Assignment 2 : Artistic director
First, I looked for a definition of artistic director (or art director). I found a general definition on Wikipedia (wikipedia definition of artistic director).
Here’s the definition :
An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company, that handles the artistic direction of a company. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, as they are generally working as a non-profit organization.
The artistic director of a theatre is similar to the music director of a symphony, the primary person responsible for planning a theatre’s season.
In the United States, the equivalent to artistic director is called : A&R for artist and repertoire (wikipedia definition of A&R).
This is the entire article of wikipedia :
Artists and Repertoire (A&R) is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and artist development. It also acts as a liaison between the recording artist and the record label, and generally help with the artistic and commercial development of their artist.
Finding talent
The A&R dvision is responsible for discovering new recording artists and bringing them to the record company. A&R is expected to understand the current tastes of the market and to be able find artists that will be commercially successful. An A&R executive is often authorized to offer a record contract and participate in contractual negotiations.
Choices made by A&R executives have changed the face of modern music. John H. Hammond, for example, had a successful career discovering some of the biggest acts in music history including Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin. Other A&R executives with similar success include Clive Davis and Lenny Waronker.
A&R executives rely mostly on the word of mouth of trusted associates, critics and business contacts. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the responsibility of the A&R department to sort through demo tapes sent by musicians. A&R departments at major labels in the United States rarely make decisions based on a single recording. However, major labels outside the United States and various independent labels may accept unsolicited demos.
Overseeing the recording process
The A&R division oversees the recording process. This includes helping the artist to find the right record producer, scheduling time in a recording studio and advising the artist on all aspects of making a high quality recording. They work with the artist to choose the best songs (i.e. repertoire) to record. For artists who do no write their own music, they will assist in finding songs and songwriters. An A&R executives maintain contact with their counterparts at music publishing companies to get new songs and material from songwriters and producers. In the UK, before the rise of the record producer, the A&R executive would oversee the recording session itself and assume responsibility for making creative decisions.
As the record nears completion, the A&R department works closely with the artist to determine if the record is acceptable to the record company. This may include suggesting that new songs need to be written or that some tracks need to be re-recorded. (The industry cliche is “I don’t hear a single!”)Once the record is released, the A&R department (with assistance from marketing, promotion and the artist) chooses a single to help promote the record.
Assisting with marketing and promotion
Once the record is released, the A&R department (with assistance from marketing, promotion and the artist) chooses a single to help promote the record.
Those both definitions just give a global idea of what is an artistic director. Indeed, we can understand that an artistic director works on a lot of aspects of an artistic project.
Then, in order to find more information about this profession I typed “artistic director+New Yok times+music” on Google. I found this article which I think it’s pretty interesting :
A Rock ‘n’ Roll Art Director Moves to GQ
By DAVID HANDELMAN
Published: December 3, 2001
Fred Woodward walked into the Condé Nast building last week, feeling a little daunted. After more than 14 years as art director of the rock ‘n’ roll bible Rolling Stone, the Mississippi native had arrived to do a makeover on the slick men’s fashion publication GQ.
And despite his dapper black Prada shirt, Gore-Tex pants, and clam-toe Adidas sneakers, he still feels a bit underdressed in the ranks of the fashionistas, he said. After three days, he says, ”I still haven’t been able to work up my courage to go to the cafeteria.”
Mr. Woodward arrived as visual cavalry of sorts, to help the 44-year-old GQ (published by Advance Publications) recapture some of its dominance in the highly competitive men’s fashion market.
During Art Cooper’s 18-year tenure as editor in chief, GQ has been challenged variously by Esquire, Details, Men’s Journal, Men’s Health and Maxim, the latter two achieving double and triple GQ’s circulation, respectively. (As of June, GQ’s overall circulation was 806,911, down 2.5 percent from the previous year; newsstand sales, at 216,073, were down a more precipitous 7 percent.)
Mr. Woodward’s move matches up one of the magazine world’s most freewheeling art directors with a magazine that has never transcended a kind of generic, gelled Condé Nast aesthetic. ”We don’t have a complete look,” Mr. Cooper said. ”With Fred, I’ve got something I’ve never had with an art director before — the ability to say, ‘Just go do it.’ ”
Roger Black of Danilo Black Inc., who designed Rolling Stone from 1976 to 1978, said, ”There’s no doubt that Fred is the best magazine art director in the country, or even the Western world.”
Mr. Cooper first tried to poach Mr. Woodward from Rolling Stone back in 1988. He likened Mr. Woodward’s magazine to ”a well-tailored suit.”
”Every detail was perfect,” he said. ”And if you saw a few pages on the sidewalk, you instantly knew which magazine they were from.” But at the time, Mr. Woodward had only just arrived from Texas Monthly and landed his dream job at Rolling Stone, so he declined.
Others courted Mr. Woodward over the years, including Anna Wintour at Vogue and the start-up team at ESPN magazine, but Mr. Woodward resisted, preferring Rolling Stone’s free-form atmosphere and oversize format. Its editor and publisher, Jann Wenner, ”let me play with his magazine,” Mr. Woodward said, ”and made me feel it was mine — a great, great gift to somebody who’s really just an employee.”
Over time Mr. Woodward rose to creative director and vice president at Wenner Media, advising and supervising other projects like books and other magazines.
Mr. Woodward took the job at GQ for reasons both professional and personal. Earlier this year, both of his parents died, something he viewed as ”a wake-up call about how fast life is going by.” Since Rolling Stone comes out every two weeks, he realized he had done the equivalent of 29 years’ worth of monthly issues. In comparison, he noted, the industry legend Alexei Brodovitch spent only 20 years designing Harper’s Bazaar.
Mr. Woodward was attracted by the fact that GQ often runs 60 or more uninterrupted editorial pages, whereas Rolling Stone has very few two-page spreads and its features are often interrupted with ads.
And, at 48, Mr. Woodward realized his personal demographic had shifted. ”It might get tougher and tougher to think like a 22- or maybe even 14-year-old,” he said. ”Hopefully GQ has more to do with who I am today.”
Starting at Rolling Stone in 1987, Mr. Woodward tried to both hark back to the best elements of the magazine’s 1970′s heyday while bringing what he calls ”responsive design,” playing off elements in the headline, photograph or story itself.
”It’s a very naïve way to work,” he explained. ”You try to be open enough for that great thing to happen.” He concocted every cover and feature story from scratch; his first four years, he never used the same type on the cover twice. He pushed photographers and illustrators constantly to reinvent themselves, winning numerous prizes, including the National Magazine Awards for design and photography, and was the youngest person ever inducted into the Art Directors Club hall of fame.
Mr. Woodward is reluctant to commit himself on the direction he intends to take the magazine. He seeks a chance to ”shed a skin and make it all new again,” he said.
He wants photographers to feel that ”this is a magazine that will print the best thing you can do; not put it in a drawer or pick the wrong picture or send it back to you or kill it.” He hopes to use Condé Nast’s famed photographer Irving Penn.
One idea rattling around in his head is to design each issue as a unique entity — or, if that proves too daunting, design four distinct looks a year, on a quarterly basis, subliminally harking back to when the magazine was the Gentleman’s Quarterly.
Mr. Cooper is enthusiastic. ”I want to see what he’ll come up with,” he said. (NY Times article )
Assisting with marketing and promotion
