Art director

Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, marketing, publishing, the performing arts (including theater, film, television, and animation), fashion, the Internet, and video games. The art director's role is to supervise the visual style and images of an artistic production. In particular, they are in charge of its overall visual appearance and how it communicates visually, stimulates moods, contrasts features, and psychologically appeals to a target audience. The art director makes decisions about visual elements, what artistic style(s) to use, and when to use motion. One of the biggest challenges art directors face is translating desired moods, messages, concepts, and underdeveloped ideas into imagery. In the brainstorm process, art directors, colleagues and clients explore ways the finished piece or scene could look. At times, the art director is responsible for solidifying the vision of the collective imagination while resolving conflicting agendas and inconsistencies between contributors' ideas. In eastern animated works, such as Japanese anime and Chinese animation, the role of art director (美術監督, bijutsu kantoku) specifically refers to the artist in charge of supervising and directing the background art and the background art staff of a particular work, rather than a role unifying a work's overall artistic vision.