ART DIRECTION

ART DIRECTION

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ART DIRECTION
ART DIRECTION
How to Get Started with Art Direction

How to Get Started with Art Direction

Practical ways to start directing visuals without waiting for a big break

Zoë Yasemin Akihary's avatar
Zoë Yasemin Akihary
Jul 31, 2025
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ART DIRECTION
ART DIRECTION
How to Get Started with Art Direction
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Gimaguas AW24

Hi everyone,

This is the second post in my new ‘how to’ series. Last week we started with ‘How to be more artistic’, which covered different methods to push your work to be more out of the box, and essentially creating a ‘world’ around you as an artist.

How to Be More Artistic

Zoë Yasemin Akihary
·
Jul 23
How to Be More Artistic

Hi everyone,

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This very straightforward series is about giving you tools to some of my most frequently asked questions in a DM. Most of these questions, like ‘how to be more artistic’ don’t have a single way to be answered, and just asks to be broken down into an article. This is what you can expect:

  1. How to be more artistic

  2. How to get started with art direction

  3. How to understand images

  4. How to build creative presence online

  5. How to stay original

These are in the pipeline for now (and the one already covered will be linked), but as always.. Please do leave suggestions in the comments and I will definitely add it to my list! <3

How to get started with art direction?

This is probably the most asked question. The thing is, most people overthink it. They image they need to wait for the perfect opportunity, a fully formed concept, a body of work from freelance work, or someone to give them a title before they can call themselves an art direction. But really, the one way to start is…. To start.

The best art director I know didn’t sit around waiting. They actively pursued it. They made something out of what they had. They reached out to people. Practiced skills in the background or built proof of their ideas before anyone paid them for it.

Here are six way to do the same, a little scrappy, low-barrier ways to learn art direction and start building a body of work that opens doors for client work (or if you already do, better clients or better paying!).

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