The Aesthetic Education of Art Directors in Spanish University Degrees in Advertising

Abstract

In the context of advertising creativity, the art director is the main responsible for the visual aspect of messages, a work where aesthetic sensitivity is an indispensable quality and, therefore, becomes a fundamental competence in the training. Through a quantitative and qualitative survey organized into four blocks (contents, resources, methods and results) and a sample of 21 Art Direction Professors from the Advertising degrees of the Spanish university, this study seeks to analyze the role of aesthetic education in these subjects, as well as the methods and tools used by teachers in this learning. Among its conclusions, the research reveals the high relevance of the aesthetic component in these topics, whose teaching is complemented with other subjects of the same study program; a special role of practical tasks in this area, which, supported by the theoretical analysis of pieces, focus on the development of advertising campaigns and composition as the main graphic ingredient; a frequent use of digital image bookmarking tools, portfolios of qualified professionals and graphic design or creativity blogs as the most common inspiration tools; the extraordinary relevance of imitation processes to stimulate visual culture, with priority attention to respect the basic principles of graphic design; and, finally, a general perception of the positive growth of the student in aesthetic learning based on the previous resources.