Job No:01077 Title:The fundamentals og Graphic Design
1ST
Proof Page:96
072-107 01077.qxd 8/4/08 11:32 AM Page 96
Job No:01077 Title:The fundamentals og Graphic Design
1ST
Proof Page:96
96 The Fundamentals of Graphic Design The graphic design process
Art direction is focused on achieving a
specific visual result, which may be inspired by
influences as diverse as current trends and fashions,
a historical or futuristic perspective, a particular
theme, such as advanced technology or a pastoral
scene, or an attitude or emotion, depending upon the
results required. It is the art director’s job to ensure
that this happens.
Successful art direction results in a coherent
and unified design that the target audience will find
credible and/or attractive. The designs that result
from this process can be very powerful, and it is art
direction that is responsible for producing the images
that add so much value to brand development.
The art director
An art director orchestrates the visual creative
processes of a project and decides the aesthetic that
a design will have. An art director does not take the
photographs, produce the illustrations, build the sets
or style the models in a photo shoot, but he or she will
determine the overall direction and visual goal of the
project. The direction provided by the art director will
be the focus of the creative effort of the team working
on the job, which may include a photographer, an
illustrator and a developer of computer imagery.
Graphic designers occupy a central role within the
design process, coordinating and bringing together
the various design elements that are commissioned
from individuals with different specialisations. This
central position means that it is common for them to
also occupy the role of art director. A designer will
have a mental map of what they want the final job to
look like and will communicate this idea to
photographers, illustrators, stylists etc, in order to
achieve the required look. This may involve broadly
determining the colour palette to be used in addition
to being on-hand to resolve ad hoc queries during the
production of the different elements.
Art direction
Art direction is a process that guides the
creation of the visual elements of a design. An art
director harnesses and integrates the various elements
within a design to produce a certain look and feel for
the resulting artwork so that it contains the required
expressions and conveys the appropriate messages.
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Job No:01077 Title:The fundamentals og Graphic Design
2ND
Proof Page:97
Hero image
The key image that a visual campaign pivots on – the focal or defining point.
Development and experimentation < Art direction > Prototyping 97
Brindabella
These are images from a project created by 3 Deep Design
for the visual positioning of Brindabella, a performance piece by
BalletLab, which shows the project-development cycle from the
initial sketches of the visual concept (top left) to the set
construction for the photoshoot (top right), the creation of the
hero image (above) and the final poster (right) that resulted
from this process. This example shows the amount of work that
can be involved in creating a visual identity and the importance
of art direction to harness the different elements and disciplines
involved to achieve that end. Graphic designers are increasingly
at the centre of the art direction process to ensure that the
vision sketched at the concept stage is realised as intended.
072-107 01077_C1.qxd 8/20/08 3:06 PM Page 97
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