good art director is subversive. He takes the expected image and twists it into something unexpected and in doing so, makes it unforgettable and part of our visual vocabulary. Anything less is mere decoration. But the image need not be bizarre or eccentric to provoke us or jar us. Instead of an asthmatic child on an examining table, the art director might show us the child with a tear on his cheek staring wistfully out the window, showing how a disease can affect a life. Because art directors do not think linearly, they are not bound by the same rigors of logic as the rest of us. An image can tell a story as well as words and often does so more tellingly, more inventively, more forcefully. The other obligation of an art director is design—the way a communication is placed on a page, the type chosen, the way space is divided between image and text. All the elements of design contribute to the power and recall of an ad. Attention to the smallest details of design is the hallmark of great art direction.—F.H.
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