Art and Copy Documentary – Contextual research

For the Re:master project in graphic design we were asked to do contextual research to get a better understanding of Art Direction.
I chose to watch the documentary “Art and Copy” which is about advertising, how it’s made, the ideas, how it affects society etc.

It was a very interesting documentary since it bought up a lot of different aspects when working as an Art Director and the journey to become one.

A lot of people that are known for their work told their stories that it wasn’t their plan at all, one lady was brought up to believe that she’d become an actress, but thanks to her understandings of movies and theater she ended becoming a successful Art Director.

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Being an Art Director is not only about being creative, but to work in unique ways to make interest for the world. You have to take risks and do decisions that might not seem like the best idea.

This documentary showed several examples how one ad made a company extremely successful afterwards. One example is the Tommy Hilfiger ad campaign in 1985.

It was a bold move, and the president for the company thought it was a bad idea, but the Art Director insisted and it gave the company a great success in sales. Now in 2020, Tommy Hilfiger products are a luxury.

It showed the perfect example what an incredibly risky and bold move can do for a company.

Another risky and bold move, but with another twist was the ad campaign during superbowl about the Macintosh computer back in 1984, where they made an ad not even showcasing the product.

This turned out to be successful as well.

There are several ads that have been broadcast where the companies have doubted it or been highly against it, yet they’ve turned out successful from the creative turns the Art Directors have made it.

In conclusion, I’d say that being an Art Director is mainly coming up with creative, unique and authentic ideas, which is risky. New is good, but it’s not always a good idea depending on how people are gonna react to it. When designing ads you also have to think about how it’s gonna entertain the public. Who’s it for? Who’s gonna buy it? Will the ad also reflect the the company as well as the product? There are several factors that have to work with to make this happen.