I want to become an Art Director. Should I focus on advertising or graphic design as my major? I'm confused.

Question

I've started my first semester in college with Graphic Design as my major. And I just found out online from an anonymous person that you should major in Advertising if you want a career as an Art Director. Should I change my major to Advertising or will I still be on the right track with Graphic Design? If anyone could please help me out I would really appreciate it.

Answer 1

Get your major in graphic design and take some courses - or a minor - in advertising. You cannot be an art director if you don't have the skills in the first place. Nor will you likely become one straight out of college - you have to work your way up to it. Soyou will indeed need those graphic design skills.

Answer 2

You have to decide what you want to do on a daily basis and where your personality fits best and then determine what to study.

Art director has many meanings. In my experience people who work in advertising are referred to as Creative Directors and work for an Advertising Agency. Large agencies are often, super high energy, highly competitive, and fast paced and directed at Web, TV or Print Advertising. People who create graphics for printed items are called Graphic Designers and work for Graphic Design Firms that are usually trendy, extremely detailed minded with many companies as clients but not as intense as advertising or you could work in a corporate Creative Services Department which are more business style and more conservative and can be more stable but less challenging creatively

A great place to make the choice is to work backwards. This is what I did before I went to college. Say your dream job is to work for a XYZ advertising agency than find an Art Director or Human Resources person and ask them what you study so that you can work for them one day. Keep in contact. I ended up with an internship and then my dream job this way.

Look at posting for jobs titled Art Director and Graphic Designer on indeed.com or monster.com and read the job description to about the qualification and job responsibilities and educational requirements. Also go to salary.com and read job descriptions and see what you want to do and how much you will get paid

If you want create advertising hands on or get some experience and manage other for TV, web, magazines I would stick with advertising as your major.

If you want to create or after some experience manage others as they create items that are printed such as consumer packages, package labels, brochures, annual reports I would definitely say graphic design.

Answer 3

I would suggest fine arts with a graphic arts minor. Check with your school counselor just to be sure.