: What's the best career path / entry-level role for someone aiming to be a creative director? I wold like to get into the design industry and would like to work my way up to a creative director

@Kristi927

Originally I wanted to work as a game developer, and what i later found out is that titles mean very little in the work place. When you are working at a good job, where people respect your opinions, it doesnt matter if you are the creative director or the janitor, your ideas will have equal weight.

I started as an intern with little confidence, and dropped out of college. You cant really plan your career, you can only really aim in a general direction.

But best of luck.

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@Connie430

Most creative directors start out as a designer and work their way up. Depending on what type of Creative Director role you are after, you should focus your design career in that direction.

You mentioned brand management or advertising. The obvious career path for you would be to progress from an Art Director. (see more info in the link Ryan posted to the comments). If you take creative lead of some smaller projects (Art Director), eventually you will get put in charge of bigger ones. When you own bigger projects, you need people working with you, executing your vision (Creative Director). That is the difference between an Art Director and Creative Director, as far as Advertising/Marketing goes - it is just a bigger scope.

I've also seen some Creative Directors come from a non-design background, instead with marketing backgrounds - ideally you should have a bit of both. For Creative Director positions that are not graphically hands-on (usually in larger companies), you more importantly need to be a good leader and have an eye for quality.

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