Creative Connections: Learning art direction through a collaborative card game

Abstract

This paper examines how to help early career art directors who have a background in graphic design. For the purposes of this research, an art director is defined as the person who conceptualizes and executes a creative vision, particularly in the following industries: advertising, news and editorial, book publishing, and technology. The film and television industries have been excluded because they do not closely align with editorial or advertising art directors since many production designers also have backgrounds in architecture or set design. Their work primarily focuses on creating a set or background for actors rather than a static image.

The lack of distinction between graphic design and art direction in professional settings along with a dearth of scholarship on art direction add to the opaqueness around what an art director does. Due to this lack of distinction and scholarship, there is an absence of resources in teaching or training new and emerging art directors. To address this gap, a card game where players pair up as art directors and illustrators to practice giving each other guidance and feedback in a low-pressure setting was developed. Playtester surveys demonstrate that the game has a positive effect on their self-perception of their art direction skills.