Creative Direction + Graphic Design

The 21st Century has a lot of demands on current creatives looking to be lucritive within business structures. With new technologies being produced on a seemingly daily basis, it is imperative to stay on top of the knowledge curve by submersing oneself in blogs, industry magazines and websites. Aside from keeping in tune with said outlets, the internet provides all the knowledge one needs with free tutorials, education and information. Most hot-shot newcomers are quick to think that their school degree will land them in the perfect situation with an even better income, but in reality, it takes more than academia to prepare them for what’s to come, or what one should be ready to endure.

Today, most of the successful businesses seem to be following (or should be rather) technology and all its conducive marketing approaches through internet and mobile devices. Newspapers and local television are taking a dive for extinction as web portals provide everything. Why leave your house when you can have it mailed to your door at the lowest price from anywhere in the world?

Enter the visual communicator, equipped with the necessary tools to implement ideas into ‘perceived’ meaning. If a viewer lands on a website, it is the designers responsibility to keep that eyeball there and has around two seconds to do so, or at least get the individual to remember or bookmark that particular web page. How do you do it, and when you do, how do you know it works? The answer can be complex although in its most simplest answer it would fall under the ‘guess and check’ practice. Analytics are one of the most important tools other than the thought process for any director or manager. Demographic, browser compatibility, visitor trends, navigation are all analyzed with meticulous detail to get the best idea of the user and their habits. Similar to Wal-Mart taking note of every purchase with debit cards, the internet documents everything. Given the write systems, a company can monitor these sources of information and make appropriate changes if sales are not what they should be.

More to come.

Tags: 21st century, analytics, business structure, creative director, demographics, graphic design, perceived value, technology, visual communication