.
Tastemakers
Visual Storytelling
Adobe I – Photoshop
Q1
Q2
Campaign Art
AI & U
Directing Art
Campaign Development III
Typography
Adobe II – Illustrator
Q3
Q4
Campaign Development V: Stunts & Social
Campaign Development VI: Fire Drill
Build-a-Brand
Art Tuning
The High Art of Selling
Getting a Job
Q5
Look like fun? Click below to get more info along with in-depth class descriptions and the other elective classes you could choose while at DAD. Or if you can’t wait don’t let us stop ya, go ahead and apply below.
Are you secretly an art director?
all about the aesthetics
Is your Instagram or VSCO feed a gorgeously curated vibe to behold? Can you decorate the hell out of a room? Are your Pinterest boards all kinds of moody mood boards? Can you reference the directors of photography or cinematographers behind your favorite films?
art speaks to you
Can you go to the art museum and invent a story behind all the artwork there? Is there a message in the piece? Is there a deeper meaning? Or can you sense the overall vibe of the artwork? Good art directors don't just make things that look cool, their visuals also say something.
doodle all damn day long
Can you draw or paint a little bit? A lot? Or maybe not at all but it sounds like fun? Not every art director is an artist at heart, but they do eventually find some sort of canvas on which to express themselves visually, whether it’s a page or a screen.
lock eyes with logos
Do you refuse to buy a product if it's got a terrible logo? Are you the first to notice when a business gets a new look? Do you geek out over a slick packaging design? Are you big into merch drops or apparel brands? You'd be surprised by how few people notice these things – if you do, then that's a big sign.
taste what's good
Can you tell the difference between good and bad design? Do you recognize that your own designs aren’t perfect because you’ve got an eye for what’s really perfect? This is what's called having good taste. We don't care if you don't have any knowledge or skills in the Adobe Creative Suite, we can teach you all that, but you need the artistic vision and taste to be a good art director.
Art Direction sometimes feels like...
Graphic design • Being a social media influencer • Crafting • Photography • Shooting a movie • Collabing with your favorite brand on a merch drop • Pretending to be a famous artist • Redecorating your entire apartment