Creative Direction Is Not Just Picking Fonts

Being a creative director means you stop designing things and start designing teams. It's about nurturing vision while making room for ideas that didn't come from you.

When I stepped into a creative direction role, I thought it would be about setting the aesthetic tone — and it is, but that's just the surface. The real work is emotional, strategic, and often invisible.

You become the custodian of coherence. You ensure that the product vision aligns across different contributors: industrial designers, UI/UX designers, engineers, marketers. Everyone has their own language, goals, and priorities. Creative direction is about translation — making sure each team understands not just what we're building, but why.

One of the most powerful things you can do as a creative leader is to create safety. Creative safety means your team knows they can pitch wild ideas, question assumptions, and take risks without fear of ridicule. That's how innovation happens.

But you also need to make decisions. A good creative director is a filter and a firestarter. You curate the best ideas, elevate them, and shape them into something that feels intentional. Sometimes you say no. Sometimes you say, "yes, and..."

Feedback is its own craft. I've learned to give feedback that focuses on principles, not preferences. "This doesn't feel premium" is less helpful than "This doesn't align with our brand's sense of calm confidence."

And yes, I still pick fonts. But only the good ones.