Certification and Licensure

Most of the creative directors do not possess any certification and a license to work as a creative director is not necessary. But certification shows the commitment, achievement and confidence to an employer.

• Certification in marketing design and graphics, web design, multimedia design, digital arts can be helpful.
• Management certification from university or training programs can help in advancement for a creative director.

Duties and Responsibilities

Where a creative director works, or the setting of a creative director is very important to the duties and responsibility of a creative director. They are people who have generally worked for years as art directors or copywriters, working in the trenches  and know inside out of designing, copywriting stuff that would make a campaign successful, etc. Hence the duties are more supervisory then a hands on work. There are a few people who can themselves be creative and have the ability to also lead and manage a creative team. Given below are the general duties and responsibilities that a creative director would perform.

• Creative directors liaise between the company and third party agencies and sub contractors to see that the work given to them is progressing in the right direction and is on schedule.
• They supervise their team of art director, copywriter and other associates in the department to see that the project entrusted is timely as well as efficiently and professionally completed.
• They communicate between clients and partners to develop professional alliance and increase the business and benefit all who are involved in the process.
• Creative directors have to understand the information and the material given by the client and after thoroughly going into the brand image as well as developing new ideas with their creative team try and make improvements on the concept and put it before the client company.  They have to go into the client needs and suggest presentation methods whereby generating the most publicity and capital.
• Creative directors lead their team of creative personnel by adhering to the ethics as laid down by their employer, keeping its standard and encouraging the co-workers to improve on their capabilities by themselves keeping the standards of workplace behaviour.
• They also evaluate employee performance and suggest promotions as per their performance.

Salary and Remuneration

When a creative director works for a number of years in this particular field, then the salary goes on climbing exponentially as also the industry that they work in as well as the employer who employs them or the city, state or province that they work in makes a difference in the annual salary or the hourly wage rate that they receive. The general trend in the average annual salary range falls between $40,517 and $143,472, inclusive of bonus, profit sharing and commission. Below are given a few factors that make a difference in the salary received by a creative director.

• Years of Experience

• Experience of less than one year the salary range is between $ 29,479 and $ 61,042.
• Experience between one to four years the salary range is between $ 29,552 and $ 90,200 and the hourly wage range is between $ 9.10 and $ 40.55
• Experience between five to nine years the salary range is between $ 38,208 and $ 104,119 and the hourly wage range is between $ 12.31 and $ 73.97.
• Experience between ten to nineteen years the salary range is between $ 51,287 and $ 132,688 and the hourly wage range is between $ 18.95 and $ 82.04.
• Experience of more than twenty years the salary range is between $ 56,009 and $ 151,702 and the hourly wage range is between $30.64 and $ 146.81.

Industry

• A creative director working for advertising agencies gets an annual salary range between $ 49,933 and $ 140,939 and an hourly wage rate between $ 22.85 and $ 100.67.
• A creative director working for marketing advertising and media management gets an annual salary range between $ 39,376 and $ 124,322 and an hourly wage rate between $ 14.63 and $ 63.62.
• A creative director working for web development gets and annual salary range between $ 43,087and $ 135,420 and an hourly wage rate between $ 22.00 and $ 67.50.
• A creative director working for graphic arts or design gets and annual salary range between $ 42,412 and $ 145,373 and an hourly wage rate between $ 24.29 and $ 146.81.
• A creative director working for internet and new media gets and annual salary range between $ 41,772 and $ 135,905.
• A creative director working for manufacturing and distribution gets and annual salary range between $ 49,229 and $ 110,105.
• A creative director working for magazine gets and annual salary range between $ 29,691 and $ 99,329.

Employer Type

• A creative director working for a company gets an annual salary range between $ 41,761 and $ 130,745 and an hourly wage rate between $ 22.85 and $ 100.67.
• A creative director working for a private practice or firm gets an annual salary range between $ 40,268 and $ 134,498.
• A creative director who is self-employed gets an annual salary range between $ 34,963 and $ 154,954 and an hourly wage rate between $ 36.06 and $ 145.44
• A creative director working on contract basis gets an annual salary range between $ 49,493 and $ 173,548.

