What are some of the major differences between copywriting and art director in advertising agencies?

The hierarchy or the organizational set up of an advertising agency keeps both these profiles and do have a different scope of work as well as a profile for them. A copywriter is a person who writes. This writing is of scripts of jingles for audio or video advertisement. This may be the text of a printed advt. material. The copywriter is responsible for composing the concept and bringing the words that make the best impact and create a brand of the advertised product. The art director is the person who does an altogether different but comprehensive work than a copywriter. It is the art director who designs an advertisement of print or audio or video. The art director is primarily the leader of the set up of shooting set where a TV or video commercial is shot. This way, a copywriter is someone who composes things in sync with the Director and Art Director's Concept and plan.

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Copywriting is a content specific job. A copywriter is a creative professional who writes ads and other persuasive pieces to attract a reader's attention. A copywriter produces a quality content in the form of slogans, jingles, short articles, brochure etc. that help a company sell their product. The copywriter needs to be creative, observant and should be a quick thinker. An art director, on the other hand, leads a team of all creative professionals in a company including copy writers. He/she runs the entire design team and is responsible to convert an idea, graphics and texts into a visual concept. An art director basically supervises the team to create an overall effect to sell something and to reach the target audience. Both the professionals work in tandem to create an entire masterpiece.

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From a very simplistic point of view, art directors are the picture people and copywriters are the word people. And as some other people who answered this question mentioned, they both collaborate when generating concepts. However, one thing that should be mentioned is that part of the reason they are paired is not only to approach a problem from two different angles (the visual and the verbal) but also because they have much to learn from each other. The ultimate goal of most copywriters and art directors alike is to be made creative directors eventually. If and when they get to be creative director, they will have to approve, critique and improve the work of both, copywriters and art directors alike. Someone may come from an art direction discipline, but if this person never learns to write or to at least have a good feel for copy and editing; they probably will not make very good creative directors. Likewise, if someone who is a copywriter has terrible taste and never learns about design, color, and composition or at least learns to be discerning of these; chances are he'll make a terrible creative director as well. There are some agencies who pair creative directors in teams who come from a different discipline (just like in more junior positions), but this is more of a rarity. So whether you come from the copy or art direction side of things, if you want to move up to manage teams, you'll need to eventually be good at both.

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