The craft of art direction and other myths

It’s not easy coming up with something fresh and creative in this business. Particularly when it comes to finding new ways to take the mick. Hats off then to my friend Simon (I’ve changed his name to protect anonymity, his real name’s Jeff) who was telling me he once managed to freelance at two agencies at the same time.

He’d turn up at the first place, get his jacket on his chair, say a few hellos, then pop round to the other agency a few hundred yards away.

It was an ingenious scam. And art direction is the perfect job for getting away with it, as it’s perfectly normal to not be at your desk because you’re in studio/at a shoot/in the toilet/at a strip joint. Plus it’s perfectly normal to take four times longer to do something than people expect.

He managed to keep up the pretence for over 2 months (it wasn’t a greed thing you understand, he was in a spot of financial bother). Which only goes to confirm what I'm saying about our expectations of art directors. I’m fairly convinced my AD is holding down another job, if not two.

When the traffic bloke finally caught him out, there were no fireworks. He just said “Fair play for keeping it up this long, now it’s time for you to go.” At which point he simply went to his other job.

Of course, there are many who’d say that the whole role of Art Director is a big sham anyway – walking about making a few comments then naffing off again without actually taking any ownership of anything. So pretending to do two jobs rather than pretending to do one job is simply a natural progression, taking it the next level if you like.

Work-shy fopps, the lot of 'em.