I have to say over the last few years, I’ve seen a real trend towards over art direction. I suspect that’s maybe because people have so little confidence in print advertising these days, and certainly very little confidence in people actually reading print ads. So they just throw everything at it. Everything is over-done; overwrought typography, over-styled photography, over done illustration, over-elaborate layout or – even worse – starbursts, everything big, CAPITAL letters. The works.

via The Sell! Sell! Blog.

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4 Comments

  1. I think this trend is cyclical. In an effort to be ‘fresh,’ art becomes over-done. Then a few years later it feels stale, and the new ‘fresh’ response will be minimal. And on it goes…

  2. Agree. I tend to think that since the recession and the trimming of staff, you have “art directors” whojust got out of school and are running several campaigns at once. They don’t have the experience nor wholly developed eyes yet. Everything is both barrels blazing and the idea of ‘less is more’ wasn’t taught at SVU.

    It’s not all bad and I don’t mean to be cynical, just something I couldn’t help but notice since say 2009-2010.

  3. Oh! So that explains the lack of white space.

  4. Your personal blog, “What makes for great art direction?
    ” was indeed worthy of commenting down here in the comment section!
    Just wished to admit you actually did a very good job.
    Thanks for your time ,Krystal


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