What is the art direction of a brand?
The artistic direction of a brand is the aesthetic orientation that its founder wishes to take. It includes all the choices that concern the taste, values and atmosphere that make a project unique. This subtle and personal recipe guides product design, communication and the creative steps that lead the development of a project.
A brand creation usually starts with a fresh idea that is a driving force to get started. Once the project is launched, it is common to find there are many areas where decisions need to be made. Creative spirit and appreciation are required. Being a good art director is not easy because it needs to be open to multiple possibilities and make quick and consistent decisions.
Only a matter of aesthetics?
It doesn’t seem obvious to work in art direction. It is often imagined that this field is strictly individual and subjective, linked to intuition. However, when working on the artistic direction of a brand, it is not a matter of discussing tastes and colors, criticizing them or changing them. Rather, it is about enriching it. Creativity and taste can be stretched, refined and diversified. Just as we educate the mouth to the flavors of food, we can work on the artistic orientation of our project.
How does this approach differ from a marketing study, a customer need or a trend analysis? The principle is to be inspired and to look around with curiosity; but then to come back to oneself, to one’s ideas and intuition. And then to the foundations of one’s brand by using a methodology. This allows to remain autonomous in one’s decision making and to remain original in one’s vision.
Methods to work better with partners
When we are not trained, it can be difficult to determine what we want and to put it into practice. It can also be difficult to communicate a mindset to a collaborator or a service provider. If we get used to work on this with situational exercises, we can acquire more ease in having personal ideas and communicating them, or in giving feedback on proposals made to us. This way one gains autonomy and can try to make one’s project as original, coherent and creative as possible.
The fashion world is very competitive. Having solid foundations for a brand allows to keep a course in its artistic orientation. The exercises proposed in the training I provide allow to appropriate its aesthetic to better combine and apply it in the desired areas.
› Working on your artistic direction with training or consulting services
