Since the start of the company’s history, we always have been working with the art director in the team and now we have both the design director and art director, who is a supporting face for the design (senior) director. Both of them work on the same project with the designer himself. Sounds too complicated? By the way, the art director is never paid by the client. Sound irrational? But what if I say this decision brings us 20k USD per month?

What Art-Director is There For?

Art-Director always checks the work after the designer. You may think this is never needed if the designer is skilled enough. Fair thought, but there can only be more or less free designers, who work on their own since having another couple of eyes and hands on the project never makes the situation worse.

First of all, the art director suggests which way is better to follow: starting with which research, working on which designers and what references to take. Being an experienced person with years of work experience behind the shoulders, the art director can suggest a better way to move forward with the project.

Secondly, the art director may communicate with the client, while the designer may be shy or have few projects at the same time and never be in time to attend numerous calls. In this way, while the art director is waiting for the feedback along with the manager and solves issues with fixes, the designer may easily switch to another task.

Thirdly, the art director always checks the quality and makes video reviews for the client, so the delivery looks more professional. The designer may be just out of time to make this. Moreover, normally, an art director is someone well-known in the industry and someone who looks quite attractive to the clients to talk to. Thanks to the work experience most likely art director will find proper words to communicate and the right themes to raise during the call with the client to achieve better results.

If It Is Profitable?

Working with an art director can seem not to be profitable at all. His salary normally is higher than designers, but at the same time, he never works on solo tasks manually, which makes him an “invisible assistant” on any project. Moreover, clients will never want to pay for an art director, but companies like ours only follow one working model, where 2 art directors are presented on one project.

However, if we take a closer look, we will be able to see, that the chances of that art-director increase to decrease the number of fixes, may have 1 out staffing for half of the day and at the same time, art director can always replace designer if he is sick or left due to some circumstances.

Having an art director, who significantly increases the chances to deliver projects without fixes, who communicates with the client well and who also can make high-quality deliveries. He also will be teaching the designer and will be helping the designer to boost skills and grow to become a better version of himself — and this is exactly what many designers look for while searching for work. Summing it all up, having an art-director on the project is always profitable.