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If you’re looking to potentially go back to school to transition into something new, I’d think very, very hard before choosing advertising art direction for several reasons.
This is a contracting industry with significantly fewer jobs than there were pre-pandemic. There are a lot of good creatives with solid portfolios and resumes who have struggled mightily in the last few years. People have had to start over in different careers.
As a result of this contraction, salaries are way down. What used to be a solidly upper middle class career (once you had a few years under your belt) is now something a lot more precarious. You’ll see veteran creatives on here remarking on the fact that salaries were higher 20 years ago than they are now. They’re not talking about inflation adjusted dollars. They mean the actual dollar amounts.
Even when advertising was still a “good” career, you have always had a serious problem with ageism. Agency creatives below the highest levels simply don’t exist over the age of 50 or so. When I was in my 20s, I didn’t care about that aspect of it, which was short sighted. As I get older I’m starting to seriously regret picking a path that will not carry me through to retirement. Do you want to be scrambling to figure out something completely new at some point in your 40s? Pharma advertising used to be a solid (if boring) option for older people in the business, as there was a lot more job security and much less ageism, but that wing of the industry has also been contracting recently and it’s become a much more dubious long-term proposition than it used to be.
All that aside, the job of an art director has some significant drawbacks even compared to other ad jobs. Agencies in particular are notorious for long hours and working their people to the bone. Guess which job at the agency is the most labor intensive and requires the longest hours?
Anyway, if all that doesn’t dissuade you, then good luck, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish I had gone in a different direction.
This is the only creative fulfilling role that pays good and with stability in my eyes. Nothing else. Also, being an art director gives you more options than a designer in my opinion. An art director is a designer as well. But a designer can’t be art director too since they don’t have the conceptual chops an art director does.
Yep! It’s worth it. Don’t try to it by yourself. Try the program Book180, it’s an affordable online portfolio school
Just don’t half ass it though. Half the people who go to portfolio school will half ass it and not get a job. Put 110% into it and network!if you want to do in person., Try Denver ad school!
Get the book “Hey Whipple Squeeze This” then decide
Exactly. The book is not optional.
I went to VCU Brandcenter for AD many many years ago. It honed my skills, I built a network, and got a job at a high profile agency. It was also a tremendous amount of work, and caused significant debt.
I have no regrets, at the time it was well worth the money, emotional damage & exhaustion. But I don’t recommend anyone do it now.
The industry is in a tail spin. I don’t know if todays students will earn enough to pay off the debt. The threat of AI reducing staff & salaries is very real.
Holding companies have squeezed creativity out, and cut salary competition. It’s always been an extremely ageist industry and isn’t getting better. In the past, anyone with any skills could get steady freelance work, or a FT job for un-shiny clients with money, like Pharma, but those days seem gone too. I personally know at least a dozen talented creatives who’ve been struggling to get work for over a year.
I was laid off (again) recently, I’m currently starting a business in a completely different sector after my latest lay off. When I start to feel overwhelmed or doubtful about that path, I check in here or with friends in the biz and am 1000% reassured that an longer term advertising career is not viable.
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Tried to send you a DM
Community Builder
Try to DM me if not yeah that would be cool.