Graphic Designer, Art Director, or Creative Director: Which Do You Need?

Let’s look at what art directors, creative directors, and graphic designers do to help determine the best fit for your next design project.

Graphic designer vs. art director vs. creative Director: what’s the difference?

It might seem that these titles are as simple as a junior, advanced, and senior designer—and their rates may reflect that—but it’s not that simple. Their responsibilities and what they contribute to a project can vary depending on the team’s structure, design shop, or agency.

Marketing manager Joe Lesina makes a great analogy of creative work as music to help explain how the roles differ:

• The creative team: The orchestra consists of all the professionals who make high-quality creative work possible, from copywriters and project managers to video producers and graphic designers. Each has his instrument that contributes to the final production.
• Graphic designer: An orchestra member highly skilled in one instrument—the violin. He plays notes (and sometimes solos) that contribute to the sound.
• Art director: A composer who writes the song the orchestra plays. He works with the orchestra to assemble and polish it for performance.
• Creative director: The orchestra director selects the songs to be included in the production. He chooses songs supporting his vision for the final, full-length performance.

Let’s examine each role more closely, with examples of how each might complement the others on a real-life creative team.

The creative director: translating goals to strategies

Creative direction is focused on strategy. Creative directors support a brand's vision in any industry—fashion, music, advertising, event planning, hospitality, and interior design. They oversee the what, when, and where of visuals and messaging. They are also the keepers of creative briefs, translating business objectives into projects and ensuring they align with the strategy.

Example: A pharmaceutical company hires an ad agency to handle a drug launch's branding, marketing, and sales materials. It conveys the business goals to the creative director, who brainstorms specific projects to address each need, from TV ads and drug packaging to sales brochures and shelf talkers. After sitting in on market research, the creative director drafts a brief for each project and then reviews and approves concepts from creative teams.

Note: Whereas graphic designers often “graduate” to art directors, the step between art director and creative director isn’t quite as linear. Copywriters, usually paired with art directors, have also been known to become creative directors.

The art director: wrapping a strategy in a vision

If the creative director handles strategy and a graphic designer handles execution, the art director creates the vision that brings the approach to life. Art directors have a well-honed sense of graphic design, although they may not be the ones carrying out the smaller tasks. They’re responsible for translating a creative brief into tangible concepts, and their creative eye can focus on everything from photography to video to illustration.

Example: The pharmaceutical company wants a brochure created that reps can take with them on in-office visits. An art director and a copywriter team up to brainstorm the new branding, including a colour scheme, a logo, and a tagline. They’ll create a system for the brand’s materials, with text, colours, logos, and messaging guidelines in different applications. They might create three options for the brochure project: a trifold, a folder kit with inserts, and a spiral-bound booklet. The creative director chooses a winning concept and then provides feedback as it is produced.

The graphic designer: executing the vision

When design files need to be created, graphic designers are your hands-on executors. They put their creativity down on paper or into pixels for web design, print, mobile UI design, or logos. Using Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, or InDesign, graphic designers execute the vision provided by an art director; however, they’re perfectly capable of dealing with clients.

Example: Using the branding system and concept created by an art director, a graphic designer might take over the brochure project as it goes through rounds of revisions from the client. He might flow in copy, tweak margins and kerning, make edits from the client or the editor, update logo versions, and upload the files to the production server.

Which creative do you need?

In the above examples, we looked at each role in terms of an agency, where titles are very structured. However, designers—especially freelance designers—are likelier to wear a few different hats and be capable of everything from ideation to execution.

Remember that what you need from a creative professional will come down to the level of execution you need vs the level of vision and concepts you need. You might not need a creative director to help design a logo or a home page, while a junior graphic designer might not be the right choice to execute your top-to-bottom rebrand by himself. If you need a team of designers to carry out all aspects of your project, having a hierarchy with a more senior designer guiding the vision and junior designers building the files might make sense. If one creative will suffice to complete your project, be sure it’s someone with the breadth of experience you need—something you can gauge by asking the right questions and reviewing portfolios of prior work.

Design roles are easily blurred, as many creatives, regardless of title, are capable of everything from ideation and conception to execution and production. A solo designer can wear many hats—and sometimes all at once.

Here are a few questions to help you decide which of these creatives you need:

1. What size is your company? A larger company with more resources has the capacity for more hierarchy in its design roles, in which case a creative director and an art director might not overlap as much. A small start-up might need only an art director or a senior graphic designer who can help with ideation and execution.
2. How complex is your project? How many assets do you require? How much strategy and planning is necessary to get started? You'll want an art or creative director if you need a more layered design system. For more straightforward, one-off tasks, an art director might be overkill.
3. What does your project need? Do you need a thinker or a doer? In other words, what could your design project benefit from more: planning, brainstorming, and conception or execution of specific deliverables? A strategic role like an art director would better fit the former.