Creative Techniques For Art Directors
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Unit Purpose and Aims
The purpose of this unit is to;
Learners will examine and appraise different creative techniques used by Art Directors in the creation of work.
Learning Outcomes
Learners will;
1. Understand different creative techniques for Art Directors
Learners can;
1.1 Implement a range of techniques to produce a piece of work for a campaign
1.2 Explain why they chose one technique as opposed to another.
1.3 In response to a brief, identify the appropriate techniques to be used in production of the work.
Positioning – Layout Techniques
Photography – Taking Photographs
2. Be able to Reflect critically on techniques used by professionals
2.1 Analyse and reflect on 5 different techniques used by professional creatives in creation of campaigns.
2.2 Engage in online discussions regarding techniques. This discussion should demonstrate credible referencing of peers, professionals and academics/researchers.
2.3 Offer constructive criticism and commentary and present back the findings in a “workplace standard” research report.
Learning Tools, Resources & Links
Things that will help the learner develop understanding of this unit;
Mentors please add your ideas, examples, case studies, links to articles, videos, etc. here.
A mood board is a creative tool, a process that enables you to develop and share the visual direction for your project. It’s an essential activity for art and design directors.
Mood boards are a key milestone in the design process. If crafted well they can be a great way of drawing your client into the design… engendering a sense of collaboration with your clients is always a good idea.
Here’s one approach that aims to produce visual direction and creative rational:
Preparation
Begin with a thorough read of the brief and a review of brand and visual identity guidelines (if they exist). Plan some quality time where you can focus on developing your visual direction without interruption. Find a space where it’s OK to make a mess. If you decide to include other people keep the group small.
Tip: consider writing your own task brief so as to focus the activity (this can be especially useful if you’re working on a  small part of a much bigger project). The task brief can be as simple as a set of first thoughts listing areas that should be explored and/or key sentences pulled from the creative brief…
Name and date your board properly, quoting client reference. Make sure you include your contact details. Print out your brief, and the relevant parts of the guidelines. Get them onto the wall quickly and organise them into related clusters.
Tip: I recommend working on to a wall or table first, taking it into a graphics application later.
Tear sheets
This is the expansive part of the process: Assemble a mosaic of source material that you find inspiring and is relevant to your brief and the brand in question. Don’t limit yourself initially, explore as much as you feel you need to to understand, immerse and answer your brief. Source your visuals and collage them together; print out, photocopy, flatten out and pin up. Consider printed materials, search the internet, assemble and photograph objects or products… it’s only natural to cast the net wide.
Tip: set a time limit. I suggest a maximum of four hours for this phase. Go back and do more if you need to but don’t slog at it. If you start to dry up early look to involve a trusted collaborator or mentor.
Expect to cover the wall. It’s important that you can step back from your mosaic so as to spot bigger trends. Keep zooming in and out. Move images around and associate thematically in clusters. Name your clusters thereby creating themes. Use Post-its to capture thoughts as they occur to you. It’s a good sign if you start to develop your own short-hand terminology. Submerge in the visual universe you’re creating. The skill here is the ability to interpret the brand and express the big idea through words and pictures.
Tip: move quickly at this point, there’s plenty of time to reflect in the next phase.
Remember there’s no need to feel guilty about being influenced by others. Take the best of everything that’s relevant: We share a common visual language that’s constantly evolving, everything is inspired by something. It’s important to understand and acknowledge your influences and to add something to the movement, rather than blindly following the latest trend. In short, the look of your work should be the natural by-product of your intellectual process.
Reduction and annotation
Midway through the process sit back and review what you’ve got and begin to make decisions about what to keep and what to reject. It may seem hard to remove anything but you must focus your art/design direction. I repeat: It is imperative you consolidate and refine your direction. You should be thinking ‘how little do I need to clearly get this across’.
You may discover that some of your colleagues don’t understand the importance of the mood board. The risk being the process is seen as self-indulgent. It is true, it’s all too easy for mood boards to spiral out of control, if this happens the process ceases to be useful or directional. You’ve gone too far from the brief if your board becomes a nebulous cloud of ‘stuff you like’… Beware, this kind of mood board is likely to be off-brief and totally ineffective as a briefing tool. It’s important that good design is understood, that it is seen to be born of a quantifiable approach, not a magic rabbit jumping out of a hat. Design is a comodity and it should be valued. All inspiration is born of context.
Tip: one of the most useful things about writing out your thoughts is it becomes easier to spot where you’re being repetitive.
You should end up with a pile of rejected material, and a set of key visuals each with corresponding rational. You’re nearly there.
To conclude
Now you should consider the overall structure of your mood board. Imagine your rationale is a story, it should have a logical flow; a beginning, middle and end. Always begin with the brief, then the relevant parts of the guidelines. Always end with a summary statement. If necessary rewrite and refine your rational as you layout.
Tip: getting others to sense check your rationale is a good idea. Remain open minded about rewording, but don’t lose the point. By the end of the process the direction should jump off the page, and remember ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’.
If done right, pretty much anyone should be able to read the mood board and quickly understand your proposed direction for the project. The board should make it possible for designers to start exploring, to tune into the right design vocabulary, to start creating example designs. Mood boards are also a useful way of capturing the correct tone of voice or personality for brand expressive coms and interactions. Ultimately it is this combination of design mechanics and brand personality in one place that makes a good mood board such a powerful creative tool.
Final Tip: mood boards are often a challenge to present, being too rich for the average projector set up. I suggest paginated bound copies each time it’s presented, or a large banner along which people can huddle for a less formal meeting.
Positioning – Layout Techniques
[1]http://prezi.com/dnhagzwcfmp-/[2]
Photography 101
[3]http://prezi.com/aqdifozcjp61/[4]
Mood boards and language
A good way to help focus your work on a mood board is that it has a job to do:
It’s there to help you to work out what ‘language’ you need to speak: there might be a tone of voice or approach to colour that you need to be aware of, for instance, colour coding in packaging, the seriousness of legal communications or fashion-awareness in youth materials. Think of it as though you’re an actor researching a part…
Or it might be there to convince a client. You can use mood boards in two ways here – to explain why what exists isn’t working and to show the context of your ideas. This can be very useful: good research both gives you an objective argument and shows the client that you’ve done your homework.
So tempting though it can be to start thinking of a mood board as a creative piece in its own right, always go back to what you want to use it for.
A brilliant resource page to reference
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