The Lost Art of Art Direction.

In today's modern world of advertising anybody can be an art director. In fact, it's really quite simple. Here's the hard part. http://shutterstock.com . Now you know the best value frame for frame in stock photography. $200 bucks a month gets you 25 high rez photos or illustrations a day. For typography it's http://www.veer.com/products/type/ hands down. If you need to know how to use the type you find on Veer you can attend the YouTube School of Photography for 4.5 minutes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xg5O0l7ybY . All you ever need to steal in the realm of color pallets can be acquired at http://www.colourlovers.com . Television advertising is even easier than that. Just go to http://spotrunner.com and pick one. They will slug your logo on and, joila! Instant TV. Art school? We don't need no stinkin' art school. Experience? Highly overrated. Just get yourself a cool haircut and a couple dozen hip t-shirts and you're good to go. Art Director. Bye. Bye.

Now for those of you who really want to know what it takes to be a great art director, listen up. I'm only going to say this once. You have to care. That's it. Nothing more complicated. Nothing more complex.

But that one character trait will send you on a journey of discovery and trial and error that will last a lifetime. You will determine that time will always be your enemy. You will discover that money will always be your nemesis. There will never be enough time to do it right. There will never be enough money to do it justice.

But because you are infected with the "I care" virus, you will soldier on in spite of the shortcomings of the assignment. You will be compelled to make do with the time and money provided. And this challenge to your ingenuity and inventiveness will add to your skill and your confidence. And at some point you will make the decision to become either a Graphic Designer and follow the path of all things aesthetic and well ordered. Or you will choose to become and Art Director and mold the perceptions of millions. For those of you who have chosen Graphic Design, good luck with that.

But for those of you who consider yourself to be Art Directors, these are some of the things I can pass along to you from those who have passed them along to me.

First, the greats who defined what it means to be an Art Director. Their work is worth the time it takes to look up and learn from. Certainly, Helmut Krone, my mentor and the art director credited with changing the look of advertising forever.

Then Bob Gage, George Lois, Alan Beaver, Stan Dragotti, Bob Giraldi, Dom Rosetti, Bob Wilvers, Onifrio Paccione, these were the giants of the golden age.

Then came the new wave, Mac-based Art Directors like Mike Salisbury ( Levi's 501), Rudy VanderLans ( Émigré Design) David Carson (Raygun.) and Lee Clow (Chait/Day). This new wave of art directors signaled the beginning of the end of craft and the ascension of concept and form. It was during this phase that the distinction between art direction and design begin to blur and PageMaker, Quark and Photoshop skills became the measure of art direction.

When I speak of great art direction, I naturally refer first to print, then to film and finally to interactive. This is because it is our print that will define us as a culture as it has for all of the world's cultures and societies. Both television and interactive are by their very nature, fleeting and trend-inspired. But print is timeless. Because both time and space are limited here, I will give those of you who care just ten of the things I have learned over the years, from the greats of our time.

One. Manners. Graphic Design is generally well-mannered. Art Direction is in your face. It is meant to be obtrusive and required to bring the message to the attention of the reader. Art Direction should not be mannerly. It should grab you by the collar and suck you into the message. Ads done by designers tend to be apologetic and quiet. Ads done by great art directors leap from the page without screaming to be noticed.

Two. Balance. Nothing will grab your attention faster than something that appears to be unbalanced. Our perceptive mind craves order in all things. If something appears to be out of place, we notice it immediately and try to correct it. Helmut Krone was the first art director to use intentionally widowed type. Body text with holes in it, to attract the attention of the reader. Other ways of using imbalance is the radical cropping of photos and the unique placement of headlines.

Three. Color. No one area is more misused than the use of color in advertising. Color is not decoration. Color sets the mood or tone of the ad. The most powerful colors in advertising are yellow and orange. The least powerful is blue or any shade of gray. Red makes people turn the page. Brown makes them frown. Quick. What do you think of when you think of Brown? Color is all about the subliminal impression left by the experience of the ad several pages later.

Four. Action. The object at rest is seldom as interesting as the object in use. Action when used effectively in art direction can bring an ad to life. IPod advertising is all about action. Not the action of the dancer. That's to be expected. But the action of the white earphone cords against the dark silhouetted figure. Action defines the product. Action does not mean speed lines or motion blur. Action means a moment frozen in time that the audience can relate to as dramatic.

Five. Irony. Few elements of art direction are more mis-used or underserved than irony. The sight gag requires maximum simplification and stylization for maximum impact. We need to know that it is a joke, not a mistake. Irony transcends language. Ironic images are infinitely more memorable. But the big danger in using irony is that the imagery can be so powerful so as to cause the audience to ignore the identity of the advertiser.

Six. Typography. Make it legible. Please. Whoever thought thinks that people will squint to read their 10 pt body text needs to be fired before close of business today.

If anything, if the copy is well written and worth reading set it above 12 pt. And invite the reader in.

Seven. Photography. Stock photography has destroyed the craft of art direction by making art directors passive participants in determining the content of a photograph. As our society becomes more and more visual rater than verbal, this is crucial malfunction. Photographers are not art directors. They need to be told what to shoot, when to shoot, how to light, where to frame, who to cast, how they should be dressed, what the talent should be doing, how they should be doing it and where they should be doing it. But they are not. So the next thing an art director can do to gain back control of the image is to take it into Photoshop and fix it. But they don't. And so we lose one of our most powerful tools of persuasion. Pity.

Eight. Space. The double page spread is dead. Which in and of itself is crazy. In a recent Wired insert called "Geekipedia" Intel bought a dozen single page ads. They were all dreadful and obvious page-flippers. HellGate bought one spread and dominated the supplement. Go figure. Whatever form factor can be leveraged to attract attention, the art director needs to collaborate with media buyers and planners to make it happen. Two horizontal halves are far more impactful than a single page. Two opposing verticals get lost in the shuffle. Small space ads can work miracles and deliver far more ROI than full-page ads in the right publications. Think before you ink.

Nine. Blank Space. Ina world of ad clutter white ( black, green, pink, whatever) space is king. But it only works if the content is worthy of the drama afforded. The flesh colored spread with the inflamed pink bleeding into the gutter for Desitin hemorrhoid suppositories was an example of masterful blank space manipulation. As was Helmut Krones first VW ad "Think Small". Don't just use it. Work it.

Ten. The Unexpected.

Stay strong.

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