Week 6 EOC: Art Director Job Analysis

What is an Art Director? They play an essential role in the marketing, creative, communications, fashion and digital departments. They are responsible for leading their team, developing creative guidelines and directing creative work, including print collateral, websites, email campaigns, television and radio advertising and many related tasks. Art Directors also must be great leaders with the ability to maximize the talents of them teams. “It is important that persons make ethical decisions in their personal lives, but the practice of business ethics is of important concern to hospitality mangers” (Hayes, David K. Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry, 1^st Edition. Pg. 159. Wiley, 02/2008.

Art Director Amazon Fashion

Job Description

Amazon Fashion is a one-stop destination including clothing, shoes, jewelry and watches from iconic brands like Levi’s and Pendleton to contemporary designers like Rebecca Minkoff and Tracy Reese. We offer customers an unprecedented range of quality products.
Amazon Fashion is experiencing explosive growth and, as such, we're seeking entrepreneurial professionals to help build the next iteration in fashion ecommerce. These customer-obsessed, style-enthusiasts will have the opportunity to accelerate Amazon’s growth in online fashion providing our millions of customer’s access to top brands, products and insider content and creating the most sought-after shopping experience in the industry.
The Amazon Fashion team is looking for an exceptional Art Director – one who loves thinking conceptually, creating original solutions, and collaborating with a passionate team and is eager to work hard, have fun, and make history. The successful candidate will have a proven ability to motivate through vision and dedication to excellence, demonstrated success translating business goals to an inspiring creative direction and world-class design and, while always starting with the customer, an ability to think strategically and critically in order to create an inspiring shopping experience.

Responsibilities

• Evolve our creative positioning (graphic look and feel, voice, photography requirements, etc.) that will extend both to the website and to offline marketing activities. Develop this into a visual brand framework that will serve as guidance for all future creative initiatives.
• Create world-class, beautiful layouts and visuals that support and reinforce this vision and our business objectives; partner with the Amazon Fashion business/marketing teams to ensure that designs meet brand and business objectives.
• Work from creative briefs to translate merchandising and marketing strategies to creative execution.
• Follow market trends and apply a keen understanding of the apparel marketplace to make decisions that will maximize the effectiveness of creative; keep abreast of trends and directions in promotion and creative that will keep Amazon Fashion on the leading edge.
• Act as the internal champion and owner of the Amazon Fashion Brand.
• Manage creative for on-site, e-mail, online advertising, and occasionally print.
• Understand and respond to promotion performance data, steering the strategy of future creative directions.
• Hire, manage and mentor an effective team of graphic designers.
• Develop budgets and timelines, allocating appropriate resources to projects.
• Manage Amazon Fashion’s graphics creation, securing and managing external resources (e.g. freelancers, contractors and vendors) when necessary.
• Contribute to the overall Softlines visual experience and functionality (desktop and mobile).
• Manage and lead creative reviews and presentations, as well as seasonal planning and special initiatives/projects meetings. Successfully able to present to senior management (VP-level and above), influencing business and creative decisions and direction.
• Establish and maintain a business rhythm by conducting reviews and meetings on a regular basis.
• Provide Photo Art Direction on set; bringing experience with product photo shoots and how to effectively direct a crew from start to finish. Direct the photography sessions including lighting, attitude, mood, styling, etc.

Basic Qualifications

• 7-10+ years of relevant professional experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts/Graphic Design/Visual Communications/Advertising or commensurate experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in fashion marketing design or fashion retail desired.
• Knowledge of information architecture, usability, and UI Design strongly desired.
• Knowledge and experience with rich media advertisement creation strongly desired.
• A remarkable portfolio that demonstrates your ability to turn ideas into a strong creative vision.
• A proven ability to work cross-team and synthesize feedback and input from merchants, marketers, copywriters, and product teams.
• Unwavering attention to detail and an acute awareness that everything counts.
• Relentless desire for innovation, balanced with business and user interaction priorities.
• Demonstrated business acumen and customer-centricity.
• Expert understanding of the web production process; familiarity with post-production retouching and at least a working knowledge of the printing process.
• Desire and ability to work in a fast-paced online environment.
• Highly developed written/verbal communication skills and collaborative skills.
• Proficiency with HTML, CSS and JavaScript desired.

(https://us-amazon.icims.com/jobs/306033/art-director-amazon-fashion/job?iis=Job+Posting&iisn=Indeed+%28Free+Posting%29&mobile=false&width=1879&height=1200&bga=true&needsRedirect=false&jan1offset=-480&jun1offset=-420)

The benefits of having an In-House Art Director would include but not limited to; Consistency, Creativity, Passionate, and Energetic. “Directors also must be great leaders with the ability to maximize the talents of their teams…Thus, you’ll need to be an expert in all facets of the creative process — and the creative industry — in order to produce the best work” (http://www.paladinstaff.com/). The benefits of being an Art Director is you get to be a lead and motivate of a team that is made up of highly skilled different individuals and create work that you believe in and your team feels your passion so they execute their responsibilities to the best of their abilities so the final product comes out just right. This position has a great salary to go along with the job ranging from $93,435-$242,999 a year this depends on the company you work for and what type of industry you are in.