Meta-Communication: An Art Direction Tutorial

Outline
This progressive tutorial is designed to provide new or aspiring art directors with an understanding of the fundamentals of creative project management and art direction. It will explore the ideology and methodology of operating a framework of product communication from conception to final product. This will all be conducted on an ACTUAL client product with ongoing feedback from both the client and design community.

I would like to personally thank Justin Jacobson of Blue Devil Games for allowing me to use Dawning Star as a case study for this tutorial. Without his continued patience this entire project would not be possible. Special thanks also goes out to Lee Hammock, Chad Barr, and Robert J. Grady for their continued excellence at making a game.

Objectives
1. To introduce the basic principles of selling a product through various forms of communication.
2. To ensure an understanding of the direction of art and its relation to the client product.
3. To demonstrate the roles of illustration, graphic design, layout and production of advertisements for consumer media.
4. To encapsulate the production cycles and constraints of working in the real world.
5. To explore the communication processes involved in visual communication both in advertising and in market position.

Content
- Defining Art Direction
- The Nature of Direction
- The Creatives - roles of producers, directors, artists, writers and designers
- Art Direction: The Practice Vs. The Ideology
- How We Will Work - framework to adhere to in the creative process
- The Production Cycle

Example
- Week One:
Dawning Star GenCon Preview PDF


Dawning Star OQL Preview PDF


Articles & Additional Content
- Developing Creative Concepts: How to End Clipart Mentality
- Basic Principles of Visual Communications: Style vs. Substance
- Advanced Principles of Visual Communications: Why You Need Strong Directional Kung Fu
- The Novelty Filter
- The Postmortem: Dawning Star

Defining Art Direction
The easiest way to start defining art direction is by stating what it is NOT. It is not marketing. It is not advertising. It is not the design, it is not the images, and it is not the layout but rather a sum of all of these parts and more. It is the overall. It’s the big picture that is built upon by the smaller details. Impressionistic.
However, art direction is anything but random particularly as it reaches into the realm of consumerism. It might be difficult to see all of the inner workings of direction but there is a very apparent effect.
Nike.
Pepsi.
Absolut.
A product is a living breathing thing. An organism complete with its own self-awareness. Each telling us how it will enrich our lives, how much critics love it, how the consumer should pick it up rather than its competition. Every product has its own image that it at some point needs to get across to the consumer. The product in a very real way needs to be in the thoughts of the buyer. It must make an impression. It must be pervasive.
AT&T.
Dodge.
Apple.
IKEA.
Big Mac.
Red Bull
Names you know? Names you live with everyday?
Do you know what toothpaste you used this morning? Does it really taste any better than the one you didn’t buy? A phrase or name can make a lasting impression. A simple iconic logo can make the association for a buyer to choose your product over theirs. That intangible dual feeling of awareness and curiosity, that’s comes from direction. That product image that rises up is born and cultivated from direction. The wording on the package that becomes the little voice in the consumer’s ear comes from direction. All of these methods of conveying consumer awareness are driven home with direction. Simply put, art direction is a form of meta-communications. A direction of communicating the message through several channels.

Looking at it as a paradigm, each vehicle of communication lends itself to the product image with the art direction being the hub. The role of direction is to make the message being broadcasted off into the world relevant. Without that definitive focus, the three vehicles may become too distinctive on their own, causing a disjointed separated affair. The message you were trying to get across just became irrelevant. Some part of the big picture got lost and the product’s shelf life just got a little shorter.

The Nature of Direction
Direction, in terms of human sense, is primitive. Up. Down. Left. Right.
You know which way is forward even before you start walking. It’s automatic. You’ve seen how others get around and you become aware of your own orientation. You make a quick decision, a firing of synapses tells your central nervous system what to do, and you hit your stride. Simple. Effective. It’s done in almost an autonomic responsive level and in that millionth of a second, a decision was made.

From that one decision, certain ideas become relevant. Like how our eyes are set forward due to the importance we give towards that field of view. Or ears are cupped to better hear sound waves coming from that direction. Perhaps, our limbs articulate and bend to grant us easier forward mobility.
From this simple decision of what is forward, certain suggestions just fall into line. One of the most important aspects of direction is in its ability to not only solve problems but to stratify what it is used on enough to prevent problems from coming into the picture.

