We have talked with our colleague Adrián Benítez, Art Director at beon., who highlights how we should know the field we work in, have a problem-solving approach and get by on one’s own, efficiently. When facing a new project, he follows what he consider essential tips, that we share in this interview.
What are the skills that a good Art Director should have?
Today, curricula are overloaded with technical skills. We can all acquire knowledge easily, economically and quickly, the important thing is to know how to develop them. Anyone can know even the most remote Photoshop command, but if they don’t have the ability, they can stay in a nice but unhelpful photo editor.
With new technologies, professional programs are closer to anyone through wonderful Apps that solve your life, but are not synonymous with quality. You have to know in which medium we work, be decisive and look for life efficiently.
You work in different formats, both online and offline, what difference in approach you take in each of them?
In my day to day I am focused on a more offline creative department. It is essential to think or know the media to which a project is going to adapt. It is not the same to think of a purely physical editorial design, than an analog or digital one.
I think that projects are not only more creative because they have a more groundbreaking concept or a super attractive graphics. You have to know with all the tricks we can play. For me, a brand is more powerful for the taste in the choice of paper and finishes for its physical applications, than for the amount of WOWs obtained when viewed in digital sketch.
Like the visual and dynamics brand of the famous Spanish post ad, we have to know that physical applications go beyond CMYK and Pantone. Clients are dazzled with the brightness of a stamping, but then do not invest in a good paper.
Do you use a special technique when starting a new project?
Tough each challenge is different, and I would never follow exact guidelines, t I do have some essential tips for any project:
– Know the client or brand as if it were a friend.
– Research the competitor’s positioning.
– Always respect the identity.
– Communicate that identity in an essential way.
– Unleash creativity.
– Create unity, all project pieces count.
What are the ingredients for the perfect advertising campaign?
Nowadays, the overwhelming visual and advertising overexposure make that a successful campaign is not one just base don visual, artistic, and economic quality, but in the number of people that feel, experience, and share it. A good campaign does not always have an ideal budget, team, or development. Creatives have to expand all this, coping with any challenge. Sometimes guerrilla marketing becomes more viral and positions a brand better than a giant campaign advertised in every possible way. And that is what we have to know how to take advantage of. One of the most important things to create excellent projects regardless of their budget, equipment, timing, etc. It is the perfect communication between the whole team, and starting from there we can do whatever we aim to.
How does inspiration arise?
Inspiration does not arise, you have to find it. We may think that some days are more fruitful than others, that inspiration comes and goes, but I think that is not the case.
As creatives, we are problem solvers; we provide solutions to of issues that a project or client raises, and the search for inspiration is the beginning of those solutions.
