As designers we are mainly concerned with the execution of a project or product. Art directors are concerned with the strategy behind the execution.

Step 1: Art Direction

• happens before design
• how the director wants the end product to look and feel rather than how it is executed

Step 2: Visual Designer

• implements the directors thoughts into mockups and moves through this process

Step 3: Developer

• builds the final products
• understands edits may be made by the director or designer.

An example of art direction is a comparison between travel to Venice.

One option is going by train on the Orient Express (fancy, good experience, luxury, enjoyable), the other option is flying with Flybe (value, hard to navigate website, cheap, not a good experience, basic), both are aimed at a very different target audience and therefore the art direction is different. This is what we need to consider in our works.

Art direction is all about the experience expected by the users, we need to think of leaving a lasting impression and to make it memorable for all the right reasons - we need to ask lots of questions to ensure this target is met.

"We think in stories and in narratives... A large part of what we do is really just creating trust between strangers. We do this by more than just building interfaces. We make sure to tell the right stories. Whether that is advertising on social media or traditional media but, more and more, within the product itself. Telling our community stories - real stories from real people - making sure we properly communicate what we're about to cities and neighbourhoods and the folks who live there." - Alex Schleifer VP Design AirBnB

Art direction is the visceral resonance of how a piece of work feels. In other words, what you feel in your gut when you look at a website, app, or any piece of design work. In design we need to consider the technical execution such as colours matching, line length in text, photo quality, typographic hierarchy and the overall design composition.