Art direction solves its own specialized problems. Target marketing, design inquiries, editing, quality assurance, these things will be laid at your feet for you guide back into the fold. The nature of direction is to be master and commander over the motions, the forward movement. As such, art direction is best served by listening till it’s time to decide. After you know which way is forward it is much easier to head your project in that direction.


The Creatives: The Roles We Play
The role of the art director may vary from project to project. Sometimes, he is used as an anchoring point that guides the look and feel of the product. Other times, he may be used as someone that comes up with core concepts using devices such as symbolism and metaphor, presenting them to the client for them to run with. In either case, he must be able to maintain a "big picture" view for the project team while objectively combing through the details of project management. This type of task management is often learned through practice as a creative rises through the ranks. It should be understood that knowing your current role, as well as others, is crucial to direction. If you are going to make decisions, its best to know what assets everyone brings to the table.

Producers
Manager of internal and external development of a product. Coordinates production cycles with directors and investors. Typically, the producer is the one that grants final approval on signing off a project. Considered to many as a god.

Artists
Creates art assets for the product in terms of cover artwork, illustrations, and trade media. They also make their own cool avatars for forums to "express" themselves.
Specialist Titles: Lead Artist, Senior Artist, Cover Artist, Illustrator, Interior Artist, Technical Artist, 2D Artist, 3D Artist, Concept Artist, Environmental Artist, & Junior Artist.

Writers
Generates body content, copywriting, game mechanics, and localization. Many also carry the shared burden of editing & proofing with the art director.
Specialist Titles: Editor-In-Chief, Editor, Junior Editor, Head Writer, Copy Writer, Content Writer, Novelist, Game Designer, Technical Writer, Script Writer, Staff Writer, Journalist, & Junior Writer.

Designers
Develops the graphic design and layout of the product along with any additional packaging and advertising efforts. The best attribute of designers is that they know the difference between 800+ type fonts. Unfortunately, they will share this intimate knowledge repeatedly.
Specialists Titles: Web Designers, Print Designers, New Media Designers, User Interface Designers & anyone else that owns a copy of Photoshop.

Now that we have an idea of what creatives are and what they can do for you its time to delve into strengthening your position. The chain of command is only as strong as its weakest link so take some time and orientate yourself with what is expected of you.

A good way of doing this is by studying how art direction works in the real world. Pick up a magazine or any other print media and look for a central theme to it. Examine how articles might be targeting their audience. Find out what you like about it and then ask yourself why it appeals to you. By deconstructing it, you can begin to breakdown how art direction was used in a case-by-case basis. Forming opinions on how direction was implemented will become choices that you will use in your own work.

Stay tuned for next installment wherein I will go over art direction practice vs. ideology along with a beginning of the Dawning Star case study.

lol - this looks like a marketing guy's approach to art. Charts?
It's a nice thing to look at, might even get published and whatnot...but - what is the purpose? Better strategic thinking in art direction? Where's the feeling? As for art direction not being marketing and advertising...meh - take a look at de Kooning or Pollock - tell me if their art would have survived or even taken off without a little (a lot actually) clever advertising and good reviews from critics...

this is very nice if you had to write a thing for school - as for actual usability in real life.... what does it teach?

[QUOTE=mihai]lol - this looks like a marketing guy's approach to art. Charts?
It's a nice thing to look at, might even get published and whatnot...but - what is the purpose? [/QUOTE]


No offense but,
Have you ever held a directorial position?

it depends what you mean by it...

I used to work on a position that put other people under my "command" and I now own my own company and I am a co-owner in a consulting company.

however if you mean did I ever held a salary management position... umm - not really....I hate red tape

from that point of view - I allready agreed that it's a nice piece of work. Nicely filled papers. No feeling though

[QUOTE=mihai]I allready agreed that it's a nice piece of work. Nicely filled papers. No feeling though[/QUOTE]


I would imagine that its easy to remark on since its the first installment. Besides that fact, I don't really see the connection between art direction and the spectrum of feelings. Applying art direction is about decision-making not gut reactions.

Save passion for art and design. But not art direction.

I agree. I was in the wrong. I recently had a talk with a friend about the importance of paperwork. He convinced me it's imperative. He being a self proclaimed paper pusher

I guess I'm just being partial because I dislike talking about how to do stuff instead of actually doing the stuff. I guess from the point of view of a guy who wants to sell a game it's a pretty good thing. But I still fail to see how an artist might proffit from it.

oh well - let's end this I like your work - your drawings that is ...and the tutorial - it's good copy - just not my joy baton:D