& Commentary

What the hell is an interactive art director?

Us ad and marketing grunts seem to be great at misnomers. At some point in time the word branding was redefined as logo, the word mnemonic became that thing at the end of your TV spot where the announcer said the company name and the word online became interactive.

So, at the get-go my brain starts twitching when someone says interactive art director. I’m clearly playing a semantics game here, and that’s not very fair, but we are in the business of communication, right? Half the games we play are semantics.

So what is an interactive art director?

As most of you know better than I, there are copywriting based ad agencies, art direction based ad agencies (that exist mainly overseas), and those who seem to manage to pay attention to both (These are the A-listers, no need for a laundry list).

Let me know if I’m delusional here–research is often hard to calculate in the ad world.

So, here’s what I know.

Most people are looking for an interactive art director, but the writer based joints don’t seem to know what that is. When I look over the qualifications that traditional agencies seems to want — It’s an art director, who is not only an interactive designer, but also a developer.

Between me you and the fence post, I think they want a Mac-monkey who understands Flash, Dreamweaver, CSS, PHP, AS3–But is also conceptual.

And that sounds like at least three different job descriptions to me, but that’s why I’m asking. What do you think?

And thus the clunky evolutionary state of traditional agencies trying to get the money that interactive agencies are raking in.

The Questions:

What software knowledge or otherwise does an interactive art director know that a traditional art director doesn’t know?

When you see somebody legitimately asking for an interactive art director — is that what they generally want?

When you see a portfolio with interactive, TV, print and design come from an art director, would you put them in for an interactive art director position at a traditional agency?

What says interactive art director to you?

I’m asking a bunch of questions, and I don’t have solutions here. So, I’m being that guy.

What I do know is this. Every agency that’s looking is looking for something different. Some will be impressed if you can merely open Flash and Dreamweaver. Others don’t want you unless you’ve helped construct an actual online experience. And I don’t mean banners. Banner’s have their place and all, but let’s face it. They are the cheapest way to advertise.  And you get what you pay for, most of the time, right?

The game is odd. And I’m still playing.

What say you?