How to become a "4A" creative director

This article is provided by the Young Designer Studio of Visual Communication Major of Beijing University of Information Science and Technology)

1. 4A creative people, an attractive future

4A’s The original meaning is the abbreviation of the American Association of advertising Agencies. The 4A Association has very strict standards for member companies. All 4A advertising companies are large-scale comprehensive multinational advertising agencies. Advertising companies that meet 4A standards must achieve a certain annual turnover, which is often a very high number, and must also comply with some of the 4A regulations and practices. For local advertising companies, the advantage of 4A is that it has a very standardized operation method. The work in 4A is often a large integrated project. We do not consider one thing, but a line. It is carried out around a certain core. In comparison, small design companies provide single services. Yes, it may be done for 4A, or it may be done for other customers. There are many excellent suppliers under 4A, and suppliers who can serve 4A must also have corresponding specifications and standards. Therefore, when working in a 4A company, you will be exposed to the most advanced technologies and latest methods in the advertising communication industry. The scale and financial resources of 4A can allow people to realize ideas that are difficult to realize in small and medium-sized advertising companies.

In 4A, we are not used to calling designers. Whether we are doing art or copywriting, we call them creative people. It doesn’t matter whether you studied copywriting or art. Relatively speaking, it will be more difficult for those who studied art to become a creative director, because the advertising industry requires you to have a strong foundation in written and oral communication, as well as an understanding of the market. Therefore, people who study copywriting are more likely to get in touch with the core of the business, while those who study art are mainly stronger in the visual aspect. To be a creative director, you have to learn how to write plans, how to express your ideas, and how to do it. To implement it, the journey is relatively longer.

Because this is a talented industry, the 4A education background is not very important. Whether you have a bachelor's degree or a junior college degree, the key is whether what you do is good or not. 4A will mainly look at two aspects when recruiting new people. One is that your ideas are particularly good, and the other is your learning ability, because there are a lot of things to learn after joining.

4A generally does not hire students who have just graduated. We need at least one year of work experience, because during this year, the knowledge he acquires is not as fictitious as in school. But completely real.

In the 4A industry, practical experience and talents are more important than educational background. 4A doesn’t care which school you graduated from. When I was in college at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, the teachers and conditions of the graphic design major at the Institute of Fashion Technology were not strong. When we were in school, we often envied the Central Institute of Technology. It doesn’t matter how good the teachers are, or how good the works of secondary school students are, but after entering 4A, I no longer think so. Everyone is the same here, and the key is whether your work is good or not.

Newcomers in 4A have to start from the most basic execution, which we call feeding and pulling, then finishing the draft, then the art director, and then to the senior artist, team leader, and finally the creative director. , there are also executive creative directors, etc. The executive creative director is more responsible for human resources.

The salary of each 4A company will be somewhat different, but 4A also has a large salary standard. Generally, a newcomer only earns two to three thousand yuan when he first joins. To become a senior art director is 12,000, 3,000. If you are the first in the group, you can get 16,000. The creative director ranges from 25,000 to 60,000 or 70,000. The creative director and the executive creative director can get 10 to 15. , sixty thousand.

5. In 4A, speaking is a very important ability

Moreover, you must convince your clients and your colleagues through chatting, because we are selling manuscripts. , you have to say it if you want other people to accept it. The job here is to chat. If you can’t chat, it’s the end of being an art director

There are a lot of things to talk about, not only your own work, but also other people’s, such as your subordinates or those you hired. The works made by people involve the ability to evaluate and identify. We have some courses in college, such as designing posters, advertising design, etc. After completion, there will be centralized evaluation and display. I remember my classmates at that time Not many of them can say it. Once something is made, they don’t know how to explain it. But this cannot be the case in an advertising company. What requirements is your entire work based on? Who is its audience? Does it meet the requirements of the market? How effective can it be compared with other project works? It all has to be said about its features and advantages. If you can't convince your customers, especially more conservative customers, they may reject your design because they don't understand.

6. We need to understand movies, music and other artistic media

To do advertising creativity, you must understand movies, because a large number of advertisements need to be made into short films. In this way, you have to know the language of the film and how the director directs the executioners to do it.

You also need to know who are the most popular directors now, who makes music, lighting, etc. You need to know what kind of script is suitable for which directors to shoot. We don’t usually look for directors who make movies to shoot, because of the advertising The pictures are required to be more concise and pay more attention to composition. There are some people who specialize in shooting commercials and do a very good job. We will look for such people.

We don’t need to understand movies as deeply as those who specialize in movies. The main thing is to know what the language of the movie is, how the movie is made, and how the shots of the movie are composed. We don’t need to have a deep understanding of the style and genre of the film. In short, what we want is the most practical, because there are a lot of opportunities to practice. To make a short commercial, you have to write a script. Writing scripts is difficult for us, but you have to know how to do it. You have to be familiar with the language of the film, such as how to shoot, how to edit, etc. When we write scripts, we usually first write a split-shot script and then draw it into pictures. Nowadays, a more popular way is to shoot it into FLASH, because flash is more flexible and easier to master. If this one doesn't work, you can change it to another one...

7. Expand expression methods and let students learn to express their ideas as soon as possible

8. Propositional composition is a good way of training

Propositional composition is A good training method. At work, we will need to make many plans at the same time and decide the best one among them. When creating propositions, we can look for some cases, which can be found in some books. These cases have already provided you with a very complete situation, such as what is going on in the market, what is the operation process, and what is the creativity like? of. Use these cases for students to do, and you will find that each student's homework is different, but in the same case, it is very easy to judge and compare. Why didn't the teacher do this when we were in school? The teacher often asks us to design a poster, with a topic of our own choice, and the criterion for judging is whether it looks good or not, and whether it looks good or not is entirely based on his personal aesthetic point of view and is not homogeneous. Through propositional composition, students can more easily see what others think, what kind of approach is better, and can learn more.

9. The boring basic courses are transformed into effective creative rules

For example, let’s take the graphic composition course. Many people think this course is boring in school. In fact, the key lies in how you do it. Understand many rules in this course, such as variations in plane composition. Changing one of the same elements can highlight it. It is also the most commonly used technique in advertising. The same goes for other things. The methods are all universal, the key lies in how to learn and apply them flexibly. As a teacher, you must take the initiative to grasp this.

The most basic requirement for the graphic design major is execution, and you must be very familiar with various operating techniques and skills. Some people will also switch careers to photography in the future. If you want to be a graphic photographer, you have to work with one or two big photographers first and be their assistant. After one or two years of doing well, you can start working on your own. People who study graphic arts have their own advantages as photographers because they are more particular about composition and form, so they can develop well in this industry.