We recently discussed how to get a job as a copywriter, so now it’s the turn of the aspiring art director.

Dylan Davies, a senior Art Director at Rothco, sees advertising as being a trade, where you’ll learn more on the job than you will in books. Ideas count – not vanity. If you do go to college to study advertising, be willing to learn from others and be humble. College has a way of breeding arrogance. Plus treat your first year of working in an ad agency as a 4th year of study.

He continues with one important lesson – Work for free if it means getting your foot in the door. And then work hard, work hard and work hard.

Stephen Rogers, another of our senior Art Directors, was very upbeat about the whole recession thing, for people trying to get into the industry. He feels there is a unique opportunity for junior Art Directors as all agencies are feeling the pinch, thus Creative Directors are unable to justify or find the money for “big money” senior creatives. They are now a lot more open to taking on juniors.

However, Creative Directors can be like the Scarlet Pimpernel. Don’t expect e-mails or phone calls to be answered. But Stephen is a huge fan of a simple, creative DM piece to get their attention.

Unfortunately all he ever seems to see is over-engineered, cluttered and just plain boring pieces that were promptly filed under B for Bin. A DM piece is like a 48 sheet. 3 seconds. Either it’s genius or a waste of time. And if I ever see a ransom note DM again I may kidnap my own eyes and put them out of their misery.

As for the difference to copywriters, Stephen feels portfolio is everything and the biggest mistake he’s seen Junior Art Directors make is putting all their energies into “photoshopping” their ideas which give some pretty looking first thoughts, but will impress no one. Scamp, scamp, scamp and then scamp a little more.

His finishes with; Be nice, never come across as arrogant and if you can, get a website up now.

Something I didn’t do when I was looking for a job as a junior Art Director a couple of years ago.

Thankfully though, I did stay away from Photoshop. You are more than likely not good enough at Photoshop to bring your ideas to life in a way that you want anyway. So don’t. A Creative Director will hire you based on how good you are at generating ideas, not your skills in Photoshop. The idea is king. Show it with scamps.

When deciding what to put into your portfolio, the best thing I’ll say is: Put in what you like best. Not what other people tell you is best. That way if the Creative Director likes the work you do, you’ll spend a lot of time making ads that you like and not ads that someone else does.

As for those elusive Creative Directors. They are so hard to get a hold of. Don’t just hope they’ll reply to your email, voicemail or letter. You have to get their attention first. A self promotion piece that says to the CD you’re different, you’re creative and you’re worth seeing is what you should be looking for. Not something that would make poor Stephen kidnap his eyes. But do persevere. Even if it won’t be easy.

And if you do have to work for free to start, work for free. Then work bloody hard.

Next week, we’ll be hearing from Damian, our Creative Director. If we can track him down.