Art directors must combine creative talent with a business and marketing sense to produce effective and eye-catching visuals for today's consumers. Good communication between Creative Directors or staff members requires an art director to keep abreast of ongoing projects. Because many magazines are moving to online formats, art directors must possess Internet program knowledge.
Explore campuses for courses, student culture, extracurricular activities and job placement assistance. Begin applying for financial aid with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FASFA, and then institutional and state aid programs. Basic computer literacy is necessary for the design classes found at art and graphic design schools. Students train in Adobe programs, such as the InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Some schools offer work-study programs on campus. The contacts made at college and working internships open doors to future employment.
One of the leading art and design institutions in the world is Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the United Kingdom. With alumni such as Orson Welles, Hugh Hefner and Edward Gorey, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago ranks as one of the United States most accredited fine arts schools. The Rhode Island School of Design heads the list for the digital field and a prominent Masters of Fine Arts program. The notable Umea Institute of Design is Sweden's only school offering courses specializing in industrial design. The University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland, offers sixteen fields of art education as well as research. Cal Arts, Virginia Commonwealth and Carnegie Mellon also rank in the U.S. as superior colleges for graphic design.
The annual mean salary in May 2010 for art directors was $94,100. The job market improves when sticking to major urban areas such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. or San Francisco. Freelance graphic artists and art directors may live anywhere, with the Internet allowing telecommunication. Independent contract artists earned an annual mean wage of $96,940, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.