Executive Creative Director Responsibilities
Creative directors are involved in presenting the identity of an organization in various media. They determine the best ways to represent the company's profile by designing and developing projects that are suitable for online and digital marketing.
Key Responsibilities of Executive Creative Director
Executive creative directors are responsible for providing creative insights to the company in designing and developing their projects. Their main responsibility is to design high-level concepts for the company or its clients (internal or external), and creating designs as per the client's requirement. Most of the times, executive creative directors are engaged in creating and developing visual designs for external design firms, but occasionally they are also responsible for handling the recruitment and management systems for these design firms.
The main responsibilities of an executive creative director comprise:
- Directing the creative functionalities of concept development, collaborating with team members, creating work environment, meeting work expectations, and discussing team goals and achievements
- Ensuring the effective maintenance of creative functionalities, developing the creative products as per the market standards, maintaining the quality of creative work projects, and operating the designing firm in a profitable manner
- Providing strategic solutions to the company and clients considering their market stakes involved in creating brand reputation for their organization
- Accommodating the client's needs and requirements as per the marketing goals and strategies, creating unique brand promotion concepts in accordance with the client's promotional scheme, prioritizing the creative work as per client's demands, and translating the client's profile into a creative visual experience
- Collaborating with the creative team for processing the client's projects in a specified manner, assigning duties to creative / account management team, and leading the team in carrying out post production activities like video graphics, motion graphics, interactive web integration, and web marketing
- Developing and writing the plans of promotional campaigns, preparing its detailed presentation report, and assigning various responsibilities to team members for carrying out the promotional campaign effectively
- Keeping track of latest advancement in technologies used in creative direction and understanding the progress in marketing technologies like digital marketing technology
- Collaborating with working partners for strategizing the progress of creative functionalities, making relevant changes for competing with market standards, focusing on threats from the competitors, and developing the strategic plans for combating the threats
- Directing activities for professional development of organizational team members, conducting creative workshops for staff members, implementing corrective strategies in promotional activities, and recommending promotion of the team members based on their productivity
- Taking important decisions that ensure the organizational profitability without compromising the creative quality of the project, directing constant improvement in creative quality, and enhancing the designing capability for accomplishing the task
- Conducting market study for understanding the competitors' creative art, planning, and preparing strategic developmental plan for creating the agency's marketing strategies, branding functionalities, and business development plans
- Managing external agents like photographers, printers, freelancers, web developers, etc., and coordinating them according to the work of art directors, copywriters, and other post production workers
Required Qualifications and Skills
The basic qualification required for obtaining the job as an executive creative director is undergraduate degree in Fine Arts or other related field of visual and graphical designing. A graduate / postgraduate degree in the same field is recommended for obtaining a better position in this field. Along with educational qualifications, advertising agencies do consider the relevant experience in the same field before hiring a candidate for this position. Minimum 5 to 10 years of experience in creative direction in web designing industry, advertising agency, or e-marketing agency is necessary before one can gets promoted to the executive level.
Apart from the required qualifications and experience, one is also required to demonstrate certain skills necessary for handling the responsibilities efficiently. Skills required for handling creative director responsibilities comprise:
- Leadership and organizational skills
- Effective time management skills
- Creative, insightful, and interested in arts and designing
- Working knowledge of photography, typography, and other printing techniques
- Understanding of customer experience methodology, brand management, marketing, advertising, and e-commerce
- Knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, QuarkXpress, Powerpoint, HTML, PHP, and other web programs
- Understanding of various production procedures, computer softwares, and web designing
- Detail oriented, able to work in pressure
- Effective oral, written, and verbal communication skills
Salary Compensation
The average salary of an entry level executive creative director starts from around $50,000 annually, while the experienced professionals can earn over $400,000 per year. The average salary range falls in between $90,000 to $180,000 per year.
The position of executive creative directors is saved for the person with a creative mind, who can merge authenticity with modernity. One is required to be innovative, creative, and tactful for carrying out the responsibilities effectively. If you wish to pursue a career in this field, the above article on executive creative director responsibilities will provide you with an in-depth knowledge on its regular duties, educational qualifications, and skills required for this position.