City

• A creative director working in the city of New York, New York gets an annual salary range between $ 60,109 and $ 171,162 and an hourly wage rate between $ 39.50 and $ 100.00.
• A creative director working in the city of Los Angeles, California gets an annual salary range between $ 50,863 and $ 149,093 and an hourly wage rate between $ 15.21 and $ 123.29.
• A creative director working in the city of San Francisco, California gets an annual salary range between $ 49,377 and $ 169,512 and an hourly wage rate between $ 40.34 and $ 81.39.
• A creative director working in the city of Chicago, Illinois gets an annual salary range between $ 36,560 and $ 120,289.
• A creative director working in the city of Seattle, Washington gets an annual salary range between $ 50,684 and $ 150,423.

There are more males than females working as creative directors and the percentile ratio of males to females 64% to 36%. The annual salary range that a male gets in this profession is between $ 55,978 and $ 101,747. Their female counterparts get an annual salary range between $ 45,488 and $ 86,106.

Skills and Abilities

• Must have leadership and collaborative skills.
• Must have good decision making and problem solving skills.
• Must be able to motivate and manage a creative staff who, as all creative people are very high strung.
• Must be persuasive and have a good sense of communication.
• Must have good marketing and advertising skills and this is a requirement in any form of industry that a creative director works.
• Must have a high standard of creative writing and conceptualising.
• Must have the ability to train and supervise employees, which includes prioritising, organizing and scheduling work assignments.
• Must have the ability to judge other’s creative concepts and copy and must be able to communicate clearly the concept and creative direction to others.
• Must have a clear understanding of the client’s business/industry.
• Must have a thorough understanding of art direction and excellent presentation skills.
• Must have exceptional planning, communicating, time management and follow up skills.
• Must have the ability to lead a project from its conception stage to its completion.
• Must have working knowledge of computers including Microsoft Office, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator and Power Point.

Education needed

Creative directors rise from the rank and file of art directors and copywriters. Those who have proven track records of working as art directors and/or copywriters get the chance to become creative directors. Hence the education requirements are the same as for an art director or copywriter only valuable experience gained makes a good creative director.

• In high school students who aspire to be creative directors should take up subjects that would help them get into art schools.
• Post secondary education students should take up again courses that would help them.
• An undergraduate degree in fine arts which takes four years of college and teaches core subjects such as English, writing, social science and natural science. Additionally they could also take up history, studio and graphic arts, professional writing, photography and drawing.
• Acquiring a business degree while on the job would enhance the chances for an art director or copywriter to become a creative director.
• A university degree or college diploma in graphic design, art and related fields would help.

About Creative Director

The very word creative brings to the mind a person who has a high level of intelligence, dexterity in the field of art, imaginative, inspired, artistic, resourceful and innovative. The person who directs such creative people has so much more to give to the profession of a creative director who needs to have the experience, managing ability, talent and self confidence. The creative director manages the copywriter, art director and their associate staff or in other words the creative director oversees the total aspect of product designing. It is a people oriented job that involves high level concepts for designing projects, creative strategies and planning. It also involves matching wits with the client, trying to understand their needs and concepts, throwing out ideas regarding designs and generally along with the art director and copywriter conceptualise the whole campaign. The creative director is not only responsible for visualising designs but also to recruit and manage third party design firms as well as internal design departments.

Whenever we think of a creative director the thought that comes to our mind are of middle management executives working in fashion, advertising or media.  But they also work in other areas where there is nothing creative going on such as in banking. In these kind of industries they work with the other managers and VPs to decide what kind of image to give to the company and then developing those ideas internally along with their art department team or hiring a third party agency to work on those ideas. They not only work with the art department for graphic presentations, but also copywriters, designers and all other company staff associated with the company’s image. They are responsible for the brand image of the company and whenever they get brickbats or negative feedback of their campaign they have to involve themselves in damage control and come up with a campaign which will project the company’s stated ethical beliefs. The bouquets or positive feedbacks are a feather in their cap and could involve bonuses and profit sharing and also higher remuneration.