The Strategic Art Direction Program - Summer Edition is now open

45% filled during the waitlist. Doors close June 10th or when capacity is full

There is no bachelor degree in art direction.

Nobody tells you this when you start. You figure it out slowly, usually after you have already been working for a while and realise that the gap between you and the people getting the opportunities you want has nothing to do with talent.

I figured it out the hard way. I was an intern at a big corporate fashion brand, in a role that was completely wrong for me. I was dreading every task thrown my way and I had no idea what I actually wanted. The only useful thing I did during that internship was talk to people. I sat down with people across departments, asked if I could see their decks, asked if I could sit inside meetings. That gave me more clarity than any task on my to-do list. It showed me how the industry actually works beneath the surface. How decisions are made. How trust is built. Who decides what. And it showed me that the distance between where I was and where I wanted to be was not about being more talented. It was about understanding the system I was trying to move through.

That clarity changed everything for me. When I finally understood the job, the politics, the positioning, the way ideas are sold before they are made, my creative path opened up in ways I did not think were possible. I stopped waiting for people to recognise me and started designing the world I wanted to be part of. Building a career became something I looked forward to, because I could see the steps. I knew what to go for and what to pass on. I knew how to celebrate the small wins because I could see how they connected to the bigger vision.

I built Strategic Art Direction because I wanted to hand that clarity to someone else. Because I know what it feels like to circle. To shoot, post, shoot again and wonder why nothing is clicking. To look at a peer with a thinner portfolio landing the work you have been studying for years and not understand why. To have a creative vision you cannot quite articulate and a career that feels like it is standing still despite the fact that you know you are good.

The answer is almost never more talent. It is almost always a plan.

Why I built it the way I did

There is no standard path into art direction. People come from photography, styling, production, graphic design, magazine internships, a personal obsession that became a practice. So I built this programme to meet you wherever you start. I broke down everything I know into the simplest, most structured format I could, so that anyone can follow it regardless of where they are coming from or how they learn.

Everything is on audio. 8 modules. 6 lessons each. 48 lessons in total, plus 10 in-depth FAQ recordings, roadmaps, exercises, image references, presentation decks and templates. 58 pieces of content that cover the full arc of the job.

You follow it at your own pace, on your own time, and re-listen as many times as you want. No schedule. No live calls. You fit it into your life.

When you join, you get immediate access. You can start today.

What it covers

The programme moves through three layers that I believe make the difference between creatives who circle and creatives who build.

The first is industry literacy. How agencies brief. How clients buy. What a pitch deck looks like at the level you want to work at. How rates are structured. Who decides what. What pre-production reveals about the director who gets rebooked. This is information you only get by being inside it, and the people who know it rarely share it.

The second is self-understanding. Your starting point is your strongest asset. A stylist who becomes an art director sees narrative in clothing in a way a graphic designer never will. A photographer who moves into direction understands light at a level that cannot be taught in a brief. The programme helps you identify what only you bring and build a visual voice around it.

The third is articulation. You can have taste and a plan and a strong starting point, and still lose work because you cannot speak about your images. Treatments win pitches. The way you describe a concept decides whether the budget moves. How you present yourself online decides who finds you. This is half the job at the level this programme is built for.

The eight modules

Each module consists of +/- 6 lessons. Below you can find the overarching topics.

Module 1: Creative Beginnings and Building From Where You Are.

Module 2: From Spark to Strategy. Where ideas come from and how to build them with clarity.

Module 3: Finding Your Visual Voice in a Noisy Industry.

Module 4: Building Visual Systems. Colour, casting, styling as strategic tools.

Module 5: Presenting With Impact. From deck to direction.

Module 6: Translating Concepts Into Real-World Images. Pre-production through to set.

Module 7: Shaping Your Portfolio to Attract the Work You Want.

Module 8: Getting the Yes. Outreach, pitching, relationships and finding your way in.

The FAQ recordings cover the questions I get asked most: how bigger opportunities actually come in, what an editorial pitch deck should include, whether to pitch before or after shooting, and more.

Direct support

From June 10th, I open up direct support. You can leave questions, get feedback and have me personally respond to what you are working on. This programme is not something you take alone. I am in it with you.

Future updates

I am planning to remake and expand the programme as the industry evolves, as well as everything I learn in my career in real time. Everyday I take big steps to push myself out of my comfort zone, plant seeds and unlock the next step and I want you to learn all my insights and learnings. When I do, you get access to the new version automatically. You will not have access to previous versions if you join later, which means the earlier you join, the more you benefit from. Every version is yours to keep for life.

This programme is personal to me

I spent over a year building it. It contains literally everything I know from seven years of working with brands like Jimmy Choo, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger and others. The outreach that landed those jobs. The frameworks I use when I build a treatment. The way I think about positioning when a brand is on the fence or when I get a brief. The mistakes I made and what each one taught me.

I built it because gaining clarity was the single best thing that happened to my career. And because the version of me who was sitting in that wrong internship, dreading every task, with no idea how the industry worked, would have done anything to have something like this.

Who this is for

This is for anyone who wants to work in art direction or already does and wants to get sharper. Whether you are at the beginning or years in. Whether you come from photography, styling, design or somewhere else entirely. It covers the fundamentals and it goes deep. It is designed to uplevel your career from where you are right now and build a strategic roadmap towards the clients and work you actually want.

It is for people who are ready to stop circling and start choosing.

Where things stand

The programme runs three times a year, this is the second time of 2026. Every round has sold out. During the waitlist launch, 45% of the summer spots were filled. The remaining spots are now open to everyone. Next round will be in the fall, likely around October or November.

Doors close on June 10th, or earlier if we are at capacity.

Thank you for being here. Whether you join this round, a future round, or never, I am grateful you show up every week. This newsletter and this community are the reason this programme exists.

Zoë x