Aesthetic education of art directors in Spanish University degrees in advertising

Abstract

In the context of advertising creativity, it is art directors who are ultimately responsible for messages’ visual facet, a task for which aesthetic sensitivity is an indispensable quality and which constitutes, therefore, a crucial skill in their training. Through a quantitative and qualitative survey organised into four blocks (contents, resources, methods and results) and a sample of 21 professors of art direction from Spanish university degree courses in Advertising, this study seeks to analyse the role of aesthetic education in these subjects, as well as the tools and methods used by teachers in this learning process. Among its conclusions, the research reveals the high relevance of the aesthetic component in these subjects, the teaching of which is supplemented with other subjects from the same study plan; a special role for practical tasks in this area, which—supported by the theoretical analysis of images—focus on the development of advertising campaigns and composition as the main graphic ingredient; frequent use of image bookmarking services, portfolios from qualified professionals and graphic design or creativity blogs as the most common instruments of inspiration; an extraordinary relevance of imitation processes to stimulate visual culture, with priority attention given to respecting the basic principles of graphic design; and, finally, a common perception of positive student growth in aesthetic learning using the above resources.