Leading Creative Teams

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

2. Start with a Blank Piece of Paper

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 1-14

3. Leading a Creative Team

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 15-28

4. Leading an Advertising Creative Team

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 29-43

5. Leading a Design Creative Team

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 45-55

6. Brainstorming

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 57-74

7. Creative Exploration Tools

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 75-92

8. The Art of the Critique

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 93-103

9. The Art of the Pitch

   • Eleazar Hernández

   Pages 105-127

10. The Art of Copywriting

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 129-139

11. The Art of TV and Radio

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 141-157

12. Career Trajectories to Creative Leadership

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 159-170

13. Invest in Your People

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 171-180

14. Don’t Just Take It from Me

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 181-212

15. The Final Nutshell

    • Eleazar Hernández

    Pages 213-215

16. Back Matter

    Pages 217-223

    PDF

Learn the skills you must master to assume leadership roles—creative directors, art directors, and advertising managers—on creative teams and in integrated branding campaigns for corporate clients. This book compares and contrasts the skill sets and responsibilities of creatives with those of managers who direct creative teams. Technical competence in the creative arts is a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for promotion to and success in positions directing creative teams. Business, management, and communication skills are equally necessary.

Leading Creative Teams reviews the business metrics that the manager of a creative team must be able to manipulate and present persuasively to the organization to prove that the team’s creative excellence delivers superior ROI. Award-winning designer and veteran creative director Eleazar Hernández walks you through the creative manager’s skill sets—technical, business, management, and communication. He covers the techniques and tools common to the direction of creative teams in all industries: brainstorming, creative exploration and visual communication tools, internal and client presentations, critiquing, mentoring, and copywriting.

Hernández shows how creative directors can apply management and leadership skill sets to different kinds of creative teams found across interactive, graphic design and advertising industries and how they orchestrate methods among team members. He details how creative teams vary in their concepts and principles, composition, objectives, and processes according to their specific industries and project requirements. And he shows you how to shape your career trajectories toward creative management roles in your chosen field.

Leading Creative Teams features information on the processes and best practices for ideating, developing, and directing advertising campaigns, graphic design projects, :30 TV spot and :30 radio spots. Drawing on interviews with top creative directors, art directors, and advertising managers, the author explores how the roles of creative team managers are evolving in response to changing technologies and business models.

What You'll Learn

• Learn the technical, business, and management skill sets of creative management
• Lead and orchestrate teams of creatives
• Discover tips, tricks, and techniques for creative direction of web, broadcast, and print projects
• Shape your career trajectory toward creative management
• Learn the dos and don’ts of creative presentations

Who This Book Is For



Mid-level and junior creatives—graphic designers, web designers, copywriters, and artists—and ad students who seek information on the specific skills, experience, and credentials they need to qualify for promotion to creative management. The secondary readership is creative directors, art directors, and advertising managers who lead web interactive, design, and advertising creative teams and who develop and direct integrated branding campaigns for corporate clients.

• creative direction
• art direction
• advertising
• copywriting
• brand development
• graphic design
• direct mail
• corporate branding
• integrated marketing
• brand architecture
• packaging
• logo design
• digital strategy
• preso
• visual communication
• typography
• interactive advertising
• web design
• ideation
• TV spot

• San Antonio, USA

  Eleazar Hernández

Eleazar Hernández is the Creative Director of Jugar. As creative director at a succession of agencies, he developed and directed integrated branding campaigns for hundreds of regional, national ,and international corporate clients in the retail, utility, financial, higher education, healthcare, development, medical, fitness, and construction industries. He was an adjunct professor of graphic design at Sage Colleges in New York. Hernández was named among the Nation’s Top 30 Designers to Watch by Graphic Design: USA magazine. A veteran of the United States Air Force, Hernandez recieved a BFA in Graphic Design from New Mexico State University and an MA in Art History and PhD classes in Anthropology from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

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