Being Art Director and Mother at the time of Covid19

To be an art director, paradoxically, you don’t only need to be creative. But also a mother.

In a communication agency, the “mother” art director enriches the environment drawing her skills from the unfiltered creativity her children show, a limitless source of ideas. The most compelling ideas are the simplest ones — and simplicity is the most beautiful feature of a child. That’s why, together with my colleagues, I decided to do an experiment. I had my two children, 10-year-old Virginia and 6-year-old Stanislao, write and draw whatever they think their mum’s job is.

Virginia wrote: “My mum’s job is to draw advertisements on the computer, which she then sends to her customers. I think mum’s job is really hard and you have to have a lot of patience. If a colleague doesn’t like a drawing she listens to him and draws it again. Since mum does advertisement her job’s called: the advertiser. In her job, mum does another thing too: she helps the younger to learn about this job. It’s like she is a teacher in a school.”

While Stanislao thought he should well specify which of the many offices is mum’s Agency:

Instruction and teaching, sharing and teamwork. These are the cornerstones that make an art director a real point of reference, not only to her creative team, but also to the dreaded account team. Studying, constantly updating, and the awareness of one’s own skills and limits make creative management a thin red wire that — wandering through the agency’s aisles before and through the broadband today — supports and guides those who want to make a well-paid career out of their passion.

If we also add being a woman, wife, and mother at the time of covid19, hence working from home, then, well… The secret is to be creative and make everything simple and flowing. But how? Looking after and shielding your work and team as only a wife and a life partner can.

“I hope this small book can be useful for all those people who believe it is necessary for the imagination to have a place in education; for all those who trust in the creativity of children; and for all those who know the liberating value of the word. Not because everyone is an artist, but so that no one is a slave”. Gianni Rodari — Foreword to The Grammar of Fantasy

Sure, the lockdown — which forced us to work from home, to look after the kids, their online lessons and, especially, to safeguard their carefreeness — showed us a new fundamental characteristic of being head of a department: the skill to welcome any request, work on them in the shortest time possible and to manage more than one person at the same time, each with their peculiarities and time constraints. This is not magic, it’s the know-how of every working mother passing down her role’s joyful moments and pains to her job. Knowing how to relate to a child, or even better to your own child, allows you to further understand the team you’re working and sharing much of your time with, even if remotely. Cohesion among people, and not the rush to the throne, is what makes an agency a healthy and enduring workplace.

For those that, like me, ended up living such a particular and, in a way, special moment, I’d like to tell you: “it looks like a big mess, but it’s not”. You only need to fix all the pieces of the puzzle with patience and precision. You need to stop for a second, breath in and try not to panic, even if you feel like a bomb just went off in the house and you have your kids screaming around when you really had to take that call, which you will but only to show up with messy hair and a clothes peg for a hairpin. That’s life, our life, which we need to manage in the best way possible, because come on, let’s say it: everything will be fine (I hope)!

As a conclusion, I’d like to share with you some words I find very on point about my experience as an art director — and definitely a less orthodox vision compared to the classic and stereotypical definition of this role:

“The egg has a perfect shape although it came from an arse”.

Bruno Munari.

La versione italiana di questo articolo può essere letta a questo link.